What do these cholesterol numbers mean?

Question

My husband is 35- high blood pressure and high cholesterol run in his family. He is currently taking BP medication.

So the most recent blood work shows the following:

Total Cholesterol is 203 (needs to be under 200)
HDL is 65 (should be greater than 39)
LDL is 77 (should be less than 130)
Triglycerides is 305 (should be under 150)

***the stuff in parenthesis is what we were told***

That being said. His tri level has dropped from 489 to 305 with the minor diet changes he has made in the last few months.

What do all these number mean? Would most Dr's suggest putting him on medication if he is improving his numbers through diet? (he doesn't want to start taking meds just yet but he will if he has to)

He's not overweight. 5 foot 8 and about 165 lbs.

Answer 1

Follow the link below to everything you ever wanted to know about cholesterol. When you get there, you will notice a link on the right to get to "understanding cholesterol numbers"

Hope it helps!

Answer 2

The concern is that cholesterol will create blockages in the circulatory system.

The way to look at HDL and LDL is
LDL is cholesterol that is being released into the blood stream.
HDL is cholesterol being taken out of the body.
Triglycerides are fatty acids floating in the body.
That's why you want LDL low and HDL high - more leaving than entering your blood stream.

Diet and excercise should take care of trigycerides.
Cholesterol involves diet and meds.... For your hubby, he may get by with weight loss, excercise and diet.

From personal experience, weight loss helped tremendously.

With that said, cholesterol medications have been very effective. There are many over-weight people with great cholesterol number becuase of medication. However, cholesterol is only part of the problem when someone is overweight, especially diabetes.

If you husband is fit and has high cholesterol, he may only need the lowest dosage of cholesterol meds to lower is numbers.

Answer 3

Usually when you get your tests results back, the doctors office make suggestions a what to do. If they see that your husband is lowering his numbers through diet and exercise and they don't see any immediate danger they will often tell you to keep on the same diet and exercise plan then get another blood test in 6 months.

Getting his numbers down so well by slight changes in his diet, there is a good chance that he can continue to get them very much lower by really working at what he eats.

However, since high cholesterol runs in your husband's family they may want to put him on medication for 3 months, and while he is taking it they have him continue with his diet and exercise plan and then they see how much it has been lowered. If it has been lowered more than the drug alone would have done they will often then take you off the medication and have you continue eating well and exercising.

The answer would really depend on your husband's previous medical history and his current state of wellness and how your husband feels about the side effets of medication. It also depends on how you and your husband feel about medication.

I prefer to avoid all prescription medication if at all possible, yet my husband would rather pop a pill, suffer with the side effects then complain, than actually doing something naturally.
Voice your concerns with his doctor.

If you husband hasn't already done so see to it that he eats plain oatmeal at least 6 times a week. Oatmeal is great for lowering LDL numbers.

Also snacking on pumpkin seeds, pistachios, sesame seeds, drinking soy milk, and eating only breads and pasta that have 100% whole grains plastered across the front of the package.

Simply one that states mixed grains or whole wheat won't cut it, it must say 100%. There are many excellent 100% whole grain pastas on the market and you should try serving them once or twice a week.

Try to sneak in a few non-meat dinners during the week. Grilling peppers, egg plant, onions and corn on the BBQ are great hot weather dinners, that are fun to eat and are low in fat and have no cholesterol.

Plus you husband will do the cooking and your kitchen won't heat up!