Understanding Cholesterol Numbers

Your complete lipoprotein profile consists of cholesterol numbers including total cholesterol (TC), low density lipoprotein (LDL), high density lipoprotein (HDL) and triglyceride (TG) levels. Cholesterol numbers are very crucial to every human being. In fact, every individual after their 20 years of age should check their cholesterol level in a five years interval, if not otherwise recommended by doctors. The blood test signifying the cholesterol numbers is known as lipoprotein profile. This blood test is arranged by following a 10-12 hours of fasting.

Significance of Cholesterol Numbers

Cholesterol numbers are beneficial because they encode the level of different types of cholesterol in a quantifiable fashion. If it is not possible for you to find out the complete lipoprotein profile, understanding cholesterol numbers concerning total cholesterol level and HDL cholesterol level can offer you the essential idea about the status of the cholesterol content in your body. If your total cholesterol and HDL cholesterol numbers are more than 200mg/dL and less than 40mg/dL respectively, you should consult your doctor for a lipoprotein profile to be done.

Cholesterol numbers imply whether the individual is at risk for developing coronary complications in recent days or not. In fact, it helps in understanding the intensity and probability of the risk. For example, total cholesterol level less than 200mg/dL is desirable while 240mg/dL or higher is absolutely non-desirable and may pose a serious threat on health condition. On the other hand, the borderline condition is identified with cholesterol numbers lying between 200-239mg/dL.

For low density lipoprotein, the cholesterol numbers are assigned into 5 categories – optimal, near optimal or above optimal, borderline high, high and very high. The categories are identified with <100mg/dL, 100-129mg/dL, 130-159mg/dL, 160-189mg/dL and 190mg/dL respectively. Higher HDL is good for health, whereas higher LDL can lead to serious health complications. High HDL number may often balance high LDL number.

Factors Influencing Cholesterol Numbers

There are quite a few factors that can affect the cholesterol level in the body, hence the numbers. These are diet, age, gender, heredity, weight and physical activity. Among all these factors you can not simply do anything with age, gender and heredity. But of course you can manage the other factors by simply maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Apart from that, there are few other environmental factors such as smoking and excessive amount of alcohol consumption may pose a serious threat.

For women, the LDL level continues to rise in the post menopause phase. High blood cholesterol can be a familial characteristic. In such a case, the genetic structuring may lead to increasing amount of cholesterol production than normal. A healthy fat-free and cholesterol-free diet and regular exercise can benefit for not developing such complications.