|
Desirable levels of cholesterol and lipoproteins
The sum of all cholesterol in our blood is referred as "Total Cholesterol" which is mainly consisted of "Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol" and "High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol".
LDL cholesterol promotes fat deposition in blood vessels and increase risk of coronary heart disease. Thus it is often named as the "bad cholesterol". On the contrary, HDL cholesterol is named as the "good cholesterol" as it offers protection against blockage and rupture of blood vessels and reduces risk of heart disease. Although total cholesterol is consisted of the "good cholesterol", it is also directly affected by the amount of "bad cholesterol" in our blood thus an elevated level of total cholesterol is not desirable.
Levels of different types of cholesterol and our risk of heart disease can be measured and indicated by blood tests. Below are the desirable cholesterol levels from statistics :
| Types of blood cholesterol |
Desirable levels (mmol / L) |
| Total cholesterol |
Below 5.2 |
| LDL cholesterol |
Below 3.4 |
| HDL cholesterol |
Below 0.9 |
| 
