What do YOUR Cholesterol / Cholestrol Levels mean?

I have quit smoking last week (prior to that i smoked for 3 months. before that i had quit smoking).my BMI is 23.8. .... I consume moderate alcohol ( 2 drinks per week ). Please advise about the cholesterol diet also ... I also exercise about 40 minutes a day, three to four days a week.

Response to cholesterol levels question 1:

Hi,

I am not able to advise, only make suggestions based on my own expereince and knowledge. I am NOT a doctor.

From our Cholestrol levels page, it appears your total cholesterol is just within the normal range - True?

If No Heart Disease then ldl looks acceptable - True?

Triglycerides normal - True?

HDL appears too low - True? If so, then cardiovascular accident is at increased risk.

Cholesterol Ratio appears too high - True?

Smoking causes hdl to drop and is a big cause of cholesterol problems and resultant cardiovascular problems.

From our Smoking and Cholesterol page, stopping smoking should lead to a decrease in ldl cholestrol and increase in hdl cholesterol and improvement in the cholesterol ratio.

The effect of exercise on cholesterol is covered on our Reduce Cholesterol page, in the section on exercise: In essence, Exercise may enhance the positive shift in the cholesterol ratio, increase hdl cholesterol and decrease ldl cholesterol. According to the Australian federal government, exercise level should be about one hour in duration per day, every day, to maintain a good level of health. In this regard, your level of exercise appears lacking.

Recheck cholestrol levels in, say, 12 weeks and see how you are going.

As to the question on diet - if you are overweight or have a high saturated fat diet, then it is normally good to diet from a cholesterol perspective. Also, if you use some of the foods indicated on Lower cholestrol naturally page , that you like, but more often, they may help quicken the lowering of your bad cholesterol and a faster improvement in your cholesterol ratio!

In your case, the cessation of smoking may prove to be the big item for healing your cholesterol.

Always remember to discuss with your doctor anything I provide.

Good luck and please let me know your next cholesterol readings - don't become a victim of cholesterol level creep

All the best

Donald.

Cholesterol Analysis 2 :

Hello ... I'll give you a brief history and then ask my question.

A couple of years ago, I noticed that my liver was feeling sore, or
bruised - this didn't go away after a few days, so I went to see a GP...

The total cholesterol was about 6.3, although this was mostly elevated HDL cholesterol levels, and he asked some questions about diet. We agreed that I should cut down on saturated fats, keep up with the olive oil (I cook with it nearly
every day), and see what the cholesterol levels looked like the following year.

The cholesterol levels went down slightly, and have remained fairly constant since then, except for this year, when the total cholesterol level went up to 7.6 !!! The GP said that he wanted to see me again in two months with reduced cholesterol levels - so we agreed on zero or minimal levels of butter, cheese, eggs, and fatty meats. I should continue the intake of mono-saturates such as olive oil and
peanut/macadamia oil, moderate red wine consumption, and a few other items.
This has not been a problem and I will be able to maintain these changes (as
long as the next test results show a reduction in my cholesterol readings - I really don't want to go on medication).

I think a couple of things contributed to the high levels - recently I
started eating more eggs than usual (mainly because we over-feed our hens,
and we had more eggs than we could give away), and an increased consumption
of the best organic pork sausages I've ever found!

i believe I can manage these HDL/LDL cholesterol levels by diet, but I need more
information.

My test results showed the following:
**************************************************************
Cholesterol - total 7.6
Levels of HDL and LDL - HDL 1.3 normal range >1.00
LDL not available because trigliceride level was above 4.5
normal range is <3.51
**************************************************************

My question is this:

What does the third line mean? "LDL not available because trigliceride level
was above 4.5"

How should I interpret this? Obviously I've got to get the LDL levels down,
but it would help if I knew more about the dependencies between LDL and
triglyceride levels.

thanks

Response to cholesterol levels question 2:

Hi,

I'm not a doctor, so I can't diagnose nor advise you on your cholesterol problems. I'm someone who use to suffer from high cholesterol and some of the other things that go with that, so the best I can do is make suggestions about cholesterol levels based on my own experience with cholesterol and research on cholesterol. But, I got my cholesterol levels under control, whereas most people just keep failing to, which says something.

The cholesterol profile is still confusing me, everyone seems to be using the same
cholesterol tables, whether Spanish or Italian or American or Australian. So the Mediterean diet that you appear to be using does not appear to alter what the cholesterol readings should be.

