Understanding Your Cholesterol Results

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Understanding what your results mean and what to do about them is much harder. Doctor's seldom have the time to go thru the details of a cholesterol test with their patients. They often focus on a single value for total cholesterol to simplify the results. This leaves patients feeling that they don’t really have a grasp of what the numbers mean.

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Having your blood taken at the lab is usually the easy part. Understanding what your cholesterol results mean and what to do about them is much harder. A simple explanation of your results and what you can do about them. By Dr Howard Rybko

Transcript of Understanding Your Cholesterol Results

Page 1: Understanding Your Cholesterol Results

Having your blood taken at the lab is usually the easy part.

Understanding what your results mean and what to do about

them is much harder.

Doctor's seldom have the time to go thru the details of a cholesterol test with their

patients.

They often focus on a single value for total cholesterol to

simplify the results. This leaves patients feeling that they don’t really have a grasp of what the

numbers mean.

Page 2: Understanding Your Cholesterol Results

Your cholesterol test results provide four numbers that can

have an influence on your heart health.

Total CholesterolHDL the good cholesterolLDL the bad cholesterol

And Triglycerides.

DecarbDiet.com [email protected] (2014) Dr Howard Rybko

Page 3: Understanding Your Cholesterol Results

By themselves these numbers do not your predict heart risk.

Your cholesterol results need to be interpreted in the

context of your overall health, which includes factors like: your age, body mass index (BMI), smoking and exercise

levels.

Family history and the presence of other diseases

such as diabetes, high blood pressure are also important.

There are one easy to calculate ratio that can

predict your risk of heart disease, which I show you

towards the end of this video.

DecarbDiet.com [email protected] (2014) Dr Howard Rybko

Page 4: Understanding Your Cholesterol Results

Total Cholesterol

In general, values of below 8 mmol per litre or 300 mg per decilitre are acceptable and can usually managed by diet and exercise. This is not what

most doctors believe and many will start you on a lifetime treatment with a

statin drug in a heartbeat. The current guidelines suggest

that values of below 5.2 mmol per litre are desirable and values over 6.2 mmol/l

  If you wish to learn more about cholesterol and the

billion dollar statin industry, a good place to start is the book by Dr Stephen Sinatra called the Great Cholesterol Myth.

DecarbDiet.com [email protected] (2014) Dr Howard Rybko

Page 5: Understanding Your Cholesterol Results

LDL Cholesterol

Usually called the Bad Cholesterol (which may not

be true)Lower LDL numbers are

better.

However the size of the LDL particles is important and can only be measured

by sophisticated tests.

Particle size is not reflected in a standard cholesterol

test.

DecarbDiet.com [email protected] (2014) Dr Howard Rybko

Page 6: Understanding Your Cholesterol Results

HDL Cholesterol

Higher values are thought to be protective.

Many studies have shown reduced levels of heart disease

in patients with higher HDL levels.

Increasing your HDL levels is a good idea and there are ways to increase HDL levels without

taking medication.

These include exercise, weight loss, taking more omega3, vitamin D supplementation, and stopping smoking and

eating less sugar.

DecarbDiet.com [email protected] (2014) Dr Howard Rybko

Page 7: Understanding Your Cholesterol Results

Triglycerides

Are used to transport excess carbohydrates

around the body.

In my experience high triglyceride levels are often related to the

excessive consumption of grains and sugars.

High triglyceride levels are predictive of

increased heart disease risk

DecarbDiet.com [email protected] (2014) Dr Howard Rybko

Page 8: Understanding Your Cholesterol Results

Lastly and most importantlyHow do you use your cholesterol results to tell what sort of shape

your heart really is in?The evidence is quite clear that total

cholesterol is a poor predictor of heart disease.

Although various ratios of the 4 cholesterol numbers are used by doctors to predict risk of heart

disease in their patients, by far the most reliable is the triglyceride to

HDL ratio. It is easy to calculate.

Simply divide your triglyceride result by your HDL value.

This will give you a number between 1 and 10.

The lower your result, the lower your risk of developing heart disease.A result of 2 or less is considered

idealA result of 4 or over is high and over

6 is too high.

DecarbDiet.com [email protected] (2014) Dr Howard Rybko

Page 9: Understanding Your Cholesterol Results

A study published in 2008 reports that a raised

Triglyceride to HDL ratio was the single most powerful predictor of

extensive coronary heart disease among all the variables examined.

The good news is that If your ratio is high, you can reduce it by lowering your

intake of sugars and grains, which will lower your

triglyceride levels. You can also increase your

HDL levels using the methods discuss earlier.

Take control of your health without resorting to a life sentence on statin drugs

DecarbDiet.com [email protected] (2014) Dr Howard Rybko

Page 10: Understanding Your Cholesterol Results

DecarbDiet.com [email protected] (2014) Dr Howard Rybko