My Cholesterol is TOO LOW???????

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - My Cholesterol is TOO LOW???????

Posted: 8/25/2004 1:15:50 PM EDT

I decided to put some additional life insurance on myself recently and had to have one of the minor physical exams included where some blood was drawn. The underwriter called me to tell me that I'd been approved, but wasn't eligible for the BEST rate because my cholesterol is TOO LOW (28 HDL, 128 LDL, 156 overall). And yeah, I eat lots of fried shit and plenty of gut bombs.

Is there anything bad from LOW cholesterol?

Posted: 8/25/2004 1:17:59 PM EDT

[#1]

Let's go and swap some of our blood togeter. That should even both of us out.

edit to add - New blood brother.

Posted: 8/25/2004 1:18:29 PM EDT

[#2]

You are just going to up and wither away.

Posted: 8/25/2004 1:20:22 PM EDT

[#3]

Your HDL is too low, this is the part of cholesterol that protects your arteries and keeps them clear.

www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=183

Posted: 8/25/2004 1:24:09 PM EDT

[#4]

Quoted:
Your HDL is too low, this is the part of cholesterol that protects your arteries and keeps them clear.

www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=183

Yeah, but my LDL is pretty damned low, too. The American Heart Association says I need to be concerned with the LDL level over everything else.

Posted: 8/25/2004 1:25:02 PM EDT

[#5]

Try eating a stick of butter on the way to work in the morning.

Posted: 8/25/2004 1:28:19 PM EDT

[#6]

Quoted:
Try eating a stick of butter on the way to work in the morning.

Homer: "Now butter that bacon, boy!"
Bart: "But dad, my heart hurts."
Homer: "Butter it!" (shaking fist in air)

Posted: 8/25/2004 1:30:21 PM EDT

[#7]

Cholesterol ratio
Total blood cholesterol is the most common measurement of blood cholesterol. It's the number you normally receive as test results. Cholesterol is measured in milligrams per deciliter of blood (mg/dL). Knowing your total blood cholesterol level is an important first step in determining your risk for heart disease. However, a critical second step is knowing your HDL or "good" cholesterol level.

Some physicians and cholesterol technicians use the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol in place of the total blood cholesterol. The American Heart Association recommends that the absolute numbers for total blood cholesterol and HDL cholesterol levels be used. They're more useful to the physician than the cholesterol ratio in determining the appropriate treatment for patients.

The ratio is obtained by dividing the HDL cholesterol level into the total cholesterol. For example, if a person has a total cholesterol of 200 mg/dL and an HDL cholesterol level of 50 mg/dL, the ratio would be stated as 4:1. The goal is to keep the ratio below 5:1; the optimum ratio is 3.5:1.

156 - 28 = 5.5 for a ratio of 5.5 :1

Posted: 8/25/2004 1:31:03 PM EDT

[#8]

Quoted:

Yeah, but my LDL is pretty damned low, too. The American Heart Association says I need to be concerned with the LDL level over everything else.

yeah tell that to my friend's dead marathon running father. without the good cholestoral the smallest bit of bad can create a clog very easily and kill you dead.

Posted: 8/25/2004 1:38:34 PM EDT

[#9]

Your ratio of HDL to Total is too high. The ratio is total/hdl.
ratio should be 4.1 or less for super ins rating and 4.1-4.6 for mid rating and 4.6 and up for standard rating

Posted: 8/25/2004 3:55:24 PM EDT

[#10]

CHRIST!!! I guess I'd be out, at my last physical, my cholesterol was 89!!! Yeah 89 not 890. WTF!!! Too low, I've never heard of such a thing.

Posted: 8/25/2004 4:00:09 PM EDT

[#11]

My total was 117 last week.

Posted: 8/25/2004 4:29:14 PM EDT

[#12]

Okay, so what's a good way of increasing my HDL?

Posted: 8/25/2004 9:29:54 PM EDT

[#13]

Quoted:
Okay, so what's a good way of increasing my HDL?

YMMV, but exercise works for me.

Posted: 8/26/2004 7:04:14 AM EDT

[#14]

Quoted:
CHRIST!!! I guess I'd be out, at my last physical, my cholesterol was 89!!! Yeah 89 not 890. WTF!!! Too low, I've never heard of such a thing.

Your total cholesterol is 89? Are you sure?

Posted: 8/26/2004 7:46:49 AM EDT

[#15]

Sounds pretty damn good to me, JSG. Sure nothing to worry about.

Excercise....
don't smoke
wear your seatbelt
multivitamin daily

Enjoy life

Posted: 8/26/2004 7:56:27 AM EDT

[#16]

the reason is obvious...Its so they can blame you untimely passing on SOMETHING and charge you double until you do. They will probably put you in a high risk group.

