I’ve always been superman when it comes to cholesterol. Tests have ranged from 110 to 140 over the years. Until now. 153. I’ve been largely inactive for the last year (0-6 hrs/wk swimming), and followed a fattier diet (but not high saturated fat nor high cholesterol). In my early 40s, I suddenly feel… “normal” and no longer immune to stuff I’ve taken for granted.
Hmm. Is 153 anything to start to manage? My doctor is used to normal people, so his “it’s fine” doesn’t take into account my “I wanna be better” type-a mind…
You need to know LDL/HDL at least…plus age, risk factors for vascular disease, history of anything…then you can look at guidelines (Family Medicine/Internal Med/Cardiology…) and see where you fall. Then you can talk to your doctor about risks/benefits…
If you’ve had 3 heart attacks and a stroke/are inactive…then your goal numbers are completely different than if you are a 40 year old completely healthy/no risk factor marathon runner…
x2. My cholesterol is much higher than the OP’s (~200 LDL, 53 HDL) and my doctor seemed to have little concern. I was concerned about it and wondered if I should be medicated. He explained that there is no medical data to support that high cholesterol has a negative impact on the arteries of the heart and no greater risk for heart disease is associated with this group than a group of individuals with normal cholesterol levels in the absence of a genetic predisposition for heart disease including (but not limited to) high blood pressure, family history of heart disease (<55 yrs old), etc.
OP, with your relatively low LDL number I’d focus on keeping a high HDL number to go with that LDL number. Not a doctor, but just passing info along that came from one.
Agree with the first two responses, it’s good that you’re keeping an eye on it, but provided your ratios turn out okay, it’s probably nothing to be worried about. (Disclaimer - I’m not a doctor!)
Rather I’d just keep an eye on it and have it routinely tested.
I was pretty surprised recently to discover that my numbers were bad. Just always assumed as an athlete who ate ‘reasonably’ healthy, I had nothing to worry about. Wrong. The good news in my story is that I immediately made some drastic changes to my diet and increased my weight training and cardio. In just 9 weeks I lost 13 lbs and dropped my cholesterol from 271 to 187, improving all the ratios dramatically too. I’m sharing this just because I was utterly amazed at the improvement. I always assumed that diet and exercise could only do so much and I was destined for medication. But now I’m a believer.
I am more concerned with Homocysteine levels as well as how your thyroid is functioning… Free T3 and T4 levels. Read the **latest **research not performed by pharmaceutical companies on CVD and atherosclerosis and you may find the same information.
Just get yourself checked out and if you want to go deeper, have your LDL/HDL profile checked. If your LDLs run small, they are more of a concern that if they run large. Talk to a cardio doc for the real scoop. Your numbers look pretty good to me.
Cardio issues/concerns can be a real crapshoot. I’m a good example, no family history of disease, never overweight, low blood pressure, cholesterol average, about 20 years of cycling starting at age 18 and I got a stent implant at age 36 after I started to get some unusual symptoms. No MI but a very very long story. Anyway, scared the shit out of the doc in the ER who did my angioplasty. He was about my age, active etc and was still freaked out a week later when I went in for a follow up (as was I). No doc I’ve seen to date one can really explain why this happened.
Most endurance folks are borderline cocky about heart disease concerns (my previous self included) becase of a perception of immunity resulting all the exercise but sometimes, it’s just not your day. I’m sure you are fine but by all means get yourself checked out just to free your mind up to think about more pleasant things.
You guys are funny…“gee my cholesterol is 153 should I be concerned”…hell no!!..“gee my body fat is 3 1/2% percent , how do I loose 3 more lbs of fat?”…you don’t!!!
Last time I was at the dr office he comes in and says my cholesterol is 297…I say back…“cool, its down!!! It was 303!!!” Its been up there for many many years.
: )
I have zero indications of heart failure, fat, all the bad stuff. Even my good cholesterol is sky high, so my ratio is better then most peoples. I just had a full phyiscal, with all the damn tests, stress tests, echograms… you name…It all came back totally normal!!
My “good” levels were just under the normal range (38 maybe?), and the ration a little low. No idea how to fix that. Doc said “Eh, don’t worry about it.”
