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Old Fri, Mar-07-08, 17:12
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CindySue48 CindySue48 is offline
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Posts: 2,816
 
Plan: Atkins/Protein Power
Stats: 256/179/160 Female 68 inches
BF:38.9/27.2/24.3
Progress: 80%
Location: Triangle NC
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stahl
Some more questions:

"HDL should be as high as possible, and triglycerides should be as low as possible. If you keep these levels, the total and LDL are meaningless."
So in this instance then:

• Total cholesterol of254 is high and LDL is high because HDL is low and triglycerides are high

"Many of us have been reading about and researching this topic and have come to the conclusion that there is little, if any relationship between cholesterol levels and heart disease....or at least total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol."

So having high cholesterol (assuming no relation to heart disease) is OK just from a health perspective?

Does the Chol/HDL Ratio play any importance? Everything I have seen infers this ratio is important and 5.18 is HIGH.

Sorry for all of the questions but I get tested every three months for:
LDL, HDL, Trig, Chol/HLL, A1C, VLDL, Chol, Glucose

Thanks again!

LDL is almost always a calculated number, so yes, if your total is high and your HDL is low, your LDL is going to calculate as high. But, like I said, if your triglycerides are low enough then the actual LDL molecules are going to be big and fluffy.

Yes, having high cholesterol is likely not an issue. If it's 350+, then there could be an issue, but simply looking at the total means nothing. Does the ratio play any importance? Probably yes, because if the ratio is off it's likely because your HDL is too low.

In my opinion it's much more important to look at stress and inflammation. When I get my blood work done, I look at my glucose levels, HDL and triglycerides....and then I look at CRP, sed rate, etc to check inflammation levels. (I have osteoarthritis as well as rheumatoid, so inflammation is something I have to watch.)

Have you done any reading on this subject? Gary Taubes' Good Calories, Bad Calories explains a lot about how the accepted values, diet recommendations, etc came to be considered "common wisdom". I'd also recommend looking at Dr Davis's site, especially if you're concerned. Read up....and come to your own conclusions!
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