Okay Ladies, I am 32 years old and the first time I am tested for cholesterol, I am borderline which means, it is time to change some things up in my life. The first thing I had to do is some research to understand what exactly I need to change.
When you have high cholesterol, you have a higher risk for heart attack, strokes and coronary artery disease. The factors that affect cholesterol are the following: what you eat, whether you are overweight, whether you smoke, whether you consume alcohol, whether you are inactive or active regularly, whether you manage stress in your life, family history, age and gender, general state of health and medications you take.
Now that we understand that, let's move on to the test itself. Cholesterol testing is done by blood work and usually the doctors office will mail you your results. The results are broken down into Total Cholesterol, High-density lipoprotein (good cholesterol), low-density lipoprotien (bad choloesterol) and triglycerides (TRGs). What does this all mean?
The total cholesterol is the total number produced from the three numbers listed above. You want to have a number that is under 200. Anything over 200 is considered borderline and anything over 240 is considered high.
Understanding the numbers
Your HDL (or good cholesterol) is the cholesterol that helps the liver work properly. This number should not be higher than 40 mg/dL. The higher this number is, the higher risk you are for heart disease.
Your LDL (or bad cholesterol) is an essential building block for cell membranes and where hormones are manufactured. This number should be under 130 mg/dL.
Your TRGs are our source of energy. A desirable number is less than 150 mg/dL.
If you find that have high cholesterol, there are several things that you can do. Watch your intake of foods and be careful about what you eat. Here are some great low cholesterol recipes that I found on All Recipes.com:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/Healthy-Cooking/Low-Cholesterol/Main.aspx
Exercise more frequently: research suggests at least 30 minutes of exercise will reduce your cholesterol.
Don't smoke
Lastly, if you find yourself in the gene pool with your family and it is genetic, there are medications that can be prescribed to help maintain your cholesterol levels. I hope this information helps you as it helped me better understand. I will be maintaining a strict schedule until I am rested in March 2010, since this is genetic for me. Hopefully, being very careful will help me in my journey.