Cholesterol

Cholesterol will usually be treated when it is above 5, but it is now recognised that treatment may be beneficial even at lower levels, hence guidelines to offer to all over the age of 40. For people on statin we recommend aiming for less than 4 mmol/l.

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The higher your HDL cholesterol, the lower your risk of developing heart disease. High levels of HDL cholesterol are better than low HDL cholesterol. The HDL value need to be put in context of the rest of the lipid profile, but as a rough guide, a desirable level of HDL is greater than 1.0 mmol/L for men and greater than 1.2mmol/L for women. A good level of HDL is 1.5 mmol/L or more and is associated with a less than average risk of heart disease. The HDL is often used in combination with the total cholesterol to give a Cholesterol: HDL ratio

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Of all forms of cholesterol in the blood, LDL cholesterol is considered the most important in determining risk of heart disease. Treatment with diet or drugs aims to lower LDL. LDL should be less than 2.0mmol/l.
American guidelines suggest LDL should be less than 2.6mmol/L, Joint British Society Guidelines suggest a treatment target of less than 2mmol/L in patients who are high risk or have diabetes. Other guidelines don't give strict cut offs but all agree that lower is better.

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Triglycerides are usually part of a lipid profile used to identify the risk of developing heart disease. Triglycerides increase significantly when blood sugar is poorly controlled and will also increase after a fatty meal, so must be interpreted in context. They are a useful part of an overall 'lipid profile'.
Triglyceride levels should be less than 1.7 mmol/l after fasting from night before.

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Scarlet10 said:

I really don’t want to start statins.

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Scarlet10 said:

Not sure why my posts are doing that.

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