We’ve all begun to understand that cholesterol can have a pretty heavy impact on our bodies. Whether we’re talking about the good cholesterol or the bad, we can fully expect that managing our cholesterol levels is a major part of maintaining our health. Therefore, the more information we can gather about cholesterol, the easier it will be for us to make the right decisions that will help us in keeping our bodies in balance. For this we need to understand the information on the LDL HDL cholesterol chart.
What You Need to Know About Cholesterol Levels:
When you look at a cholesterol chart it is pretty easy to get confused but you only need to be able to grasp what all the different numbers mean to make sense out of it.
Total Cholesterol:
This column represents the sum of all the cholesterol in your blood at the time of testing. Depending on how high this number goes, your risk of heart disease or stroke can also increase. This number can fall anywhere from 300mg/dL (desirable range) to 240 and over, which will put you in the high risk category. Many may find themselves somewhere in the middle between 200-239 (which is borderline high risk).
Having a high number is especially dangerous if you practice other bad habits, which can also have a negative impact on your cholesterol levels. Smoking, for example, can accelerate the damage that cholesterol is already doing to your body.
HDL (High Density Lipoprotein):
This is considered “good” cholesterol. It has the ability to help decrease the buildup of cholesterol in the walls of your arteries so it can reduce the risk of narrowing the openings that could cause blockage that could lead to a heart attack or stroke.
If your levels of HDL are too low, less than 40 mg/dL for men and 50 mg/dL for women, there’s an increased risk of heart disease. On the other hand any number that is 60mg/dL or greater provides some level of protection from heart disease.
LDL (Low Density Lipoprotein):
This is the bad cholesterol, which increases your chances of developing heart disease. It elevates your risk of narrowing in the blood vessels. Any number that is below 100mg/dL is considered to be optimal, 100-129 would be near optimal, 130-159 borderline high, 160-189 high, and 190 and above would be considered to be dangerous to your health.
Triglycerides:
This is another type of fat found in the bloodstream. High levels can put you at a major risk of narrowing in the arteries. Less than 150 mg/dL is normal, 150-199 borderline to high, 200-499 high, and anything above 500 mg/dL is considered to be very high and dangerous.
Once you understand the numbers found on an LDL HDL cholesterol chart, then you’ll be able to determine for yourself whether or not you have heightened risks for heart attack, stroke, or some other form of heart disease. It can be difficult to monitor your health accurately but if you can see the numbers for yourself the LDL HDL cholesterol chart may be the very tool that can save your life when you do something about it.
Cholesterol Levels Chart / HDL & LDL Cholesterol Levels Chart:
