Why is total cholesterol meaningful if, at least in part, it is the sum of good HDL and bad LDL?

Answer 1

The most important value is the LDL:HDL ratio. a few exceptions include: a) if you have a good ratio (LDL:HDL<2:1), you still should have HDL above 40 (men) or 50 (women). the same is true about LDL - you should have less than 130 for a healthy, young person, less than 100 if you have risk factors for cardiovascular disease, and less than 70 (usually achieved by taking LDL lowering drugs) if you had a cardiovascular disease.
so total cholesterol is meaningful to some extent, but any doctor who only uses this without looking at your lipid profile (LDL, VLDL, HDL, TG) and without assessing your BMI (body mass index), abdominal circumference (an index for abdominal - visceral fat, the bad fat), physical activity and other biochemical info, is just a quack.
By the way - TC is not HDL+LDL, since it also includes VLDL, which has little prognostic value (as far as we know).

Answer 2

Eat a Low Cholesterol diet and watch your carb intake as well. You need to get exercise as well. 73 pretty good for the HDL, but your LDL is high and the total should be less than 200..........the new recommendation is actually less than 170, if you have any problem with your blood glucose.

Answer 3

Do doctors find stethoscopes useful? Yes but it took 40 years after it was invented for them to accept it. So medicine is many years behind the latest science. They used to think that all cholesterol is bad. But the more good cholesterol you have the better. Since that is part of total cholesterol (TC) then TC is no longer any good.

See site below for the latest science on this including the discovery of harmful and harmless bad cholesterol. Just wait 20 years and medicine will use this stuff. But by then it will be outdated.

Answer 4

MISINFORMED FOOLS.


Cholesterol is ONE SUBTANCE, NOT 2 ONE!!!

CHOLESTEROL IS CHOLESTEROL

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS "GODD OR BAD CHOLESTEROL"


ONE SUBTANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


NOW, AS FAR AS HDL AND LDL LIPOPROTEINS GO

HDL AND LDL ARE CHOLESTEROL'S CARS


*HDL AND LDL ARE NOT CHOLESTEROL AT ALL.!!!

THEY ARE LIPOPROTEINS AND THE DISTICTION BETWEEN THESE 2 LIPOPROTEINS AS EITHER BEING GOOD POR BAD IS A COMPLETE HOX. A PATHETIC MISNOMER.

BOTH ARE VERY VERY IMPORTANT. - LDL HAS MANY MANY IMPORTANT ROLES IN HORMONE PRODUCTION




NOT EVEN ONE TIGHTLY CONTROLLED CLINCIAL TRIAL HAS EVER SHOWN ANY CARDIOVASCULAR MORTALITY BENEFIT OR OVERALL MORTALITY BENEFIT TO SATURATED FAT RESTRICTION OR DIETARY CHOLESTEROL LOWERING.



THE CHOLESTEROL THEORY IS A COMPLETELY FALSE PARADIGM

READ AND LEARN FROM ANTHONY COLPO

http://www.lowcarbmuscle.com/forums/showthread.php?t=162


Fish oil has been shown to lower cardiovascular mortality while SIMULTANEOUSLY *R A I S I N G* LDL Lipoprotein

ANTHONY COLPO HAS SAID THIS MANY TIMES.

Answer 5

High cholesterol in general is bad, but it's especially bad if your LDL is high