Guard your Heart by Understanding Cholesterol Numbers
You will be surprised how important it is to know and understand your cholesterol numbers. To check whether you have a healthy heart, the first thing you need to do is assess the risk by following the new cholesterol guidelines. What do your cholesterol numbers say? Why are they, together with risk factors, important to being healthy? In this regard, the National Cholesterol Education Program had set out new cholesterol guidelines in 2001 that emphasizes on a number of factors including knowing all the cholesterol numbers.
Because many people realize the value of monitoring your cholesterol levels, they undergo cholesterol tests to find out how healthy they are. In a cholesterol test result, the total cholesterol number refers to the number of milligrams of cholesterol contained in one deciliter of blood (mg/dL). The recommended total cholesterol number is 200 or less. A cholesterol number that is more than 200 but not exceeding 239 indicates the existence of a problematic condition, especially if there are two or more other risk factors. A resulting number of 240 or more means you should see your doctor immediately for a complete fasting lipoprotein profile.
Cholesterol Number Varieties
When considering your good cholesterol, an HDL level of 60 or more is considered good while a number less than 35 to less than 45 is considered low. Moreover, a number in the mid forties for men and mid fifties for women is considered average. For bad cholesterol on the other hand, the new guidelines have an additional category called “optimal level”. The most favorable LDL level cholesterol number is less than 130 to less than 100 mg/dL; although an LDL number smaller than 100 is believed to be more positive than numbers that are higher.
An LDL number that is 160 or more depicts a high risk factor while a number between 130 and 159 falls on borderline reading. Fortunately, it is possible to lower high LDL cholesterol as well as raise HDL cholesterol numbers by changing your lifestyle and controlling your daily diet. There are also new guidelines pertaining to triglycerides numbers; one criterion states that excessive levels of triglycerides are a risk factor for heart disease. If you have a triglyceride level of less than 200 mg/dL, your doctor may recommend particularly giving you additional medical treatment besides cholesterol-lowering treatments.
To sum it up, the total cholesterol number should not exceed 200 mg/dL of blood, LDL cholesterol should be below 130 mg/dL, while HDL cholesterol levels should be 35 or higher. Any other cholesterol numbers would require a stringent treatment plan that a doctor will need to prescribe, and could include cholesterol-lowering medication. If you know your cholesterol numbers early on and understand what they signify, then you can avoid getting a bad surprise later and could do necessary adjustments beforehand to ward off possibilities of heart attack.
