Testing Cholesterol Levels
It is important that you test your cholesterol every few months to make sure that it is at a healthy level. The procedure that is used to test the cholesterol is called fasting lipoprotein profile. This test is done after a 12 hour period of not consuming any liquids, foods, or medications of any kind.
Doctors recommend that anyone who is over the age of 20 take this test every 5 year. The results of the test is based on four different things; HDl, LDL, total blood cholesterol, and triglyceride levels.
• Maintaining a total blood cholesterol below 200 mg/dL is ideal, anything over 240 mg/dL is considered a high risk for heart disease.
• With HDL cholesterol, the higher the better. Levels of 60 mg/dL or higher offers protection while anything under 40 mg/dL increases your risk of heart disease. Smoking cigarettes, being obese and/or inactive can all result in lower HDL cholesterol.
• LDL is the best indicator of potential cardiovascular disease, lower is better. Levels less than 100 mg/dL are optimal while anything above 160 places you in the high risk category.
• Finally triglycerides, a form of fat, where less than less than 150 mg/dL is ideal and anything over 200 mg/dL is considered a high risk. Having a high triglyceride level is usually attributed to being overweight, being physically inactive, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption and diets high in carbohydrates can contribute to a high triglyceride level.
Treatment for high cholesterol levels, other than lifestyle changes, most commonly is with medication known as statins. Statins are a class of drugs that lower cholesterol levels in the blood by blocking the enzyme hydroxy-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase, more commonly referred to as HMG-CoA reductase, in the liver.