Cholesterol levels ?

[calibby21]

Hello. I'm a 17 year old female &my blood work lab results just got mailed back to me. Can anyone explain to me what these mean ? 


Cholesterol total - 181 mg/dL
Triglycerides - 235 mg/dL
HDL cholesterol - 34 mg/dL
LDL cholesterol - 100 mg/dL
Chol/hdlc ratio - 5.3 

[erijon]

Here's my two cents. Your HDL is very low, much too low for a young female. It really should be over 50, but can be easily increased with exercise. You can also speak to your doctor about niacin, it is a supplement that is very effective for increasing HDL (good cholesterol), but you need to speak with your doctor before starting it. HDL binds to LDL (bad cholesterol) to remove it from your blood by taking it back to the liver to be recycled or removed. If your LDL levels should increase then your low HDL will prevent this from happening so you should work to get the HDL up.

Ed is right, your ratio is not bad so your numbers are not really considered too bad. You TGL's are high but as pointed out, cutting back on the empty carbs like sugar, breads, pastas and alcohol will generally control TGL's. The link between TGL's and heart disease is still not too well defined, but lower is better.

Hope this helps,

Jon

[ed34]

I wish the US would change to the system (more accurate) adopted by the rest of the world to save conversion lol.
Your trigs 235mg/dl (2.65mmol/L) are very high.
Your HDL lipids 34 mg/dl (0.8mmol/L) are too low
Your LDL lipids 100mg/dl (2.5mmol/L) are nice and low.

So balancing out your ratio of HDL to LDL, they are probably fine but your trigs need attention. It might be worth noting however, your age. I took my Son, soon to be 17, for a blood checkup because I wanted to ensure he doesn't end up with heart disease like me. The Doctor said the test is ok, but really will be more meaningful at 18 and over when the body finished developing and hormone levels etc are all settled.

So what are triglycerides. Three animal or vegetable fatty acids join glycerol in the body to become TRIglycerides and are used for your energy. Any unused is stored as body fat for later use if required. Carbohydrates and protein give us energy, but the body will convert any unused carbohydrates to Triglycerides. This is why exercise is good for lowering trigs, along with a good diet. So remember, a low fat diet, but high in carbs, will still increase trigs. I watched a very good documentary recently on calories and the amount of food the body actually requires is a lot less than we imagine. Nearly everyone has an appetite far exceeding their daily needs. It was shown in the program that vigorously rowing a boat along the river thames for 4.5 miles, only required 400 calories, and it was believed it would take 1000 previously.

[curmudgen]

The information you need is in this article - and you will learn more about the numbers -
http://www.livestrong.com/article/83999-read-cholesterol-numbers/