249/365 Cholesterol 101

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

You've got your HDLs, your LDLs, and your tri-glycerides. The values of these in your blood make up your total cholesterol. Ideally, your total cholesterol should be below 200mg/dl; this score is calculated by this formula: total cholesterol = LDL+HDL+1/5(triglycerides). So what exactly are these particles floating around in your body?

High density lipoproteins (HDLs) are considered good because they pick up LDL cholesterol and transport it to your liver to be reused by the body or excreted. Low density lipoproteins (LDLs) are considered bad because they contribute to plaque build up in the bloodstream. Triglycerides are fat that can ultimately be converted to LDLs which makes the risk for heart disease greater.

Those commercials for cholesterol drugs are right in that you cannot tell someone's cholesterol levels just by looking at him/her. Eating red meat, foods high in saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol, and consuming more than one drink a day (for women, two for men), have been known to increase total cholesterol. If you recall a previous post I wrote, consuming alcohol can cause us to consume fattier foods to remove the alcohol from our systems; it's a vicious cycle.

Alas, there's hope! Exercise has been known to increase HDLs and decrease LDLs. Now we shouldn't cut out fats from our diets entirely because all of our cells need fat (remember freshmen biology?). It's important to have a balanced fat consumption. We are encouraged to eat omega-3 fatty acids because we already consume a lot of omega-6 fatty acids from red meat.

In summary, your ideal scores should be as follows:
Triglycerides less than 150

LDL less than 100
HDL greater than 60

You can get your cholesterol score by asking your doctor to do your bloodwork during your annual physical.

In health,

Lauren