What is Cholesterol Ratio.
Cholesterol Ratio is the ratio of the blood level values of various types of cholesterol in relation to each other. Some feel that these cholesterol ratios give you an idea of the chances of a person developing heart disease. These cholesterol ratios are commonly included in your lipid profile tests carried out in a laboratory.
Do read What is Cholesterol, Cholesterol Benefits, Cholesterol Dangers, High Cholesterol Foods, and Blood Cholesterol Levels to get a comprehensive idea of cholesterol.
The medical fraternity is, however, divided on the importance of these cholesterol ratios and some feel that individual values of the various cholesterol levels suit a better purpose.
Your Lipid Profile or Cholesterol Blood Test report comes with the blood level values of the following:
- Total Cholesterol.
- Low density Lipoprotein or LDL.
- High Density lipoprotein or HDL.
- Triglycerides.
As explained in the previous post on Cholesterol Tests, healthy cholesterol levels will mean having lower levels of Total Cholesterol, LDL and Triglycerides and higher levels of HDL.
Cholesterol ratios are derived at by dividing the blood level value of one cholesterol type with another. Following are the various cholesterol ratios that are provided with your cholesterol tests..
Types of Cholesterol Ratios.
1) Total Cholesterol/HDL ratio.
2) LDL/HDL ratio.
3) HDH/LDL ratio.
1) Total Cholesterol/HDL or Total/HDL ratio.
This ratio is derived by dividing the total cholesterol value by the HDL value. This ratio can be 5:1 but ideally it should be below 3.5 :1. For example if your total blood cholesterol level is 200 mg/dl and your HDL value is 40 mg/dl, then your Total:HDL ratio will be 5:1.
2) LDL/HDL cholesterol ratio.
Certain laboratories also provide this ratio of LDL to HDL for the purpose of predicting the chances of heart diseases. This ratio can be below 3.5 :1 but ideally it should be below 2.5 :1.
3) HDL/LDL cholesterol ratio.
This ratio divides the HDL blood value by the LDL value. The value of this ratio can be above 0.3. Ideally, however this HDL:LDL cholesterol ratio should be above 0.4.
Summary of cholesterol ratio.
Your cholesterol test report will come with the Cholesterol Ratio and your health provider will determine your chances of getting heart disease by studying the cholesterol test report. Most in the medical fraternity may not look at these ratios but instead look at the level values of the Total Cholesterol, LDL, HDH and Triglycerides and correlate these with cardiac disease risk factors you carry to evaluate you.
Your action step.
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