More than half of the world today has high cholesterol. What this means is that every other person that you see walking down the street is at risk for some sort of heart disease. The average person doesn’t even know how their cholesterol stands because you can’t see high cholesterol. However, the stats stand for themselves when it comes to your cholesterol; you need to understand it in order to be able to deal with it. Once you get past the code, it is very easy to understand.
There are actually five different ways that you can use in order to get a complete reading on your own cholesterol levels and they are: total cholesterol levels, HDL, LDL, total/HDL ratio, LDL/HDL ratio. These measurements are actually written down to be what is desirable and what is not desirable. Measurement units for checking your cholesterol are conducted as milligrams per deciliter. It is extremely confusing if you try to look at these separately. You can talk to your doctor if you really want to understand your cholesterol levels and what, if anything, you need to do about them or how to maintain them properly.
I am going to give you the actual numbers that are involved when it comes to your cholesterol. Your overall desired level should be below 200 mg/dL, 200 to 240 for a borderline level and total risk above level 240. This is just for your overall levels. When it comes to breaking it down to each individual level, your doctor can best explain those to you.
Explaining HDL Cholesterol
When you think of your cholesterol, chances are all you care about is that it is low, but HDL levels are not the same as general cholesterol levels. It is actually just a section of your overall cholesterol when it comes to your HDL levels you actually want it to be high. HDL is not the same as cholesterol in any way. In fact your HDL levels are high density lipoproteins. We need lots of these. Their role in our body is to carry cholesterol away from the body as soon as LDL has brought it.
