The CHOLESTEROL PANEL Explained | Dr. Robert Lustig & Dr. Casey Means

🩸 Have you ever wondered how to interpret blood work? Levels advisor @RobertLustigMD walks us through what HDL, LDL, triglycerides, and total cholesterol mean and what numbers really matter.⁠

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👉 Total cholesterol: “Total cholesterol is useless,” Dr. Lustig says. You need to know what kind of cholesterol you have.⁠

👉 LDL (“bad”) cholesterol:⁠ The medical establishment places too much emphasis on LDL.⁠ Dr. Lustig agrees that LDL does correlate with heart disease risk, however. If you have high LDL, you are 30% more likely to have a heart attack in your lifetime.⁠ BUT, you need more information because there are 2 types of LDL.⁠ Only 1 type matters for heart disease, he says.⁠ But the measure you get is for your net LDL (both types).⁠ You can get a better picture of your risk by looking at triglycerides👇

👉 HDL (“good”) cholesterol:⁠ A higher HDL correlates with a lower risk for heart disease because it carries some cholesterol back to the liver where it is processed and passed out via waste.⁠

👉 ⁠Triglycerides:⁠ Hopefully you received a fasting lipid profile, meaning you didn’t eat prior to the test.⁠ If you have high triglycerides, you are at an 80% increased risk of having a heart attack. But it’s not the only number you need to know. See below for how to do the math.⁠

✅ Here are the numbers that matter: The triglycerides-to-HDL ratio ➗

– Divide triglycerides (in mg/dL) by HDL (in mg/dL; TG/HDL)⁠
– If that ratio is 1.5 or less, great
– If that ratio is 2.5 or higher, that’s concerning, but there are ways to improve it

Differences for this ratio exist based on race; Dr. Lustig addresses this in the podcast

Visit A Whole New Level for the full episode between @RobertLustigMD and @DrCaseysKitchen⁠ 🎧

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/levels-a-whole-new-level/id1563263076?i=1000547094037

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