The American Heart Association recommends that everyone over age 20 get a cholesterol test. Lipids include cholesterol, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL). Cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood can clog arteries, making you more likely to develop heart disease.Īlso to know, what is the normal range for HDL and LDL?Ī lipid panel is a test that measures fats and fatty substances used as a source of energy in the body. These measurements give the doctor a quick snapshot of what's going on in your blood. Eckel prefers measuring non-HDL cholesterol. Essentially, if a person has both high HDL and LDL, the ratio between the two can still be normal, even if their LDL cholesterol is in an unhealthy range. Likewise, what do my lipid panel results mean? A lipid profile is a blood test that measures the amount of cholesterol and fats called triglycerides in the blood. The result is related to HDL, but a person's LDL level remains important,' Dr.

Similarly, you may ask, what are normal levels of lipids? All rights reserved.Normal: Less than 200 mg/dL. Our data document important gender and menopausal status differences in cholesterol and triglyceride subclass levels, as well as significant correlations between values in the various serum lipoprotein subclasses.ĬHD CM Cholesterol FPG Gender General population HDL HPLC HbA1c High performance liquid chromatography KOPS Kyushu and Okinawa Population Study LDL Lipoprotein subclasses Menopause NMR Triglycerides VLDL chylomicrons coronary heart disease fasting plasma glucose glycosylated hemoglobin A1c high density lipoproteins high performance liquid chromatography low density lipoproteins nuclear magnetic resonance very low density lipoproteins.Ĭopyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. Postmenopausal women had significantly higher CM, all VLDL, and large, medium and small LDL-cholesterol levels, and significantly higher all VLDL, LDL, and HDL-triglyceride levels than premenopausal women (P < 0.001). Women had significantly higher very large and large HDL-triglyceride levels than men (P < 0.01). Men had significantly higher chylomicron (CM), large and medium VLDL-, and small LDL-triglyceride levels than women (P < 0.001). Women had significantly higher large LDL- and large and medium HDL-cholesterol levels than men (P < 0.001). Men had significantly higher large VLDL-cholesterol levels than women (P < 0.05), while women had significantly higher small VLDL-cholesterol levels than men (P < 0.001).

Levels of cholesterol in some VLDL subclasses were inversely correlated with the levels of some HDL subclasses, while for triglycerides, elevated levels in any one subclass were generally strongly associated with elevated levels in all other subclasses. For serum triglycerides, these values were 52.1%, 27.9%, and 17.4%, respectively. A cholesterol ratio within the normal range means that your cholesterol levels are likely not contributing to cardiac risk. This epidemiological study was done to generate normal ranges for the cholesterol and triglyceride levels in serum lipoprotein subclasses isolated from healthy adults based on gender and menopausal status.Ĭholesterol and triglyceride levels in 20 lipoprotein subclasses as separated by high performance liquid chromatography were measured in serum obtained from 825 fasting healthy subjects (267 men, 558 women).įor serum cholesterol, 13.7% was found in very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) subclasses, 55.6% in low density lipoprotein (LDL) subclasses, and 30.4% in high density lipoprotein (HDL) subclasses. What Is a Normal Ratio The optimal cholesterol ratio is between 3.5 and 1, while a ratio of 5 or below is considered normal.

Cholesterol normal range