What Your Cholesterol Testing Means

If you think atherosclerosis I just for old people, then think again! Most people start to develop cholesterol driven atherosclerosis when they are children and many are not even aware they have it until they have a heart attack or stroke.

Luckily, diagnosing cholesterol levels in your blood is as simple as having a blood test. This test will determine your levels of LDL and HDL (or “bad” cholesterol and “good” cholesterol) and then your physician can come up with a treatment plan based on those resulte.

Cholesterol tests can be a bit tricky and simple screening tests done without fasting can only give you a ballpark number for your HDL (“good” cholesterol). What you really want is a lipid profile which is a complete test that measures cholesterol and triglycerides as well as LDL and HDL.

When getting tested for cholesterol it is important that you do everything you can to make the test as accurate as possible. You should not eat or drink for 12 hours before the test - water only! Also, it is best to avoid exercising for up to 24 hours and be sure to make the person testing you aware of any medications you may be on.

Once you have your test results, how do you decipher them?

The test results will show 3 things - HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and total cholesterol.

For total cholesterol the National Cholesterol Education Program classifies levels below 200 milligrams/dl (milligrams per deciliter) as “desirable.” A level between 200 and 239 is “borderline high.” Anything over 240 is “high.”

LDL, the “bad” cholesterol should be less than 130 milligrams/dl. If yours is 160 or above you are labeled as a high risk.

HDL is your good cholesterol and the more you have of that the better, but what if you don’t have enough? If you have 60 milligrams/dl then you are doing great - anything under 35 milligrams/dl is considered a high risk.

The other thing your test might report is triglyceride levels. Here, anything over 400 milligrams/dl are considered “high”.