I guess the issue that threw me at the start was "The total cholesterol was
about 6.3, although this was mostly elevated HDL". You see, most people
are lucky if they can get hdl cholesterol to go above about 1.5 and even now your
reading is 1.3, which is normal for a hdl cholesterol level. HDL cholesterol represents the cholesterol leaving the body, ldl cholesterol the cholesterol that is in excess of the body's needs to some extent, so it doesn't make much sense if the hdl cholesterol was greater than the ldl cholesterol, because where is the cholesterol coming from? Even though you still disagree with me, If you were to discuss this with your doctor again, my guess would still be that you had normal hdl at the start as well, with elevated ldl cholesterol.

But, irrespective, if we turn our focus to the current cholesterol readings, then we can see ldl cholesterol appears to be quite high, going on the normal hdl cholesterol level and the elevated total cholesterol level. The triglycerides level was above 4.5, which is getting quite high, but you are still being protected by the hdl level to some extent. If we work from Cholesterol definitions, we can see that vldl cholesterol, which is the triglyceride cholesterol, is the left over product from excess calories consumed to what can be absorbed by the body's fat cells, so it floats round in the blood stream. So, it may be good to visit the two health calculators we have on this web site, that is Saturated fat and calorie calculator , to check out your allowance of these things and BMI calculator, fitness calculator and weight loss calculator to get an idea of where your body health level is currently at and where it should be. From the defintions above, I suspect your cholesterol and triglycerides are perhaps a symptom of an underlying lifestyle problem.

However, it is unusual to have high triglycerides and good hdl cholesterol levels together. My cholesterol levels page covers Triglycerides and it's causes, which can include genes, certain drugs, excessive alcohol and so on.

So, if I had those cholesterol and triglyceride readings, I would be trying to lower
my ldl cholesterol and asking my doctor very solidly about the triglyceride readings and getting to the bottom of the high triglycerides level.

Clearly the diet was not controlling the cholesterol levels even before the
pork sausages and eggs, as, from what you say, they didn't drop much further than the 6.3. In essence you appear to have been living with uncontrolled cholesterol levels.

You are possibly in cholesterol creep, in this moment in time, but hopefully that is being turned round. For a start, check out the Sample diet to lower cholesterol and see if you can modify that to your taste. Also check out the cholesterol web page Lower cholestrol naturally and see if there are foods, herbs, vitamins, minerals there that are suitable. Also, another web page that you might like to check out is Cholesterol Myth , as it includes a section on Vitamin C and exercise as a possible combination to combat dangerous cholesterol and cardiovascular disease.

Finally, fish oil may be useful, but it is a three edged sword. Fish oil increases the good cholesterol, but it also increases the bad cholesterol by more than the increase in the good cholestrol, but fish oil is pretty good at lowering triglycerides in the blood.

It is difficult to say more, as the bad cholesterol reading wasn't given.

Haven't seen a clinic say that before about ldl cholesterol and triglycerides, so don't really know. May be not enough blood taken or the triglycerides perhaps are masking the ldl cholesterol. From vague memory which may be erroneous, the two are close in their chemical composition, but I believe they can be tested for seperately.

Please, please, keep in touch and remember, check everything with your doctor first.
All the best,
Donald.

Cholesterol Analysis 3.

Response to cholesterol levels question 3:

LDL cholesterol of 153 is Borderline - Assuming no risk factors nor coronary disease already present. If too many risk factors or coronary disease already exists, then aim is to reduce the ldl cholestrol to less than 130mg/dl .

HDL of 101 mg/dl is high - I assume that is the correct measure mg/dl? If it was mmol/l, it would be just in the lower end of normal. Matter of interest, do you use olive oil?

The HDL represents the cholesterol leaving the body, the high reading suggests your level of HDL cholesterol may be offering you some extra protection from your elevated LDL. The LDL is borderline and it is probably a good idea to check your diet for cholesterol and saturated fat, add a few ideas from our page on lowering cholesterol with foods, herbs and so on and follow the directions given by your doctor to lower the hdl cholesterol.

All the best, always check everything here with your doctor first and please let me know how you go.

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What do YOUR Cholesterol / Cholestrol Levels mean?

If you would like an analysis of your cholesterol levels, by me, then email your results, while keeping your history brief.

Cholesterol Service temporarily down due to family loss. Thank you for your understanding. Should be up and running again soon in a self guided format.

Also, when asking for the cholesterol analysis, please keep the cholesterol information such that it wont identify you to others and always check with your doctor before acting on anything I write or say.

Cholesterol Analysis 1.

Response to cholesterol levels question 1:

Cholesterol Analysis 2 :

Response to cholesterol levels question 2:

Cholesterol Analysis 3.

Response to cholesterol levels question 3:

Want more information on cholesterol here? Just email with your question.

Always CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR AND DIETICIAN first about lowering cholestrol. See what they say about the cholesterol lowering ideas you find on this website and others.