cholesterol numbers

What are the healthy Cholesterol numbers for us?

Every one is talking about high cholesterol level. Then what cholesterol number is considered high and what number is acceptable?

Here, I will brief about the common standard of the range of cholesterol we should have. When you do body medical test for cholesterol level, the cholesterol level is indicated in milligrams per deciliter of blood (mg/dL).

To decide the cholesterol level, doctor will judge from 4 category below:

• Your total blood cholesterol level (LDL + HDL+ Tryglyceride cholesterol)
• Your HDL cholesterol level (good)
• Your LDL cholesterol level (bad)
• Your triglyceride level

First, your total blood cholesterol level should be less than 200 mg/dL. If your total number of cholesterol is lower than 200 and your LDL, HDL and triglycerides also are within the limit, you will have low risk of getting heart disease. If your total cholesterol level is from 200-239 mg/dL, this is borderline high risk if your LDL is still less than 100 mg/DL and only the HDL is slightly higher.

Above 200 total, you should work with doctors or nutritionist to start lower your cholesterol level. Above 240 mg/dL is considered very high risk. It may even need some medication to bring down the cholesterol level.

Your LDL cholesterol number should be less than 100 mg/DL. This is optimal condition. If your LDL is number is 100 – 129 mg/DL, this is above optimal. 130 – 159mg/dL is borderline high and above 160 is considered high cholesterol.

For triglyceride level, normal condition should be less than 150 mg/dL. From 150-199 mg/dL is considered borderline high already. Above 200 mg/dL, you must start control your cholesterol immediately.

Obesity, smoking and over drinking of alcohol will also cause the triglyceride levels increase. If you found your cholesterol number has fall into dangerous zone, this is the second you must start to do something about it! Hope the above information give you some reference. Anyway, please keep update yourself with your family doctor and monitoring your cholesterol numbers at least once a year or once in 6 month time.

Related Resources

• Ad me Up before you gogo » Blog Archive » Keep Your Cholesterol Down! (Paul Graham)
• Cholesterol and diet | DIET

Technorati Tags: cholesterol level, cholesterol numbers, hdl cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, reduce ldl cholesterol