High Triglycerides

@tsarstepan,

It's ok, I can eat frozen yogurt and sorbet!

The numbers for this last round are good. I had had high triglycerides for the last 2-3 years while my bad cholesterol (ldl) was a low number and my good cholesterol (hdl) was a high number - both good things.

I never found out how triglycerides are bad for me. I did find out that exercise (of course) helps lower triglyceride counts. There seems to be debate about what elevates the number: too much sugar, too much carbs (same sort of thing), too much fat or too many calories in general.

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@cicerone imposter,

No problem for her. HDL is good in itself, as is a good ratio between HDL and LDL.

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@littlek,

littlek wrote:

New bloodwork....

Well done---congratulations!

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@cicerone imposter,

cicerone imposter wrote:

You should ask your physician.

Your HDL is more than twice mine; the highest I ever heard of somebody with that high a number.

... which is good for her. High HDL cholesterol levels dissolve fat in your arteries, which protects you against arteriosclerosis and heart attacks. (See the American Heart Associations page on What Your Cholesterol Levels Mean.) Indeed, if your level of it is lower than 40 mg/dl, as you suggest it is, perhaps you want to talk to your doctor about that.

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Memory peg

The H in HDL stands for Happy

The L in LDL stands for Lousy

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Here are some target ranges: (I love the column headings)

Quote:

Total cholesterol
U.S. and some other countries _____________Canada and most of Europe
Below 200 mg/dL _____________________Below 5.2 mmol/L Desirable
200-239 mg/dL _____________________5.2-6.2 mmol/L Borderline high
240 mg/dL and above ___________________Above 6.2 mmol/L High

Quote:

LDL cholesterol BAD
U.S. and some other countries _____________Canada and most of Europe
Below 70 mg/dL _____________________Below 1.8 mmol/L Ideal for people at very high risk of heart disease
Below 100 mg/dL _____________________Below 2.6 mmol/L Ideal for people at risk of heart disease
100-129 mg/dL _____________________2.6-3.3 mmol/L Near ideal
130-159 mg/dL _____________________3.4-4.1 mmol/L Borderline high
160-189 mg/dL _____________________4.1-4.9 mmol/L High
190 mg/dL and above ___________________Above 4.9 mmol/L Very high

Quote:

HDL cholesterol GOOD
U.S. and some other countries ___________Canada and most of Europe
Below 40 mg/dL (men) _______________Below 1 mmol/L (men) Poor
Below 50 mg/dL (women) _____________Below 1.3 mmol/L (women) Poor
50-59 mg/dL _____________________1.3-1.5 mmol/L Better
60 mg/dL and above _______________Above 1.5 mmol/L Best

Quote:

Triglycerides
U.S. and some other countries ___________Canada and most of Europe
Below 150 mg/dL ___________________Below 1.7 mmol/L Desirable
150-199 mg/dL ___________________1.7-2.2 mmol/L Borderline high
200-499 mg/dL ___________________2.3-5.6 mmol/L High
500 mg/dL and above ________________Above 5.6 mmol/L Very high

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@Thomas,

Understood; mine is in the high 40s range.

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Two more thoughts about bloodwork after re-reading this thread:

1) I wonder why routine bloodwork checks for sugar but not for hemoglobin A1c, or HbA1c. It's an indicator of what your blood sugar level has been over the last two to three months. The reason I don't understand why the test isn't routine is that littlek asked whether triglyceride levels bounce around a lot. I'm not sure what the answer to that question is, but I am sure that blood sugar levels do bounce around a lot. If a problem should ever come up with ones blood sugar, the HbA1c test is much more likely to catch it than a blood glucose test. I encourage everyone to persuade their doctors to include it in their bloodwork.

2) I'm getting increasingly convinced that the "total cholesterol" gauge, while standard, is bullshit. If the point is to monitor total cholesterol, why include triglycerides, which belong to an entirely different class of molecules than cholesterol does? Alternatively, if "total cholesterol" actually is shorthand for "index of bad stuff going on in your fat metabolism", why doesn't "good", HDL cholesterol enter into it with a negative coefficient? The way it's currently defined, "total cholesterol" fails at either task. (Belated apologies to Miller for getting testy with her about the definition.) How does this measure make any sense?

