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What Is a Cholesterol Test? Page 1 o f 3
Article Link: http://www.webmd.com/cholesterol-management/what-is-cholesterol-test?page=2
Cholesterol & Triglycerides Health :
Center
H L isten
What Is a Cholesterol Test?
A complete cholesterol test checks your blood to see if your cholesterol and triglycerides are at a healthy
level. This will help your doctor figure out your chances of having a heart attack or stroke.
When Should You Have a Cholesterol Test?
Once you reach age 20, you’ll probably have this test every five years. You may need a cholesterol test more
often if you:
• Are a man over 45.
• Are a woman over 50.
• Have cholesterol greater than 200.
• Have low HDL "good" cholesterol less than 40 mg/dL if you’re male or less than 50 mg/dL if you’re
female.
• Are obese, have high blood pressure, or have another condition that puts you at higher risk for high
cholesterol.
• Are on treatment for high cholesterol.
How Should You Prepare?
You may need to stop eating and drinking at least nine hours before the test. Do not take any medicines
either during this time unless your doctor told you too. If you do, it will affect the results. If you schedule
your test in the morning so you’ll be asleep for most of your fast, you won’t get too hungry. Sometimes your
doctor will tell you that you may eat normally the day of the test.
Where Should You Have a Cholesterol Test?
The American H eart Association recommends you have the test at your doctor's office. If you see your
doctor for the test, you'll know:
• The test is done by a qualified person. '
• The results are accurate.
• The follow-up care is personalized to your needs.
Community or workplace tests can be accurate if they are done by qualified staff. If you've not fasted
before the test, you can only get your HDL and total cholesterol levels. Share the results with your doctor,
regardless of where the test is done.
What Do Your Test Results Mean?
You may hear your doctor call a cholesterol test a lipid panel. Your doctor will review your test and talk with
you about your results, numbers that measure the amount of cholesterol and triglycerides in your blood.
http://www.webmd.com/cholesterol-managernent/what-is-cholesterol-test?page=2&pr... 10/24/2014
What Is a Cholesterol Test? Page 2 of 3
Total cholesterollevel. This is a measure of your HDL “good” and LDL “bad” cholesterol. The higher your
total cholesterol level is, the more likely you are to have a heart problem. The good news is that your doctor
can help you lower it. The amount of total cholesterol in your blood will be a number:
200 mg/dL or less: A healthy jeygl
200 to 239 mg/dL: Almost an unhealthy level
240 mg/dL or more: An unhealthy level
LDL “bad" cholesterol levels. This type of fat can clog your arteries when there’s too much in your blood,
and clogged arteries can lead to a heart attack or stroke. A low LDL level helps protect you from both. The
amount of LDL “bad” cholesterol in your blood will be a number:
What Do Your Test Results Mean? continued...
Less than 100 mg/dL: A healthy level (if you have heart disease, your doctor may recommend an LDL of 70
mg/dL or lower.)
100 to 129 mg/dL: An almost healthy level
130 to 159 mg/dL: An almost unhealthy level
160 to 189 mg/dL: An unhealthy level
190 mg/dL and higher: A very unhealthy, dangerous level
HDL ‘‘good” cholesterol levels. This is the “good" cholesterol that helps keep the "bad” LDL cholesterol
from building up inside your arteries. Unlike the other numbers from a cholesterol test, where a high
number is dangerous to your health, with HDL, a high number is healthy, so that’s the result you want.
Less than 40 mg/dL for men: An unhealthy level
Less than 50 mg/dL for women: An unhealthy level
60 mg/dL or higher for men and women: A healthy level
Triglyceride levels. Your body makes this type of fat from the food you eat.
High levels, in combination with either low HDL or high LDL, can clog your
arteries. As with LDL levels, you want this number to be low:
Less than 150 mg/dL: A healthy level
150 to 199 mg/dL: An almost unhealthy level
200 to 499 mg/dL: An unhealthy level
500 mg/dL and higher: A very unhealthy, dangerous level
The Big Picture
Not everyone's target levels are the same. Your doctor will discuss your
specific goals with you.
• If all your numbers are in healthy ranges, your doctor probably won't test
you again for five years. Keep up the good work!
• If any of your numbers are in an unhealthy range, your doctor may
suggest new diet and exercise habits to help you bring them in line. Often,
f
http://www.webmd.com/cholesterol-management/what-is-cholesterol-test?page=2&pr... 10/24/2014
Recomm en ded R elated
to C h o le stero l
Man agemen t
What Women Should Know
About High Triglycerides
Anyone can get high levels of
triglycerides, a type of blood
fat. But some things can make
women more likely to develop
high triglycerides. You're more
likely to have high
triglycerides if you are
overweight, don't exercise,
have diabetes, or have a family
history of high triglycerides.
