What is your Cholesterol Level?

Blood test. Next time that you go to your doctor ask for a blood workout.

Before I started at MFP my cholesterol was 217. After cutting out all fried foods and sticking to MFP, when I had blood work done in March it had dropped to 168! I was so surprised and pleased at the same time.

Actually, your overall cholesterol is a pretty rough measure and doesn't tell the whole story. What you really need to know is your HDL, LDL and Triglycerides. They should be:

HDL: > 50 mg/dL
LDL: < 130 mg/dL
Triglycerides: < 150 mg/dL

Good information! My husband has a good all over number (190) but his "bad cholesterol" (LDL) was high. A few diet tweaks and he is at a good level.

For the record, last I had it checked mine was 191 and my HDL/LDL/Triglycerides are all in balance.

On top of that, the link between high cholesterol and heart disease is tenuous at best. What is really an issue is how dense your LDL cholesterol is. And, while it's simple to test this, hardly anyone does because the medical establishment is so obsessed with lowering overall cholesterol.

Some info on what good levels are from the Mayo Clinic:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cholesterol-levels/CL00001

My personal experience is that when my overall cholesterol is low, my HDL is also low. I have been able to raise my HDL number into the good range while dropping my triglyceride and LDL number into the optimal range. But my overall cholesterol number went up slightly. So, if all you knew was that, you'd say that mine got worse when it actually got better.

As part of the "medical establishment" I need to protest this one. I'm a Nurse Practitioner in a Women's Heart Clinic and I spend my day treating women with and at risk for heart disease. At my clinic (with 150 cardiologists), we are not focused on the total cholesterol. In fact, I spend a great deal of time explaining to women how the other numbers are more important than the total cholesterol. And in fact, we also will take this farther and look at particle number and size.

The connection between LDL cholesterol and heart disease is quite substantial. Both the AHA and the ACC (American College of Cardiologists) have stated this in their official guidelines. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/cholesterol/atp3xsum.pdf. These are guidelines that are based on well qualified studies and are taken very seriously. There are other lesser studies out there with contrived data for the general population that state things differently.

As far as your cholesterol numbers, your triglycerides are driven by processed foods, fried foods, sweets, high fat foods and lack of exercise. Genetics can play a roll as well. The triglyserides are not part of your total cholesterol number. Your LDL ( I refer to this as the lousy cholesterol) is driven by lack of exercise, general diet, and genetics. This is part of your total cholesterol number. The other part of the total cholesterol is the HDL ( I refer to this as the happy cholesterol). This one is cardioprotective. In men, we want this number to be over 40, in women, over 50. Exercise is the only thing that will drive this higher. If you smoke it will bring your HDL lower. So, the HDL and LDL added together make your total cholesterol. If your HDL is 88 and your LDL is 115, your total cholesterol is 203. This is overall a nice combination for a young, healthy person with no heart disease or other heart risks. For that same 203, the HDL could be 31, with an LDL of 172. This is a whole new story!! I would give you three months of hard work to see what you could do to improve the situation, then we would need to discuss medications if things didn't get better.

I promise you, I don't like putting people on medications. The first step in the guidelines is lifestyle modifications- this is diet and exercise. Patients need to take this the same as a medication prescription. It is that important! Lately there have been quite a few posts casting doubts on medical professionals and the treatment of cholesterol. I'm really not sure why or what the nidus of this is, but this is one of the most important factors in heart health.

I would love to work my way right out of a job. And the people here on MFP are making all the right changes to do that.

At my clinic (with 150 cardiologists), we are not focused on the total cholesterol. In fact, I spend a great deal of time explaining to women how the other numbers are more important than the total cholesterol. And in fact, we also will take this farther and look at particle number and size.

That's awesome. Most places don't look at particle size.

The connection between LDL cholesterol and heart disease is quite substantial. Both the AHA and the ACC (American College of Cardiologists) have stated this in their official guidelines. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/cholesterol/atp3xsum.pdf. These are guidelines that are based on well qualified studies and are taken very seriously. There are other lesser studies out there with contrived data for the general population that state things differently.

I've read up plenty on this and I don't agree. There is a lot of good clinical data published in peer reviewed journals that shows no link between cholesterol or even just LDL cholesterol and heart disease.

204 total, HDL 62, TriG 115.

By that "total" number I should be on statins, but I think, like the above poster suggests, that our current infatuation with total cholesterol is utter nonsense.

So, should my doctor prescribe me statins, I'll kindly throw the prescription in the trash.

Before starting MFP:
Total Cholesterol 202
HDL 56
Glucose 158

I am anxious to see what the numbers are after a couple of months of being on MFP.

Old post but I had to comment to the one who works with women's heart patients....As a heart attack survivor an nurse your total cholesterol is ldl plus hdl and 20% of your triglycerides number.

At my clinic (with 150 cardiologists), we are not focused on the total cholesterol. In fact, I spend a great deal of time explaining to women how the other numbers are more important than the total cholesterol. And in fact, we also will take this farther and look at particle number and size.

That's awesome. Most places don't look at particle size.

The connection between LDL cholesterol and heart disease is quite substantial. Both the AHA and the ACC (American College of Cardiologists) have stated this in their official guidelines. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/cholesterol/atp3xsum.pdf. These are guidelines that are based on well qualified studies and are taken very seriously. There are other lesser studies out there with contrived data for the general population that state things differently.

I've read up plenty on this and I don't agree. There is a lot of good clinical data published in peer reviewed journals that shows no link between cholesterol or even just LDL cholesterol and heart disease.

How do you figure that? Please explain.

Great point MacMadame! Triglycerides are a big factor in your cholesterol count as well which is only a snapshot of your diet within the last 48-72 hours. More fried fatty foods = higher triglyceride count = higher over cholesterol level. Getting the breakdown of HDL, LDL, and Triglycerides is essential to determine what to do if you need to make changes.

Great job ltldeb61!!

Carbs and only carbs increase trigs in lipoproteins. The higher the trigs the more particles of LDL it takes to deliver a given density of cholesterol to the body.