I try to check the cholesterol levels of my patients annually, especially if they are over 40 years old and even earlier (age 30 years) if they have a family history significant for Heart Disease. A good cholesterol panel is as follows:
Total Cholesterol less than 200 (even better if less than 170)
HDL (good cholesterol) over 50
LDL (bad cholesterol) less than 100
Triglycerides less than 100
Ratio less than 3.0
A couple of good rules is to look at your Total Cholesterol and subtract HDL from it. This is called your Non-HDL Cholesterol and if the number is below 150 then you're in pretty good shape.
Another good rule is to take the LDL + HDL + TG and divide by 3... if you average 70 or less, you're numbers are great.
Risk factors for early Coronary Heart Disease include, but are not limited to: Age over 50 years, Males, Diabetes, Hypertension, Smoking, High Cholesterol, Family History of CHD.
If you don't know what your numbers are, ask your healthcare provider to find out. Many insurances today are being much more proactive with patients and encourage finding out your numbers to prevent early disease and it's working.
No comments:
Post a Comment