Your doctor advised you to lower your LDL cholesterol, also known as low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Your research into cholesterol levels has left you wondering what low LDL cholesterol means and how low do you go. The information can be confusing because low LDL cholesterol levels mean something different for each person. To determine your optimal LDL cholesterol level and what it means to your health, know which heart disease risk factors pertain to you.
Impact of LDL
Your body needs cholesterol in order to function. Cells use cholesterol to add stability to their membranes. Glands use cholesterol to produce steroid hormones. Liver cells use cholesterol to produce bile acids necessary to break down dietary fats. Despite all the good cholesterol can do, when your blood contains too much cholesterol, the adverse health issues begin. Low-density lipoproteins bind to cholesterol in the liver so that it can travel through the blood to reach the cells that need it. Excess LDL remains in the blood vessels and can accumulate along their walls forming a substance known as plaque. Plaque makes the blood vessels hard instead of flexible which inhibits the flow of blood. For this reason, doctors use your LDL cholesterol level as an indicator to gauge your risk for heart disease.
Risk Factors
In addition to high blood cholesterol levels, you may suffer from other heart disease risk factors. The presence of other medical conditions can increase your risk for heart disease. This includes high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, and diabetes. Lifestyle choices you make may also increase your risk for heart disease. Smoking and excessive alcohol intake increases your risk for heart disease. Other heart disease risk factors include consuming a high-fat or high cholesterol diet, physical inactivity and being overweight or obese. The more risk factors that pertain to you, the lower your LDL cholesterol should be.
Low LDL
Prior to 2004, doctors advised patients with a high risk of heart disease, defined as someone with heart disease or diabetes, to keep their LDL cholesterol levels lower than 100 mg/dL. The revised cholesterol guidelines released in July 2004; however, state that very high risk patients who include those with diabetes, a history of heart attack or unstable angina and uncontrolled risks like smoking or metabolic syndrome, should maintain LDL cholesterol levels lower than 70 mg/dL, according to the Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide. Patients with only one major risk factor, like diabetes, or with two or more risk factors still need to keep their LDL levels less than 100 mg/dL. If you have two heart disease risk factors without any major risks doctors classify your risk as moderate. For this classification a low LDL cholesterol level means any reading under 130 mg/dL. For patients without any other heart disease risk factors, a low LDL level means any reading under 160 mg/dL.
When Low is Too Low
Now armed with information you are ready to make changes to lower your LDL cholesterol. You quit smoking, you cut down on your alcohol intake, you increase your physical activity, you lose weight and you change your diet to reduce both fat and cholesterol intake. Making these changes can decrease your LDL cholesterol levels; changes in diet alone may result in a 4 to 13 percent reduction, as described by the Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide. Those who need more dramatic reductions may need to take a cholesterol-lowering medication. Research published in the December 2010 issue of "Lancet" reveals that the lower your LDL cholesterol, the lower your risk for heart disease. This suggests that there is no low end threshold of low being too low. MayoClinic.com suggests that in rare cases, low LDL cholesterol may increase your risk for conditions like depression, anxiety, cancer and premature birth.
References
- Texas Heart Institute: Heart Disease Risk Factors; August 2010
- Mayoclinic.com: Cholesterol Level -- Can your Total Cholesterol Level Be Too Low?; August 2010
- Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide: LDL Cholesterol -- Low, Lower and Lower Still; November 2004
- National Heart Lung and Blood Institute: High Blood Cholesterol; September 2008
- Lab Tests Online: LDL Cholesterol; March 2011
- "Lancet"; Efficacy and Safety of More Intensive Lower of LDL Cholesterol; Cholesterol Treatment Trialists' Collaboration; November 2010
