Triglycerides are a type of fat your body uses to store energy for later use. Any calories you eat that you don't use right away for energy are stored as triglycerides in your fat cells. Triglycerides circulate in your blood, similar to cholesterol -- another type of lipid. And like high cholesterol, high triglycerides can lead to serious health complications.
Triglyceride Basics
When you need extra energy, between meals or overnight, hormones trigger the release of triglycerides from your fat cells for use as energy. Your body naturally makes some triglycerides, but high triglyceride levels can be attributed to poor diet, alcohol consumption or an underlying medical condition. Ideally, your triglyceride levels should be below 150 mg/dL. Triglycerides between 150 and 199 mg/dL are borderline, triglycerides above 200 mg/dL are high and triglycerides above 500 mg/dL are very high. It's normal for triglycerides to spike after eating, so fast at least eight hours before any lipid testing.
Triglycerides and Diabetes
High triglyceride levels can be a symptom of undiagnosed or uncontrolled diabetes. Insulin, the same hormone responsible for moving glucose from your blood and into your cells, also moves triglycerides from your blood and into fat cells for storage. If your pancreas isn't producing enough insulin, or your body doesn't use that insulin effectively, you'll have high triglycerides circulating in your bloodstream. It's not uncommon to see triglyceride levels above 1,000 mg/dL if you are insulin resistant.
Triglycerides and Heart Disease
Like low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, the "bad" type of cholesterol, high triglycerides can lead to atherosclerosis, a narrowing and hardening of your arteries. As your arteries become clogged with plaque, blood flow is restricted, depriving vital organs of oxygen-rich blood. Eventually this might cause high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, angina, heart attack or stroke. Certain drugs that lower LDL cholesterol will also lower triglycerides, specifically niacin and fibrates. Statin drugs have very little effect on triglycerides.
Lowering Your Triglycerides
Triglycerides respond very well to lifestyle changes -- losing weight, starting a regular exercise program, quitting smoking, limiting alcohol -- can all effectively lower your triglyceride level. Small changes to your diet, such as using monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats rather than saturated or trans fats, including more heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids, and reducing your dietary cholesterol intake will lower triglycerides.
If lifestyle changes don't lower your triglyceride levels, you may have an underlying medical condition that needs attention. Although diabetes is the most common cause of high triglycerides, liver damage, hypothyroidism and pancreatitis also cause high triglycerides.
