About the Cholesterol Tests you have just had
You will have received up to 5 different cholesterol blood test results when you had you recent test. These were:
Total Cholesterol, Triglycerides, HDL, LDL, Total/HDL Ratio
If any of these were in the 'Orange' or 'Red' category we would recommend you learn more about them before they progress into a more serious health problem.
The different types of cholesterol
Cholesterol is a fat-like substance in your blood. There are good and bad types of cholesterol.
Total Cholesterol being high on its own isn't necessarily bad. What is more important is what type of cholesterol that number is made up of. For simplicity:
LDL and Triglycerides are BAD :(
HDL is GOOD e.g. for better health :)
You generally want your Triglyceride and LDL levels to be low and your HDL to be high.
The Total Cholesterol/HDL ratio assists doctors in working out your cardiovascular disease risk. A higher ratio e.g. is correlated with increased Cardiovascular Disease Risk.
How can you learn more and improve the different types of cholesterol?
Triglycerides: Here are 5 things you can do right now to improve your Triglycerides
HDL: Here are 5 things you can do right now to improve your HDL Cholesterol
LDL: Here are 5 things you can do right now to improve your LDL Cholesterol
Total Cholesterol/HDL ratio: This ratio will generally improve if you lower your LDL cholesterol and increase your HDL Cholesterol.
Additional Resources
If you have tried all the the tips above and your cholesterol levels are not improving, you may benefit from seeking the opinion of your GP or a registered dietitian. There may be a genetic reason (or other reason) why you do not have optimal cholesterol levels.