Interpreting cholesterol results

(below copied from a previous posting of mine)
Lipid panel
Shows the amount of 'good' and 'bad fat in your blood
(Cholesterol tests are fasting blood tests)
plasma should be clear, lemon or straw coloured. Opalescent plasma is indicative of high lipids and trigs.
(my lab normal ranges, others may differ slightly)

Total Cholesterol range 4.00-6.2mmol/l
HDL ('good') cholesterol female >1.40 female post menopause and male > 1.15mmol/l
LDL ('Bad') cholesterol (calculated according to Friedewalds formula) <3.85 (but many specialists including mine feel people with diabetes should be below 2.6mmol)
Cholesterol/HDL female <4.5, male <5.00
Triglycerides 0.35- 1.70 mmol/


Your figures seem mostly within normal ranges however many docs feel that lower levels of LDL and good levels of HDL are better for people with diabetes ,they consider that its the equivalent of a prior heart attack.

General advice normally given. Here from the the Harvard School of public health

Exercise regularly. (very good for raising HDL)
Aim for a healthy body weight.
Avoid trans fats.
Limit foods rich in saturated fat, like red meat and whole milk, ice cream, and other full-fat dairy foods.
Focus on foods rich in unsaturated fats, dietary fiber, and healthful protein. Fruits, vegetables, fish, beans, nuts, and seeds are all excellent choices.

lots more detail on their website includinglinks the research to back it http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/index.html

Another more specific method is the portfolio diet which stresses almonds and foods high in soluble fibre (see this newsarticle, particularly the last part and the link to Amanda Ursells site)http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/body_and_soul/article2882933.ece

You'll obviously get a variety of responses on the dietary means
:wink:

HDL is pretty good, LDL and trigs are a bit high.

The all important trigs/HDL ratio is 1.25 and in UK numbers is best under 1.3 so you just scraped through <G>

Dropping more carbs and adding more saturated fats will reduce the trigs and increase the HDL hopefully at the expense of the LDL. IMO you can never have too many Omega 3s (fish, fish oil, grass fed meat) and monounsaturated is also good, there's more controversy about Omega 6s which are usually hugely out of balance with O3s thanks to all those "heart healthy" vegetable oils and margarines. Agree on the exercise though!

The whole subject is much more compicated than most sites for the general public, or some doctors, appreciate. Too little LDL causes different problems from too much. The trigs/HDL ratio is a marker for insulin resistance and also indicates particle size of the LDL (small dense particles bad, large fluffy particles good), the *number* of particles is a factor inasmuch as they are based on lipoprotein-alpha, and cardiovascular risk also depends on inflammation but just try getting CRP or homocysteine tested.

My GP is quite clued in, technically my LDL was too high at 2.70 but she wasn't bothered as my HDL and trigs were so good. She was even more pleased when I got it down to 2.4, until I told her how I'd done it <G>

Short version: you're heading in the right direction. LDL has little correlation to risk but is easily lowered with statins which is why everyone concentrates on it (or TChol which is cheaper to measure), the other guys respond to dietary tweaking which means NOT eating a Heart Healthy diet. In fact a "hearty" meal may be just that. Who knew? <G>

Top post Trink.
I'd agree, you have nothing to worry about there Spiral. Your HDL & trigs will very probably fall with your carb consumption. Your doctor needs to re-read the research before he even thinks about prescribing statins to a female. There is absolutely no evidence of any benefit to women in taking statins, in fact there's plentiful evidence that higher cholesterol levels are associated with longer healthier lives in women.

Best wishes,

fergus

Not wishing to hijack your post Spiral but as you have had great responses from the super 'old faithfuls' I have got a couple of questions re Cholestrol that your post has prompted:
These were my results from March:
LDL 3.40
HDL 3.40
Trigs 3.0
Total Cholestrol 6.2

Judging by the responses to Spiral these figures would appear quite high-the GP was going to start me on statins but then he hasn't started me on metformin yet until he gets a reply from a Professor (see my Metformin post)!!!!
Phoenix-you state that the cholestrol tests are fasting but I had mine done at 4 o'clock in the afternoon and done as part of a battery of blood tests-would my figures be more higher considering I would have had breakfast and dinner??
Trink-how do I work out my ratios and/or are they bad?
Fergus-I took some comfort that statins appear not to be beneficial to women LOL!
(Female 56, pre-diabetic-still confused on what is the 'right 'diet!!)
Thanks

Oops-HDL is 1.43 !!

Spiral
Cheers for that link-made interesting reading and confirms your issue about research and statistics being predominately male orientated and the fact that women are more routinely given statins.
I have found this to be the case as my brother recently had a 6.3 total cholestrol and similar HDL/LDL levels to mine but statins not even mentioned to him-just told to watch his diet and would be rechecked next year!!