Nearly 65 years of clinical research has furnished ample evidence that lipids, or fats, in your bloodstream can impact your health in significant ways. In 1961, 13 years after the Framingham Heart Study was launched, scientists determined that a...
Talking about your cholesterol level has become more complicated. Most medical personnel order not just a total cholesterol level but also a panel that breaks down your cholesterol numbers into high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein and...
HDL, LDL and triglycerides are various types of lipids that circulate throughout your bloodstream. They perform several important functions in your body, but excess amounts of them can be harmful to your health. Your doctor can perform a blood...
Maintaining healthy levels of HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides are important in reducing your risk of heart disease. Unhealthy levels provide no symptoms. The only way to know your blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels is...
Cholesterol is a fat-like substance that your body needs, but too much of the wrong type can increase your risk for heart disease, according to Medline Plus, the medical encyclopedia from the National Institutes of Health. The Centers for Disease...
Cholesterol and triglycerides, both types of fat, support vital functions in the body but in excess can contribute to heart disease -- the leading cause of death in the United States. Because fats are not water soluble, the body packages them with...
Cholesterol is a waxy, soft substance that is found throughout the bloodstream and in many cells of your body. However, differentiating the various types of cholesterol and fat in the blood can get confusing. LDL cholesterol is often referred to...
Advances in medical and nutrition science have made calculating cholesterol more complex than it used to be. While it was once believed that there was just one kind of universally bad cholesterol, nutritionists now identify three kinds of serum...
Cholesterol is an important fat substance that your body naturally makes and uses to produce hormones, vitamin D and other substances. Cholesterol travels in your bloodstream as lipoproteins. Low-density lipoprotein, dubbed as "bad," cholesterol...
A lipid panel, also called a lipid profile or a complete cholesterol test, is a blood test used to measure the amount of cholesterol and triglycerides in your blood. The lipid panel, which separates cholesterol readings into three...
High cholesterol has become a concern for an increasing number of people, partly due to the increasing commonness of risk factors for the condition, such as obesity and insufficient physical activity. Almost half of the adults in the United States...
If you've recently had your cholesterol tested, you may have been overwhelmed at the amount of information you received in your results. Total cholesterol is the sum of HDL, LDL and one-third of triglycerides, where you ideally want your...
Although cholesterol is often perceived in a negative context, your body needs cholesterol to build healthy cells. The human body makes cholesterol while also obtaining it from ingestion of cholesterol-containing foods. Obtaining too much...
Lipoproteins are fats that circulate in the bloodstream, according to Dr. Neil Campbell in the book "Biology." Some lipoproteins carry cholesterol, such as low-density-lipoprotein, or LDL, and high-density-lipoprotein, or HDL. Triglycerides are...
Lowering LDL cholesterol levels, raising HDL cholesterol and lowering triglycerides in your body will reduce your risk of heart disease. The body produces these substances for various functions, but a dietary excess of cholesterol and...
HDL cholesterol is considered the good cholesterol because it helps keep LDL cholesterol, the "bad cholesterol," from sticking to the walls of the arteries. Therefore, making changes to your eating habits will help increase your HDL cholesterol...
Not all blood cholesterol is harmful, with high-density lipoproteins, or the "good cholesterol," helpful in combating atherosclerosis, or a clogging of the arteries. If you have a low HDL number, you'll want to improve your ratio of low-density...
Total cholesterol calculates the results of a lipid profile test that includes high-density lipoprotein, or HDL, low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, and triglycerides. HDL is known as the "good" cholesterol and LDL is the "bad" cholesterol. Total...
High cholesterol is one of the main risk factors for heart disease, according to the National Institutes of Health. Your cholesterol is actually broken up into two different types---LDL, or bad cholesterol and HDL, or good cholesterol, according...
Getting your cholesterol checked according to your doctor's recommendations is an important way of monitoring your risk factors for problems such as heart attacks and strokes. According to the American Heart Association, elevated cholesterol is a...
Although the body needs cholesterol to function properly, and it occurs naturally in every cell of the body, too much cholesterol in the blood can build up in the coronary arteries and increase the risk of heart disease. Cholesterol itself is not...
Cardiovascular disease is the No. 1 cause of death in the United States, with approximately 2,300 deaths every day, according to the American Heart Association. A high level of cholesterol is a modifiable risk factor contributing to cardiovascular...
A lipid profile tests your cholesterol, HDL, LDL and triglycerides to assess your risk of heart disease. Cholesterol levels are measured in milligrams of cholesterol per deciliter of blood, or mg/dL. Your cholesterol levels are only one indicator...
If you've ever had your cholesterol levels checked by your health care professional, you probably know that the results can be confusing. Not only does a cholesterol check produce a total cholesterol count, it also provides information about HDL,...
Sometimes, it can be hard to interpret the test results you get from the doctor's office. For instance, if you've recently gotten the results of a cholesterol test, you'll notice four separate numbers for total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, and...
Most individuals have their cholesterol checked at regular visits to the doctor's office. This helps your physician monitor your heart health; information about your cholesterol -- specifically your LDL, HDL and triglyceride levels -- allows your...
Blood tests are readily available to check your cholesterol level. No fasting period is necessary, according to the November 2004 "Harvard Health Letter." Test results show blood levels of HDL, LDL and triglycerides. The "National Cholesterol...
According to the American Heart Association, there are different types of cholesterol readings. Having too much of the "bad" cholesterol or too little of the "good" cholesterol can increase a person's chances for heart disease and stroke. Heart...
High-density lipoproteins, considered the "good" form of cholesterol, can have risks if the levels do not remain appropriate. The other parts of cholesterol, low-density lipoproteins and triglycerides, tend to cause the most health problems,...
