What should be the normal range for Cholesterol without fasting?
I am 37 years male, 2 days before i have done my cholesterol testing without fasting, test has taken without fasting. The result showing like - Total Cholestorl 221,
LDL Cholestrol 145.8
i know this should be taken overnight fasting, doctor told me this is normal,is it normal?what are food to be avoided to decrease LDL cholesterol level?what should be range of cholesterol test without fasting?
Ideal cholesterol level: Below 200 mg / dL
Borderline cholesterol level: 200-240 mg / dL
High cholesterol level: above 240 mg / dL
First you have to fast at least 12-14 hours before test….so your value is normal ….but i recommended to make anther test while you are fasting…
There is no range of cholesterol without fasting..i mean if you have heavy meal rich of fat…is different that meal with less fat.
About the food that decrease LDL:
You don't need to reduce your food intake (unless you are overweight) in a diet for lowering cholesterol levels, all you need to do is to substitute certain foods for more healthy ones.
Our bodies make too much cholesterol when we eat too much saturated fat in our diet. Saturated fat is the kind of fat found in animal-based foods such as meat and dairy products.
We also get some cholesterol directly from animal-based foods in our diet such as meat, eggs, and dairy products. Plant foods such as fruits, vegetables, and grains do not contain cholesterol. Due to the high saturated fat content of the average diet, more than one-half of American adults have blood cholesterol levels that are too high.
you can read this article and news about Diet for Lowering Cholesterol : http://cholesterolbasics.info/diet_for_lowering_cholesterol.html
How often should you get your cholesterol checked?
How often should you get your cholesterol checked if you are having problems controling it?
It is decided by the treating doctor depending on the levels and associated diseases if any.
What kind of foods contain good cholesterol?
I've always been curious as to which foods exactly contain good cholesterol. The type of cholesterol (HDL) that will actually lower the cholesterol that is bad for you.
foods contain no good cholesterol,your body makes the good cholesterol.Only animal foods(meat and dairy) contain cholesterol.
Eating a low-fat vegan diet may be better at managing type 2 diabetes than traditional diets, according to a new study.
Researchers found 43 percent of people with type 2 diabetes who followed a low-fat vegan diet for 22 weeks reduced their need to take medications to manage their disease compared with 26 percent of those who followed the diet recommended by the American Diabetes Association (ADA).
In addition, participants who followed the vegan diet experienced greater reductions in cholesterol levels and weight loss than those on the other diet.
A vegan diet is plant-based and consists of vegetables, fruits, grains, and legumes and avoids animal products, such as meat and dairy. People who are on a vegan diet are at risk for vitamin B12 deficiency, and so B12 vitamins were given to the participants on that diet.
"The diet appears remarkably effective, and all the side effects are good ones — especially weight loss and lower cholesterol," says researcher Neal D. Barnard, MD, adjunct associate professor of medicine at the George Washington University, in a news release. "I hope this study will rekindle interest in using diet changes first, rather than prescription drugs."
Barnard is also president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit health organization that opposes animal research and advocates a vegan diet.
Vegan Vs. ADA Diet For Diabetes
In the study, published in the journal Diabetes Care, researchers compared the effects of following a low-fat vegan diet and the ADA diet on reducing the need for drugs to manage diabetes, kidney function, cholesterol levels, and weight loss in 99 adults with type 2 diabetes. Meals were not provided, but participants met a dietitian to come up with a diet plan and then met regularly each week for nutrition and cooking instruction.
Forty-nine of the participants followed a low-fat vegan diet consisting of about 10 percent of daily calories from fat, 15 percent protein, and 75 percent carbohydrates. They were asked to avoid animal products and added fats and instead favor foods like beans and green vegetables, but portion sizes and total daily calories or food intake were unrestricted.
The other 50 participants followed the dietary guidelines recommended by the ADA, including 15-20 percent protein, 60-70 percent carbohydrates and monosaturated fats (such as olive oil), and less than 7 percent saturated fats (such as animal fats and butter). Total cholesterol was also limited to 200 milligrams or less per day.
Overweight participants in the ADA diet group were also advised to reduce daily calorie intake by 500-1,000 calories per day.
The results showed that both diets improved diabetes management and reduced unhealthy cholesterol levels, but some improvements were greater with the low-fat vegan diet.
For example:
43 percent of those on the vegan diet reduced their need to take drugs to manage their diabetes compared with 26 percent of the ADA diet group.
Weight loss averaged more than 14 pounds in the vegan diet group vs. less than 7 pounds in the other group.
LDL "bad" cholesterol dropped by an average of 21 percent in the vegan group compared with 11 percent in the ADA diet group who did not change their cholesterol drug use.
Measures of blood sugar control also improved more significantly among those who followed the low-fat vegan diet than among those who followed the ADA diet and who did not change their diabetes drug use.
Researchers say the vegan diet represents a major change from current diabetes diets because there are no limits on calories, carbohydrates, and portions, which may make it easier for some people to follow. Talk to your doctor about what diet changes you might consider to help with diabetes or other medical conditions.
SOURCES:Barnard, N. Diabetes Care, August 2006; vol 29: pp 1777-1783. News release, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
By Jennifer Warner
Reviewed by Louise Chang, M.D.
© 2006, WebMD Inc. All rights reserved.
Why are there different ways of calculating your Total Cholesterol?
My sister says your total cholesterol should be your HDL + LDL. However, on my last blood test, my HDL + LDL was 10 points lower than my total cholesterol. So, I found some web sites that have the following formula:
HDL + LDL + (Triglyceride * 20%) = Total Cholesterol
The formula above does work to give me my total cholesterol given the other #'s (HDL, LDL, and Triglycerides) on my last blood test results. But, I want to know why my sister's always come back as:
HDL + LDL = Total Cholesterol
Some web sites say to calculate it one way and others say the other way. Anyone know why they would be different?
Technically, there is no pure cholesterol in your bloodstream. Cholesterol is transported by lipoproteins. LDL (low-density lipoproteins) and HDL (high-density lipoprotiens) are the lipoprotiens used to transport cholesterol.
Tests can be run that actually test for the cholesterol, which gives you the total cholesterol number (direct measurement). Or you can run a test for the HDL and LDL cholesterol complexes. You add these values to get a computed total cholesterol.
If you run a total cholesterol AND compute it from summing the HDL and LDL cholesterols they should be close, but won't agree exactly. Tests have a margin of error. This is why they won't match exactly.
Though triglyerides are often transported by lipoproteins, I don't know why they would use it to compute total cholesterol.
We used to run total cholesterol then and HDL, computing the LDL as a difference between the total and HDL.
A correction to the answer above this - folic acid is not a fatty acid.
How much cholesterol is in egg whites as opposed to the yolks?
One of my co-workers told me that there are equal amounts of cholesterol in both the white and the yolk.
I told her that wasn't true because the yolk is what has all the calories, fat, and cholesterol in it, so I'm doing a good thing by eating egg white omelettes, as opposed to regular ones that include the yolk.
Or am I? Who's right?
Your coworker is an idiot. There is zero cholesterol in the white.
But the yolk has good stuff, too, like iron and omega fatty acids, so don't skip it all the time.