high HDL

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anne from california
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high HDL

Post by anne from california »

Hi everybody, Happy New Year! I've recently had some labs done for a life insurance application, and one of my numbers was flagged as high: HDL. I'm not sure what, if anything, to make of this (and I hope they don't use it as an excuse to crank up my insurance rates).

Some numbers, all nonfasting:

Total cholesterol: 229
LDL: 129
HDL: 86 (cut-off for "normal" by this lab was 65)
Cholesterol HDL ratio: 2.7
Triglycerides: 66
Blood glucose: 85
A1C: 5.1

I'm a little leery of my LDL number here, too, pushing the lab's limits (but I'm not sure where the brain health thinking is on cholesterol numbers at the moment). I went back to the primer and read up on fats and have come away thinking I might want to have some further testing. Wondering if I would benefit from (paying out of pocket to have) particle testing. Or do my halfway decent sugar numbers mean things are in decent balance? Having recently seen my mother, who is declining cognitively, I'm in a mood to pay close attention to my oh-so-valuable brain (and heart)!

I've not been limiting saturated fats--perhaps I should be? Mom (in mid-80s) has mild to moderate dementia, pre-diabetic/diabetic blood sugar for over a decade, on statin for (what doctor deems) high cholesterol. Dad, 88, running circles around all of us in all ways.

Grateful for any and all insight.
60 years old, ApoE 3/3, mother and grandmother have/had late-onset dementia, eager to save brain and optimize health.
Thank you all for sharing your knowledge!
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slacker
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Location: Kentucky

Re: high HDL

Post by slacker »

anne from california wrote: Some numbers, all nonfasting:

Total cholesterol: 229
LDL: 129
HDL: 86 (cut-off for "normal" by this lab was 65)
Cholesterol HDL ratio: 2.7
Triglycerides: 66
Blood glucose: 85
A1C: 5.1
These results look pretty good to me, especially for non-fasting. You might want to read our wiki chapter on lipids. There have been many prior conversations on the boards about HDL and LDL cholesterol, but finding them easily can be a challenge. Since these labs were done for insurance, you might want to discuss them with your regular primary care provider as well.
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adventure
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Re: high HDL

Post by adventure »

I bet the cut-off of 65 meant that your HDL should at least be 65.
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