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@Thomas,

Quote:

1) I wonder why routine bloodwork checks for sugar but not for hemoglobin A1c, or HbA1c.

Cost. Can you really be this naive?

Quote:

2) I'm getting increasingly convinced that the "total cholesterol" gauge, while standard, is bullshit

I was told in a class that this number is no longer considered important. Currently the numbers looked at are LDL and HDL. However, several recent studies have shown that aggressively treating cholesterol does not have any statistical result on mortality, so the entire effort looks to be a wast of time and money.

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@Thomas,

That second paragraph is just full of little tidbits, with which I agree completely.

Now, here's a little story. To get enrolled with VA, I had to get a minor physical, including blood work. Outta sight spike in total cholesterol, which went away within three months of not taking the statin they prescribed. They've been testing quarterly ever since, but not A1c. I have diabetes. What on earthe could they be thinking of?

I've designated left arm for blood work, and right arm for bi-monthly donations. Don't want to keep stressing the same vein, you know.

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@hawkeye10,

Once the blood is drawn, I do not believe the cost of one more, or one less test is significant.

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@Thomas,

Thomas wrote:

.... If the point is to monitor total cholesterol, why include triglycerides, which belong to an entirely different class of molecules than cholesterol does? ...

There are 2 types of LDL, LDL a and LDL b. Only type b is dangerous; high levels of LDL type b are associated with high levels of triglycerides - that's the reason for including them in the blood test. Triglycerides are indeed different molecules, but very useful as a proxy for LDL b. The 2 LDL types can be measured directly using another blood test (polyacrylamide gradient gel electrophoresis) which measures size of molecules (type a being much larger than type b) but as others here said cost of tests goes up fairly quickly so that test isn't usually performed.

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@Thomas,

Thomas wrote:

...I'm getting increasingly convinced that the "total cholesterol" gauge, while standard, is bullshit.

It's a shorthand calculation, but not as stupid as adding HDL to LDL (a and b) - as you say that would make no sense at all.

Quote:

Divide your triglyceride level by 5 and add that to the sum of your HDL and LDL cholesterol levels. This final sum represents your total cholesterol.
http://www.ehow.com/how_2088718_calculate-total-cholesterol.html#ixzz0yaLH5mtM

You see from the actual calculation that the proxy for the entire blood lipids panel is included - as you yourself noted couple of pages back.

You can't expect doctors or patients (most of whom don't have anywhere near your mathematical background) to calculate the eigenvalue decomposition of a data covariance matrix! But biochemists do track the principal manifolds produced by the elastic maps algorithm.

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My question would be, what are the ramifications or implications of a deviance between total and triglycerides.

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Ah, High Seas, this question?

I never got how the cholesterol equation worked either. I thought using the ratio of HDL:LDL (or dividing HDL by LDL to get a value) made more sense, but then read that doctors don't agree. They want your value to be above 0.4 (I think) and mine was above 1. But, again, this is too simplistic especially given what High Seas is saying about the two types of LDL.

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@littlek,

littlek wrote:

Happily (or not so happily, depending on how you look at it), ice cream does not like me.

Whole Foods sells a coconut milk based ice cream. I've never tried it, but I do make both vanilla and chocolate ice cream using coconut milk. It's very good and there are lots of recipes on the internet, especially the vegan websites. We buy a lot of almond milk, too, but I haven't used it in ice cream yet.

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@Irishk,

Pipes up --

I've been following this thread, very interesting. I forget my numbers, will post them when I find them but I have exceptionally low LDL and exceptionally high HDL (very good, osso, maybe it's all that olive oil) but also remember that I have highish triglycerides. Well, that was then, we'll see how I come out on the triglycerides with the next panel, since I've been cutting out a lot of bread and some pasta.

Almond milk for ice cream, I wonder... that might be nice.

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@Irishk,

We got those amongst a variety of frozen treats when sozlet was recovering from having her tonsils out, she loved them and we still get them even though none of us have any problems with regular ice cream. They're very good.

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@High Seas,

High Seas wrote:

Triglycerides are indeed different molecules, but very useful as a proxy for LDL b.

Thanks! That makes sense.

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@Irishk,

I haven't tried the coconut ice creams, but I've been tempted. Frozen yogurt is usually fine for me.

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High Triglycerides

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