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Type 2 Can you interpret my Cholesterol results?

Chunters

Member
Messages
24
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
My Diabetes review clinic appointment for today was cancelled / rescheduled with only a few hours notice today

Anyway I requested a print out of the blood test results. To my knowledge my Cholesterol has not been tested before so I don't have a baseline to compare. My results were:

Serum Cholesterol 5.6 mmol/L
Serum HDL Cholesterol Level 1.2 mmol/L
Se non HDL Cholesterol Level 4.4 mmol/L
Serum Cholesterol / HDL ratio 4.7 mmol/L

I was looking for LDL / HDL / Total Cholesterol and I can't find them amongst these

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.
 
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Hello. For starters here's what I work from:
Total Cholesterol (TC) - this is the total amount of cholesterol in your blood. Ideally 5 mmol/L or less
Non HDL-Cholesterol this is your total cholesterol minus your HDL-cholesterol (good cholesterol) and is the sum all the "bad" cholesterols added together (including LDL cholesterol) - ideally 4mmol/L or less
LDL-Cholesterol (LDL-C) - this is the amount of LDL-cholesterol), ideally 3 mmol/L or less
HDL-Cholesterol (HDL-C) - the amount of good cholesterol, ideally over 1mmol/L
TC:HDL ratio This is the TC figure divided by the HDL-C figure. The lower the better. A ratio above 6 is considered high risk.
Triglyceride (TG) this represent your body's ability to clear fat from the blood after a meal. Ideally less than 2mmol/L. The test for triglycerides requires fasting since trigs are a form of fat in the blood, so a recent meal can affect the result.
 
well in Denmark the doctors wants all type 2 diabetics to have a total cholesterol of under 4 mmol/l

because of the raised very raised risk of cardiovaskular deseases... blood clotting and heart attacks and bad blood flow in the extremities of the body in many diabetics besides neuropathy and problems with feeling if somthing is wrong in those parts of the body
 
@Chunters So you see the goalposts are moved from place to place and so are the solutions, which is why we all have to make our own decisions in the end. My overall cholesterol level is over 7 and my sister in law's in Norway has been over 11 for years without demur from her doctor. Perhaps you should start with the NHS targets above, from which you can see that your readings aren't too bad at all.
 
Hi chunters, Your HDL is rather low most on lchf have an hdl 1.5 or better. From your figures you should be able to calculate your trigs that should be around 1.0. Hdl divided into trigs should be well below one and this indicates you would have very little of the damaging VLDL. The other LDL doesn't matter much according to prof Sakaris. (See prof Ken Sakaris on youtube he is an expert in cholesterol) Since they haven't given you your LDL or trigs you have two unknowns which makes for a very difficult equation.
D.
 
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I'm trying to get to grips with cholesterol and ratios too. From what I understand the 'Serum Cholesterol' figure is the Total Cholesterol. At 5.6 yours is higher than what the NHS guidelines like diabetics to be which is 4. But that doesn't mean much, the ratios are more relevant.
The 'Serum HDL Cholesterol' level would be your HDL which should be between 0.90-1.50. I was 1.2 last year which was apparently 'HIGH RISK'. On a higher fat intake it has now gone up to 1.6 which is 'OPTIMAL'.
Your 'Serum Cholesterol/HDL ratio' of 4.7 is within the NHS guidelines of 'Peferably under 5, ideally under 3.5'.

I don't know why your printout doesn't show your Serum triglycerides or Serum LDL cholesterol levels, mine does.
If you can find out what they are, you can work out the ratios with this calculator:
http://www.hughcalc.org/chol-si.php
 
Prem51 said:
I don't know why your printout doesn't show your Serum triglycerides or Serum LDL cholesterol levels, mine does.
Click to expand...
In some health areas (incl mine) we don't get LDL any more but non-HDL, which is presumably higher because it includes all the other nasty bits (technical term).
Also I'm under the impression that a trig test has to be fasting, so can't be included in a non-fasting cholesterol test. At least, I never get to know my triglyceride levels.
 
Wow thanks all that really helps.
 
My HbA1c tests have always been fasting.
 
Hi Deejay,
They appear to have started doing that in Cumbria even when fasting. They are not giving LDL either, just total and HDL. This oversimplification will mean they prescribe more of their !$£! statins. Derek

 
No didn't get a Trig level - wasn't asked to fast for the test. I'm wondering if maybe the surgery has more information than I was given in the printout so will need to wait until the end of the month for the rearranged appointment to find out. I just need to be a bit more informed as I am almost certain that my total level will trigger the statins conversation. In fact the print out noted beside the Cholesterol numbers 'Please see in Diabetic Clinic' so already tagged as a 'problem'
 
I would tell them you will try to get your Lipid panel right by diet and that this subject seems very unclear unlike a decision on other medication like bp meds. If you go LCHF you trigs will come down and your HDL will go up. The other stuff won't matter much if you get those two right.
regards
D.
 
Yes, my cholesterol has lots of everything, good, bad and peanut-butter-flavoured but as a bear of very little brain I usually focus on my blood sugar level to the exclusion of the rest. I may re-think after the next blood test.
 
I ha bloods taken recently for updated testing, and asked at the time what would be included in the results. It seems in my area they no longer test/provide triglyceride results, so no chance of getting info on that. I got home & did a bit of "finger-walking" and came upon the NHS Choices website. That site tells me that apparently there is now a newer test (in the UK) that measures non-HDL which is thought to be more accurate to test for cardiovascular disease than LDL. Non-HDL cholesterol is total cholesterol minus HDL cholesterol. It's also not necessary to fast before the test, so it is more convenient. (bet it's cheaper too!) Perhaps that new test is being used more widely within the UK than the older-style test.
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Cholesterol/Pages/Diagnosis.aspx
 
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