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Some of us have been working on our cholesterol levels for a while now while others may just be getting ready to join the party. But whatever category you fall into knowing what LDL and HDL normal levels are is a very important component in successfully battling artery clogging cholesterol. For those of you just joining the party to achieve better cardiovascular health by reducing cholesterol levels it might be helpful to know what you are fighting. In other words knowing what it means when some medical type starts spouting off terms like LDL and HDL. LDL is short for low density lipoprotein. Low density is just a fancy way of saying that these molecules are primarily fat. In fact they are 75 percent fat. Have you ever been unfortunate enough to be driving down the road and gotten behind a dump truck that is dropping a little bit of its load along the way? Well that is exactly what happens with LDL as it travels through your arteries. Over time this fat, along with dead cells, calcium, and other stuff, builds into dangerous artery clogging plaque. HDL is short for high density lipoprotein. HDL is a very lean molecule made up primarily of protein. In fact it is so lean it can’t squeeze through the artery wall, thus presents no threat. In fact, most experts believe these lean molecules may collect excess cholesterol throughout the body and package it for disposal through waste and bile. So it becomes fairly obvious is that to be considered heart healthy LDL and HDL normal levels must have a favorable relationship with one another. Most studies suggest that this is about a 2.5 to 1 ratio between LDL and HDL. An examples would be if your HDL reading is 50 milligrams for every deciliter of blood then your LDL should be no more than 125 mg/dl. For those individuals who have a number of significant cardiovascular risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, a high stress lifestyle, have become inactive, a family history of heart or artery disease, or have had a heart attack or stroke this ratio should be more along the lines of 2 to 1. In more generalized terms borderline high cholesterol levels would be overall cholesterol over 240, and LDL (bad cholesterol) over 130. Borderline low for HDL (good) cholesterol would be anything under 45 milligrams for each deciliter of blood. While we now know what LDL and HDL normal levels are you should also be aware that normal levels will not reduce the amount of plaque in your arteries. While the exact reading to accomplish this is somewhat subjective most cardiologists believe that a ratio of LDL to HDL that is slightly less than 2 to 1. This fact probably explains why convention prescription medications for reducing cholesterol are so often prescribed. Nevertheless, these medications do come with a number of side effect warnings. For this reason many natural health minded individuals has opted for natural cholesterol reduction supplements containing such helpful cholesterol busting ingredients as policosanol and phytosterols. Rob Hawkins is an enthusiastic consumer advocate for natural health and natural living with over 10 years experience in the field. To learn more about cholesterol along with additional information about natural cholesterol supplements Click Here
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