What Do The Following Blood Test Reports Indicate?

Posted on Sat, 4 Feb 2017

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sun, 5 Feb 2017 Answered on

Mon, 6 Mar 2017 Last reviewed on

Question : Got my cholesteral blood work back, doctor states good cholesterolat 179. However, I'm wondering how that can be as my triglycerides are 220 and HDL 32, LDL 103. Always thought that your HDL plays important part along with others. Would this test be considered good?

Answered by Dr. Ilir Sharka (6 hours later)

Brief Answer:
I would recommend as follows:

Detailed Answer:
Hello!

Welcome and thank you for asking on HCM!

Regarding your concern, I would explain that total cholesterol is not a true indicator of your cardio-vascular risk.

The ratio Total cholesterol/HDL is a better indicator of your cardiovascular risk..

Based in your blood lipid profile, this calculated ratio results to be 5.59, which indicated a high cardiovascular risk related to your blood lipid profile.

The normal ranges for this ratio, considering your gender and age would be less than 4.5.

To conclude, I would recommend some tips to help you improve your blood lipid profile, and thus lower your cardio-vascular risk:

- reduce saturated fat and sugar intake
- increase food reach in omega 3 fatty acids (fish, fish oil, olive oil, walnuts, etc.)
- perform a lot of aerobics.

I recommend checking again after a month your blood lipid profile, after following the above lifestyle changes.

Hope you will find this answer helpful!

Kind regards,

Dr. Iliri

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar