The Importance of Knowing your Cholesterol |
Samantha Chen, Registered Nurse, explains at the Healthy Hub total cholesterol is done, because it’s preventive. “It’s good to know your number so that we can prevent any issues in the future,” she says.
According to Ted Feldman, Medical Director of Prevention and Community Health, breaking cholesterol is an excellent screening test, but understanding the relationship between your bad and good cholesterol is extremely important. “The lower you’re good and the higher you’re bad, the much greater your risk for developing all sorts of cardiovascular disease,” he points out.
Transcript
Samantha, at the healthy hub you do total cholesterol? >Yes, we do the total cholesterol, good and bad together in one number. >And that’s important to know because…? >It’s preventive, it’s good to know your numbers so that we can prevent any issues in the future. >Doctor, break it down for me I know it’s HDL LDL and the H is always good because H is for happy? >Happy you’re high you’re high you want that HDL high and you want the LDL or bad cholesterol low but it’s really the breakdown total cholesterol is an excellent screening test but it’s really understanding the relationship between your bad cholesterol and you good cholesterol that’s extremely important the lower you’re good and the higher you’re bad the much greater your risk for developing all sorts of cardiovascular disease and we now know certainly for people who are moderate to high risk that getting your LDL cholesterol down often with medication statin drugs which have been life-saving dramatically reduced the incidence and complications of heart attacks strokes and death so if you have heart disease or any other cardiovascular risk factors having the lowest LDL possible is the single most important thing you can do of all of your numbers to reduce your risk of future cardiovascular complications. >Happy or High, I like that okay, body mass index and body fat percentage som what is the difference doctor between those two and how are they measured? Well, BMI is measured just as a formulaic expression of height in centimeters divided by weight in kilograms but there are calculators you can find online you just Google in a BMI calculator you’re putting your weight in pounds and your height in inches and it’ll give you a BMI. BMI below 25 is considered normal about a third of the population, a BMI between 25 and 30 is considered overweight about a third of the population, and BMI above 30 are considered obesity, above 30 to 35 is mild, 35 to 40 is moderate, above 40 is considered morbid obesity and those are the patients who are clearly eligible for Bariatric surgery.