Posted: 8/26/2004 8:00:11 AM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:
Quoted:CHRIST!!! I guess I'd be out, at my last physical, my cholesterol was 89!!! Yeah 89 not 890. WTF!!! Too low, I've never heard of such a thing.

Your total cholesterol is 89? Are you sure?

why not? In the last 3 years, mine has varied from 90-100 and it's been lower in the past.

Posted: 8/26/2004 8:07:13 AM EDT

[#18]

Quoted:
Try eating a stick of butter on the way to work in the morning.

[Homer]Butter your bacon, boy![/Homer]

Posted: 8/26/2004 8:09:08 AM EDT

[#19]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:CHRIST!!! I guess I'd be out, at my last physical, my cholesterol was 89!!! Yeah 89 not 890. WTF!!! Too low, I've never heard of such a thing.

Your total cholesterol is 89? Are you sure?

why not? In the last 3 years, mine has varied from 90-100 and it's been lower in the past.

A total cholesterol lower then 100 is unusually low. What is your breakdown of TC, HDL, LDL and triglycerides. The TC really means very little. There are several ratios that are useful in defining risk for CAD.

Posted: 8/26/2004 8:10:44 AM EDT

[#20]

Quoted:
Okay, so what's a good way of increasing my HDL?

I have this very same problem. Total cholesterol of 173, but HDL was 34. Should be at least 40, preferably over 50.

As for improving it, I did some Google searches, and found that I need to do the following:

Much more exercise
Lose some weight (10-15 lbs)
avoid partially hydrogenated oils (very hard to do, by the way)
use olive/canola oil in food/cooking
eat black walnuts
avoid smoking
INCREASE alcohol intake to 1 or 2 drinks a day (may have other health effects though)
get more fiber in your diet

Read here, or Goodle "reducing HDL levels" heartdisease.about.com/cs/cholesterol/a/raiseHDL.htm

Good luck.

Posted: 8/26/2004 5:18:25 PM EDT

[#21]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:CHRIST!!! I guess I'd be out, at my last physical, my cholesterol was 89!!! Yeah 89 not 890. WTF!!! Too low, I've never heard of such a thing.

Your total cholesterol is 89? Are you sure?

why not? In the last 3 years, mine has varied from 90-100 and it's been lower in the past.

A total cholesterol lower then 100 is unusually low. What is your breakdown of TC, HDL, LDL and triglycerides. The TC really means very little. There are several ratios that are useful in defining risk for CAD.

I'll have to ask my doc for specifics, but according to him my ratios are very healthy. I do remember that when I got home from Africa in late '93, it was ~70 or so, and still with proper ratios. It's my understanding that it's a genetic trait, which I most likely inherited from my maternal grandfather.

Posted: 8/26/2004 5:31:57 PM EDT

[#22]

YMMV, but exercise works for me.

Not for me. After getting back into doing a pretty hard work-out twice a week again, my HDL dropped from 16 to 12. My total HDL+LDL is now only 60!z

Posted: 8/26/2004 5:49:22 PM EDT

[#23]

I haven't looked into alcohol alone, but red wine in particular has been shown to raise HDL.
Exercise too.
tony

Posted: 8/26/2004 6:03:39 PM EDT

[#24]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Okay, so what's a good way of increasing my HDL?

YMMV, but exercise works for me.

+1 (especially running)

Posted: 8/26/2004 6:15:05 PM EDT

[#25]

Viatmin E and eating more fatty fish brought my good cholesteral up to high levels.

Posted: 8/27/2004 3:13:38 AM EDT

[#26]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:CHRIST!!! I guess I'd be out, at my last physical, my cholesterol was 89!!! Yeah 89 not 890. WTF!!! Too low, I've never heard of such a thing.

Your total cholesterol is 89? Are you sure?

why not? In the last 3 years, mine has varied from 90-100 and it's been lower in the past.

A total cholesterol lower then 100 is unusually low. What is your breakdown of TC, HDL, LDL and triglycerides. The TC really means very little. There are several ratios that are useful in defining risk for CAD.

The only other number I remember without digging my results up was the triglycerides and that was 85. I'm not sure if my Doctor actually broke down the others individually. My triglycerides used to be about 285 and I had and extra 50 lbs. on me then. After losing the weight, that's when I saw a big drop in my triglyceride number.

Posted: 8/27/2004 5:15:06 AM EDT

[#27]

Quoted:
Okay, so what's a good way of increasing my HDL?

I was told to increase the use of Olive Oil in cooking and eat more nuts (like cashews).

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - My Cholesterol is TOO LOW???????

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