Your total cholesterol and your LDL cholesterol have traditionally been considered the most important predictors of your risk for cardiovascular disease and are therefore most doctors’ primary focus when interpreting your cholesterol test. In addition to these numbers, your HDL and triglycerides are becoming more and more recognized as important … Read More
Cholesterol levels, as you likely know, may be linked to our risk of heart attack and stroke—two of the major preventable causes of disability and death in the Western world. If you have an annual medical or regular health check-up, it's likely that you've had your cholesterol levels checked. In … Read More
Triglycerides are important to our bodies. They're composed of glycerol and three fatty acids, hence the name “triglycerides.” In your body, they combine with blood proteins to form lipoproteins. The liver then sends those lipoproteins (the cholesterols LDL and HDL are lipoproteins) out to transport fats to other tissues to … Read More
You may have heard this cholesterol statistic by now, but it’s worth repeating: at least half, if not more, of people who have heart attacks have normal cholesterol levels. Results from a large study out of UCLA, published in 2009 in the American Heart Journal, confirmed this, finding that half … Read More
The last time you had your cholesterol checked, you may have noticed that your triglyceride levels were also measured. Along with total cholesterol, LDL, and HDL, triglycerides are part of a standard cholesterol test—also called a lipid panel— performed by most laboratories. When checking your cholesterol, most doctors order a … Read More
Do you know which outdated myths still dominate the cholesterol theory and why having high cholesterol readings doesn’t mean you’ll suffer a heart attack or having ‘safe’ levels doesn’t mean you won’t? In part 1 of this series, you were introduced to the idea that major assumptions still drive standard … Read More