HDL (good cholesterol) optimal is 40 or greater.
LDL (bad cholesterol) optimal is 130 or less.
Ratio of Total/HDL should be 3.5 or less.
Triglycerides optimal is 150 or less.
The raw number of total cholesterol is not indicative of much unless you know the breakdown of HDL and LDL. Put it in a spreadsheet and track it from year to year. Oh, and of course, you should always have been fasting prior to the bloodwork or the results can fluctuate unpredictably. And I’d pay much more attention to the ratio than to the total cholesterol number. That is, until the LDL gets to be too big of a number.
You can be a skinny fit endurance athlete who eats lots of oatmeal, no saturated fats, all healthy foods and still have high total cholesterol due to genetics.
My dad always told me that cycling doesn’t decrease the risk of heart disease - says the studies of cardiac rehab using cycling failed while walking succeeded. He says only walking/running will drop the risk…
Interesting the point about eggs. I started bringing some boiled eggs to work and I keep them in the fridge and usually eat one per day when I get hungry for a snack and even though the overall calories are low, I feel quite full. I pulled my numbers from the last test…pretty high 1.7 mmol/L HDL and 4.2 LDL, so if you convert that you get 65 HDL and 160 LDL. I’ll report back after the next test.
HDL (good cholesterol) optimal is 40 or greater.
LDL (bad cholesterol) optimal is 130 or less.
Ratio of Total/HDL should be 3.5 or less.
Triglycerides optimal is 150 or less.
The raw number of total cholesterol is not indicative of much unless you know the breakdown of HDL and LDL. Put it in a spreadsheet and track it from year to year. Oh, and of course, you should always have been fasting prior to the bloodwork or the results can fluctuate unpredictably. And I’d pay much more attention to the ratio than to the total cholesterol number. That is, until the LDL gets to be too big of a number.
You can be a skinny fit endurance athlete who eats lots of oatmeal, no saturated fats, all healthy foods and still have high total cholesterol due to genetics.
Someone asked about thyroid…
Free T4 .76 (ref range is .56 to 1.2)
I don’t see a T3 test
TSH 2.38
Antithyroglobulin <20
Antithyroid peroxidase AB <10
RA Quant <10
Yeah, agreed on cycling not having much benefit to cardio risk. My cardio doc told me the same thing so I started walking then running shortly after my little “life experience” and kept the cycling in the mix. I used to hate running but now I’ve grown to really enjoy it. Eventually I started thrashing in the pool (my swimming is rudimentary but I’m improving) after a friend talked me into a tri. Been through a few races now and I’m pretty much hooked. There were actually lots of positive outcomes resulting from my cardio experience. Still, I recommend that others avoid if possible.
My dad always told me that cycling doesn’t decrease the risk of heart disease - says the studies of cardiac rehab using cycling failed while walking succeeded. He says only walking/running will drop the risk…
Dave
I can only imagine how vigorously patients in cardiac rehab would ride an indoor bicycle*… NOT!!!
*I’ll bet a box of donuts this is how they ran the test.
You probably mean your Total Cholesterol is around 200. If your LDL is actually 200, you should probably start medication right away and consider some serious diet and exercise changes.
No, I had it right. My LDL is ~200 (high) and my HDL is 53 (good). My triglycerides were 84(good). Please re-read my post about my doctor’s comments in my previous post. If I was given bad info or you are a physician yourself and have commentary, I’m all ears. Thanks for your input.
I just went through this myself just last week. I had to take a physical for a new job and they wanted me to get a further check up with my personal doctor because my cholesterol came back at 214. My doctor told me that I was just fine due to the fact my HDL was 57 .I was told the important number is the ratio of good to bad and if your under 3.6 your doing good.
I went to see a cardiologist about something else and my cholesterol was LDL 138 and HDL 52. Total Cholesterol was 204. She was very concerned that my LDL was as high as 138. She kept telling me that all the recent studies have showed lower is better and asked that really watch my diet and continue to exercise. She also said if it got any higher she would consider prescribing medication to get it back down. I’m surprised your doctor would be so nonchalant about having LDL in the 200 range.