I'm 28/female and just got my blood test results back. My total cholesterol 128. Two years ago, it was 165.

Question

Since 165 is healthy, I wasn't doing anything to lower my cholesterol. Should I get this checked out? How or why did it drop so much? My HDL and LDL are at healthy levels too. I've read that really low total cholesterol could be bad for your health too.

Answer 1

Don't focus too much on your "total" cholesterol, but on the other numbers (HDL, LDL, and Triglicerides) that make up the total number and whether they are in the "normal" ranges. My total cholesterol is high (235) because my HDL is so high (105), which is good! HDL (good cholesterol) transports LDL (bad cholesterol) out of the system! My LDL (120) is also in normal range as well as my Triglicerides (54). As long as all of your numbers are in normal range, don't worry about your "total" cholesterol. Here are typical "normal" ranges...

Triglycerides at or below 150 mg/dL
HDL cholesterol at or above 60 mg/dL
LDL cholesterol at or near an optimal level of 100 to 129 mg/dL

Here's a good article to read...
http://www.womenshealth.org/a/cholesterol_ratios.htm

Answer 2

An increase in exercise will reduce cholesterol all so the original guidelines for healthy cholesterol results where 100 plus your age so by those standards you are fine. Also it could have been 165 last time because of what you ate, even with the 12 hour fast the foods you have eaten prior can have an effect. If the doctor wasn't concerned about it at this point you should worry your self, keep having it checked annually.

Answer 3

128 isn't "too low", i personally wouldn't worry about this, but if you are to stressed about this, do yourself a favor and ask your doctor. did the doc say anything about the number or drop? sometimes doc's don't spend much time with their patients answering questions...cholesterol comes from animal products, do you drink less milk than before or maybe less cheese or do you skip on eating meat once in awhile?

Answer 4

I think you're ok. Was the doctor concerned?
Have you been on a starvation diet? Or have you been really sick lately? Those things could cause it.
Perhaps your previous lab test was not indicative of your general health.

Answer 5

actually thats normal ,the doctor's rule of thumb is 100 plus your age.

Answer 6

nope dont fret its okay, its not low enough to worry about, you might not have eaten much that particular day or some other environmental thing might be a factor, but the numbers sound good to me