What You Need To Know About Cholesterol Ratios
Cholesterol is not all bad. In fact, there are two types of cholesterol - the Low Density Lipoprotein which is also known as LDL and the High Density Lipoprotein or the HDL. The LDL is the bad cholesterol which you would need to fight in order to prevent heart attacks and other complications, while the HDL should be promoted, as this is the one factor that regulates the LDL and prevents its deposit on the walls of the arteries.
The diagnosis on whether you are suffering from high cholesterol is done by measuring the total cholesterol in your blood and the cholesterol ratio of either the LDL/HDL or the total/HDL.
What Does This Tell You?
The blood test would count the presence and concentrations of three types of cholesterol - the HDL, the LDL and the VLDL or the Very Low Density Lipoprotein in milligrams per deciliter. The total cholesterol would then be determined by simply adding these three cholesterol values. For a healthy body the total cholesterol should be maintained at less than 200 mg/dl if you want to eliminate the risk of a sudden (and often) fatal heart attack.
Similarly, the HDL should optimally read above 60 mg/dl - in men it should not fall below 40 mg/dl while in women it should not fall below 50 mg/dl. If these readings fall it would mean that the HDL would no longer be able to regulate the LDL and this would in turn mean that there would be increased accumulation of LDL deposits on the walls of the arteries and heart. The measurement of LDL should optimally be kept at less than 100 mg/dl.
According to these basic guidelines, a cholesterol ratio would be able to tell you whether you are or not you are in the danger bracket. If the cholesterol ratio shows that you suffer from high build up, you would need to take immediate action to lower it with the help of medicines, exercise and foods that help fight the bad cholesterol.
What Can You Do
Even when the cholesterol ratio says you are healthy, you should still pay close attention to the diet you are having once you cross 40 years of age. There are two types of foods which can help you keep the bad cholesterol in check - the foods that prevent formation of bad cholesterol and the foods that promote the formation of good cholesterol.
You need to include both of these foods in your diet and keep a close watch on the cholesterol ratio so you would know when and if you cross the danger line.
