Cholesterol is a vital metric of a person’s health, yet it’s very misunderstood. Too often cholesterol is perceived as all bad even though it can be very beneficial for the body. Cholesterol can swing both ways, largely depending on a person’s lifestyle and underlying medical issues.
There’s total cholesterol, and then there’s all the different components that factor into total cholesterol. It’s good to know your total blood cholesterol level, but you can learn even more from your HDL cholesterol levels.
What is Cholesterol HDL Ratio?
HDL cholesterol is high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. It’s considered to be good cholesterol, and it’s the one cholesterol measurement that you want to be high.
Cholesterol HDL ratio, or simply cholesterol ratio, is a measurement of your cholesterol HDL in comparison to cholesterol overall. It’s a gauge of whether your HDL level is high or low.
Why You Want to Know Your Cholesterol HDL Ratio
Cholesterol HDL ratio is an important measurement for anyone who’s concerned about their heart health. The measurement can indicate a person’s risk of heart disease. Essentially, the higher your cholesterol HDL ratio is the higher your risk of heart disease gets.
There are other indicators for heart disease, like total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol, but they aren’t considered to be as good at predicting heart disease risk as cholesterol ratio.
Calculating Cholesterol HDL Ratio
Cholesterol HDL ratio is actually pretty simple to calculate. All you have to do is divide your total cholesterol by your HDL cholesterol to get the ratio.
Total Cholesterol
÷
HDL Cholesterol
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Cholesterol HDL Ratio
Let’s plug in some numbers that resemble a real world calculation:
180 milligrams per deciliter (Total Cholesterol)
÷
45 milligrams per deciliter (HDL Cholesterol)
—--------------------
4-to-1 Cholesterol HDL Ratio
Cholesterol HDL ratio isn’t difficult to calculate, but you need to have the correct data to get to the answer. Testing kits like the products offered by Choose Health make it quick and convenient to get your cholesterol measurements at home.
What is Considered a Good Cholesterol HDL Ratio
Measurements are great to have, but it’s also important to understand what the data means. That requires understanding the benchmarks for what’s considered a healthy cholesterol ratio.
A cholesterol ratio of 4.5 or less is considered good. However, most health practitioners today believe a 5-to-1 ratio or less is in the normal range. If your cholesterol HDL ratio is 3.5-to-1 or lower, then that’s considered excellent.
In terms of HDL itself, the American Heart Association has determined the normal HDL cholesterol levels for men and women. A normal HDL level for a woman is anything over 50 milligrams per deciliter and for men it’s anything over 40 milligrams per deciliter.
Today, you don’t have to plan a doctor’s visit to measure your blood cholesterol levels. The Choose Health at-home health tracking kit can be personalized to include cholesterol key markers. You’ll receive total cholesterol and HDL cholesterol ratio data, which can be used to gauge cardiovascular health and insulin resistance.
Personalize your health test kit to find out what your cholesterol ratio is in 3 simple steps!