Your health numbers
Focus on your numbers to lower your health risk
If you have high cholesterol, your doctor will try to help you get it down to optimal levels. At the bottom of this page, you'll find a chart of these optimum levels, established by the National Cholesterol Education Project (NCEP).
How these targets were established:
These numbers are the result of studies that followed thousands of patients. Researchers found that people who had cholesterol within the target levels were much less likely to have heart-related health problems than people whose cholesterol was outside the target levels.
Controlling cholesterol to target levels—whether through diet, exercise, medication or all three—dramatically lowered patients' risk of cardiovascular problems.
Higher is better: HDL
When it comes to HDL cholesterol, higher is better. HDL removes excess cholesterol from the arteries back to the liver where it is passed from the body. The AHA recommends HDL higher than 40 for men, and higher than 50 for women.1
If you have low HDL cholesterol, your doctor will try to raise it. Learn more about ways to manage your cholesterol.
Lower is better: LDL and triglycerides
LDL is the "bad" cholesterol that can slowly build up in the artery walls and clog blood flow. High levels of LDL cholesterol increase the risk of health problems. High levels of triglycerides, another kind of fat in the blood, may also raise health risks. High triglycerides are often associated with high total cholesterol, high "bad" LDL cholesterol and low "good" HDL-cholesterol.
If your LDL cholesterol or triglycerides are high, your doctor will try to get them lower.
Every little bit helps:
Most people who are at risk for heart problems have more than one of the common risk factors, such as low HDL cholesterol, high LDL cholesterol, high blood pressure, or being overweight.
Each thing you do to bring these risk factors under control helps reduce your health risk. For instance, in epidemiological studies a change in HDL (good) cholesterol by 10 mg/dL have been associated with a change in the risk of coronary heart disease by 50 percent. Taking steps to lower blood pressure and weight help too.
You can make a big difference by taking many small steps to control your risk factors.
NCEP classifications of LDL, Total, and HDL Cholesterol, and triglycerides1
| Total Cholesterol | |
| Less than 200 | Desirable |
| 200-239 | Borderline high |
| 240 and above | High |
| LDL Cholesterol | |
| Less than 100 | Optimal |
| 100-129 | Near optimal/above optimal |
| 130-159 | Borderline high |
| 160-189 | High |
| 190 and above | Very high |
| HDL Cholesterol | |
| Less than 40 (men) | Low |
| Less than 50 (women) | Low |
| 60 and above | Optimal |
| Triglyceride level | |
| Less than 150 | Normal |
| 150-199 | Borderline high |
| 200-499 | High |
| 500 and above | Very high |
Learn more about
Reference
- American Heart Association. Cholesterol Levels. Available at: http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4500. Accessed August 14, 2007.