That's true for men and
women alike. Women are
more likely to get high
triglycerides if they: Take birth
control pills that include
estrogen. Are pregnant.
Pregnancy can temporarily
raise your triglyceride...
Page 1 o f 3
You've heard fo r decades about the dangers of high cholesterol, but did you
know that LOW cholesterol can lead to violence towards se lf and other, and
has been linked to premature aging, death and other adverse health e ffe c ts ?
In a world gone mad with anti-cholesterol anxiety, and where gobbling down
pharmaceuticals designed to poison the body into no longer synthesizing it is
somehow considered sane behavior, it is refreshing to look at some of the
research on the health benefits o f cholesterol, or conversely, the dangers of
low cholesterol.
Benefits of Cholesterol
• Cholesterol Is Needed To Prevent Aggression: I t has been known fo r
almost 30 years that low serum cholesterol levels are associated with
habitually violent tendencies of homicidal offenders under the influence
of alcohol.XU Since then, there are at least 8 other studies that have
either confirmed or explored the cholesterol-violence link, including both
violence towards se lf and other. One of the possible explanations fo r this
association was discussed in an article published in the British Journal o f
Psychiatry in 1993: "One of the functions of serotonin in the central
nervous system is the suppression of harmful behaviour impulses...Low
membrane cholesterol decreases the number of serotonin receptors.
Since membrane cholesterol exchanges fre e ly with cholesterol in the
surrounding medium, a lowered serum cholesterol concentration may
contribute to a decrease in brain serotonin, with poorer suppression of
aggressive behaviour",!!!] Not surprisingly, several reports have now
surfaced on cholesterol-lowering statin drugs contributing to irrita b ility
and/or aggression.
• Cholesterol Is Needed To Fight Cancer: The inverse relationship
between cholesterol levels and the risk fo r a variety of cancers, and
mortality associated with cancer, has been known about since the late
8 0 's.|]l!J Since then, the cholesterol-cancer connection has been
confirmed over and over again. I t is to be expected, therefore, that
statin drug use would be linked with increased cancer incidence, which
indeed it is.[iy] Even when you take so-called "bad" LDL-cholesterol and
administer it to a culture of highly malignant, multi-drug resistant
leukemia cells, the cells lose th e ir resistance to chemotherapy. Not
exactly what can be characterized as a "bad" substance, now is it? [v]
• Cholesterol Is Needed To Prevent Hemorrhagic Stroke: There are two
types of stroke: 1) Ischemic, associated with lack of blood flow and
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Page 2 of 3
oxygen to the brain 2) Hemorrhagic, associated with the rupture of a
blood vessel in the brain, and bleeding. The risk fo r the former, in theory,
could be raised in the presence of excessive oxidized cholesterol.
However, it is the risk fo r the second, hemorrhagic stroke, which is
increased when cholesterol levels are low. Noted as fa r back as 1994 in
the British Medical Journal, in an article titled, "Assessing possible
hazards of reducing serum cholesterol," researchers found "The only
cause of death attributable to low serum cholesterol concentration was
haemorrhagic stroke."[v[] Other studies can be viewed that confirm this
association on our stroke-cholesterol link page.
. Cholesterol Is Needed for Memory: Low HDL cholesterol has been
identified as a risk fa c to r fo r d e fic it and decline in memory in midlife.fviil
Even in Parkinson's disease, higher total serum cholesterol concentrations
are associated with slower clinical progression of the disease.fviiil Statin
drugs, which inhibit the production of cholesterol, hence severely
affecting the brain, are now required by the FDA to display the black box
warning that they may adversely a ffe c t the memoryj i x l We have indexed
over 50 studies from the National Library of Medicine's bibliographic
database, Medline, on the neurotoxicity o f statin drugs, with six of
these specif ically addressing statin-induced memory impairment.
• Cholesterol is Needed for Longevity: In a fascinating study published in
PLoS in 2011, telomere length - the shoestring cap-like ends of the
chromosomes which prevent DNA damage associated with cellular aging -
was linked to higher LDL and total cholesterol levels. The longer the
length of these protective caps, the higher the cholesterol.fx] Indeed,
several studies indicate that lower cholesterol is associated with
increased mortality.
• Cholesterol Helps Us Fight Infection: I t has been observed that a
cholesterol-rich diet improves patients with tuberculosis, leading
researchers to suggest "cholesterol should be used as a complementary
measure in antitubercular treatment."fxil Cholesterol-lowering drugs,
incidentally
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