total cholesterol

I have a family history of heart desese.  For the past 15 years my cholestrol level have stayed about the same.  Here are my last results.  Trig.  35, ldl  113, hdl  109,  total chol.  228.  As you can see, the trig. is very low  35, and the hdl is very high.  I have actually had my trig. below 32.  Is this bad.  I've read that that having hdl too high and trig. too low is not good?

[heartfluttersflyawayplz]

wow wish my trigs was that low this year they were close to 300, last year over 500 almost 600 so thats great they are that low, your numbers look good to me

[ed34]

Your cholesterol looks good, but you do realise that cholesterol levels are not the only concern with heart disease? Blood pressure, exercise, stress levels are just some of the other risk factors. But, having good cholesterol levels is a great start.

[erijon]

The only number I would question is your excessively high HDL. Although there is no data to say that it is bad for you, there are reasons for the increase. The most common causes are;

Alcohol use
excessive aerobic exercise
estrogen treatment
liver cirrhosis
statin use

I would just want to find the cause to be safe and know there is no underlying cause. Other than that concern, your numbers look great.

Jon

[globalhiking]

Hi maryw,

Your numbers are fairly good in general.

Your total Cholesterol at 228 is bordeline high - Below 200 is desirable

Your LDL at 113 is near ideal - You mentioned that there is a history of heart disease in your
                                              family, so your LDL should be below 110, and idealy below 70
                                              if your MD thinks that you are at very high risk of heart
                                              disease.

Your HDL at 109 is really great, as the best number is above 60.

For your Triglycerides, 35 is also a number to be proud of :-)  as anything below 150 is desirable.

To answer your question about triglycerides and HDL - There are no lower limits about triglycerides, although a number below 10 can be considered too low.
Some reasons would be: malnutrition, a diet way too low in fat, or an overactive thyroid function.
For the HDL there is also no upper limits, so I imagined that 109 is fine. The Mayo clinic on their website states - "The evidence so far looks good that increasing HDL cholesterol reduces your risk of dying of heart disease."

If you want a more complete picture, you could ask your MD to test for Homeocysteine and  C-Reactive Protein (CRP).
In particular CRP as it is a good indicator of inflamation (inflammation) in the body, and research is pointing more towards inflamation (inflammation) as a better predictor of heart disease than cholesterol.

I hope you find this helpful :-)