What Are Good Cholesterol Numbers You Should Aim For?

LDL, HDL and Normal Cholesterol Levels

If you’re like many people, you are wanting to know what are classed as good cholesterol numbers and what your own cholesterol levels are. People use these numbers when working to maintain a healthy heart and avoid problems such as heart disease, heart attack and stroke.

New research has found that it’s not just keeping your overall cholesterol levels low that can help you to stay healthy, but you have to be very aware of your good cholesterol numbers. If you don’t know what to look for, you won’t be able to maintain it.

Testing Your Cholesterol Levels

When you go for a physical, your doctor will likely give you a blood test to determine your cholesterol levels. Your doctor isn’t only looking to find out how high your cholesterol is. There are other factors which you should be looking at to know about your overall cholesterol.

Overall cholesterol should be no higher than 100. This is a healthy cholesterol level that you should be working to maintain so that your heart can stay healthy and your arteries can avoid becoming blocked. If your numbers get up to around 160, then you need to take steps to lower your overall cholesterol levels quickly in order to prevent any heart disease and work toward lowering your risk of heart attack and stroke.

LDL and HDL and Good Cholesterol Numbers

Good cholesterol numbers are a little trickier, because you want them to be higher. This means that your body is making the cholesterol and you’re not getting too much of the LDL cholesterol from other sources. Basically, the HDL is heavier in the blood and attaches to all the LDL or lower density cholesterol and carries it out of the body in the form of waste. So, that being said, you will want to keep your good cholesterol numbers up around 60 or higher for optimal health. However, you should also know that numbers down around 40 mean that you need to get to work raising your HDL so that you’re able to be healthier longer.

Testing Your Triglycerides

When you get a blood test to determine your overall and good cholesterol levels, you will also be tested for your triglycerides. These appear in the blood serum, but they are fats, but you don’t want them to be too low, either. So you will want your triglycerides to be between 150 and 199 for your best overall health.

Ultimately, your good cholesterol numbers are essential and you want them to be higher, but you need to know how to look at the whole cholesterol picture to make the most of your blood tests. This is especially true since good cholesterol can only be good if you let it do its job.