The Good Life With Healthy Cholesterol Levels
For the past few decades, the term cholesterol has been growing in popular culture with hundreds of advertisements on television and radio proclaiming ways to lower cholesterol to healthy levels. However, scientists' knowledge and understanding of cholesterol has grown considerably even in the past five years, so as a possible patient, it's important for you to understand these developments as well. Firstly, what's considered healthy cholesterol levels has changed from a general description of total blood cholesterol to a more complex system of diagnosing cholesterol levels that includes several different types of cholesterol.
Different Levels Of Healthiness
Doctors now measure several different types of cholesterol when they administer a cholesterol test. Instead of a measurement of the total blood cholesterol, they can now see levels of different types of blood cholesterol. This is useful as different types of cholesterol play different roles, and too much of one kind can be just as harmful as the total cholesterol being too high, so it's important to diagnose which cholesterol level isn't healthy.
To understand healthy cholesterol levels, you also need to understand the difference between the types of cholesterol. The main type of cholesterol that most people hear about nowadays is low density lipoprotein, or LDL. These LDL's are called "bad cholesterol" because they do the most harm to a person. High density lipoproteins, or HDL's, are called "good cholesterol" because they are more effective than their LDL counterparts at completing their necessary bodily functions and much less harmful.
Now overall, cholesterol is recommended to be no more than 200 mg/dL, or 200 milligrams per deciliter. This includes all the types of cholesterol, including but not limited to low density lipoproteins and high density lipoproteins. LDL's are recommended to be no more than 70 mg in that figure, and HDL's 40 milligrams out of every deciliter. However, to acquire these results, you'll need to be given a cholesterol test, where a vial of blood is drawn out of a vein and tested. The results will come back quickly, and if need be, your doctor will get you back to healthy cholesterol levels.
Healthy cholesterol levels are key to an overall healthy life. While bad cholesterol levels can be very dangerous, even good cholesterol levels can generally be improved, even desirably so in the case of those at risk for cardiovascular disease. However, while borderline or even high risk cholesterol levels are bad news, make no mistake about that, there are literally dozens of ways that you can lower your cholesterol levels, so that everyone is perfectly capable of getting healthy cholesterol levels again. You can exercise. You can eat the right foods. There are also different types of medicines you can take. Shoot for healthy cholesterol levels, and your body will be much happier for it.
