"What do my cholesterol numbers mean?"

"What should I aim for?"

To understand your cholesterol numbers, it’s a good idea to understand, first of all, what cholesterol is.

WEBCAST VIDEO What do my cholesterol levels mean? What’s normal? What’s cause for concern? What should I be aiming for to maintain the healthiest of arteries and give myself the best possible protection against a heart attack? Find out in this illuminating webcast with cardiologist Dr. Ronald Scheib, Medical Director at the Pritikin Longevity Center and, before coming to Pritikin in 2007, Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Chief of the Section of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Miami Heart Institute. Watch the Webcast Video

Cholesterol is a complex molecule found in all animals, including humans. It’s vital for a number of reasons. It makes hormones and cell membranes and carries out numerous cell functions. We would not exist without cholesterol, but then again, neither would plaque build-up and heart disease.

Our body, particularly our liver, manufactures all the cholesterol we need. We do not need any more from the food we eat. Eating foods high in cholesterol, saturated fat, and trans fats can very easily raise levels of cholesterol in our blood. And it’s this extra cholesterol that can cause a world of hurt in our arteries.

How does cholesterol cause a heart attack?

Cholesterol, particularly one type of cholesterol called LDL (bad) cholesterol, seeps into the inner walls of the arteries, creating plaque. Like sores on your skin, plaques are raw, sensitive to infection, which means they make the inside skin of the arteries a breeding ground for inflammation.

The higher the LDL cholesterol, the more plaques tend to form, and the more inflamed the arterial skin becomes. Plaque build-up is also known as atherosclerosis.

Most heart attacks occur because one of these plaques ruptures. Like boils, many plaques are soft and fragile, full of cholesterol-rich "pus." When inflamed, they can burst and spew their contents into the bloodstream, triggering chemical reactions that often culminate with a large blood clot, which can choke off blood flow to the heart, causing a heart attack

Scientists call a plaque that has burst or ruptured the single most common lethal event of the industrialized world.

Plaque build-up can happen in arteries throughout the body, including those carrying blood to the brain, which means that plaque rupture causes not only heart attacks but also strokes and other circulatory problems.

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Can I stabilize these plaques?

Yes. That’s the really good news. With a healthy lifestyle and, if needed, cholesterol-lowering medications, you can stabilize plaques and improve the entire health of the inner walls of your arteries.

Regular exercise and a diet like the Pritikin Eating Plan, very low in saturated fats, trans fats, and cholesterol, and very high in fruits, whole grains, beans, and vegetables, can dramatically lower the amount of cholesterol entering plaque.

More than 110 studies have documented that the Pritikin Program helps our arteries in many other ways as well. We lose excess weight, for example, and reduce insulin levels, normalize blood pressure, reduce inflammatory markers like C-reactive protein, and bring down blood sugar levels - all good things for our arteries.

One type of cholesterol - HDL (good) cholesterol - is in fact good for cardiovascular health. Think of HDL (good) cholesterol as garbage trucks and LDL (bad) cholesterol as trash. HDL tends to pick up LDL particles from the blood and artery walls and transport them back to the liver for disposal. HDL garbage trucks, in effect, do a nice job of clearing LDL trash from the body.

Your cholesterol numbers

A standard cholesterol panel measures four key values:

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