By Dave Warner
Should a 20-year-old, with a head full of studies, friends and fun, be expected to worry about cholesterol too?
You bet, according to several experts. In fact, 20 is the age recommended by many to start regular cholesterol screening, if for no other reason than doctors would then have a baseline measurement for later in life. That is particularly recommended for both men and women if they have an increased risk of coronary artery disease.
And then, most people should be rechecked every five years.
The reasoning may be obvious to some, but it bears repeating:
High cholesterol levels, and particularly LDL levels, can be a precursor to heart disease, a heart attack and stroke.
All of this is measured by your blood cholesterol numbers, measuring both LDL, the bad stuff, and HDL, the good stuff. And the numbers are then followed by the somewhat mysterious letters mg/dl.
It stands for milligrams per deciliter, which translates to common language, is one tenth of a liter.
Men and women tend to be different when it comes to cholesterol.
For instance, women tend to have higher HDL levels than men. For men, the risk of heart disease tends to rise when their HDL levels fall below 37 mg/dl. For women, that danger point is 47 mg/dl.
Here are some other numbers that are important to know:
- Triglyceride levels are key also. Normal is less than 150 mg/dl. Very high is more than 500 mg/dl.
- Total cholesterol readings – which includes both LDL and HDL, are better the lower they go. In general, a reading of below 200 mg/dl is considered good. Borderline is 200 to 239 mg/dl. And high is 240 mg/dl or more.
There are no recommendations as to whether you should ever stop screening, although lipid levels are less likely to rise after the age 65.
SCHEDULE A SCREENING
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