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The Personal Ideal Cholesterol Reading
http://www.fitnessregime.net/articles/7994/1/The-Personal-Ideal-Cholesterol-Reading/Page1.html
Edward Chen
Part 2 - For part two of this article, head on to www.normalcholesterollevelonline.com where you can also find the truth about foods high in cholesterol and how to lower triglycerides
By Edward Chen
Published on 11/23/2008
 
People should start understanding the need to read their personal cholesterol reading Cholesterol is destructive to the heart

People should start understanding the need to read their personal cholesterol reading. Cholesterol is destructive to the heart. This means that everybody should be conscious of the level of cholesterol count present in their body. To know the ideal cholesterol reading for you, you might need to go a health center for assistance. Unfortunately, this isn’t a common practice among people. More often than not, one merely goes to his or her doctor whenever he feels really sick.

Your body’s cholesterol count is an indicator of your risk factor as far as heart failures are concerned. Heart failures are the most dangerous effects of high cholesterol level. While you think that today’s medicines are very advanced, experts are still finding it hard to give out effective solutions for the simplest of heart diseases. Most of the medicines being sold today are merely used to address the symptoms but not really cure the disease.

It is important for everyone to know what their ideal cholesterol reading is. This is for your own protection. If you know for a fact that your cholesterol level has increased, you can do what has to be done to lower it. On the other hand, if you don’t know that your cholesterol count is increasing everyday, you might be surprised one day why you have difficulty breathing and feeling some chest pains. To know what cholesterol level is normal and what is high, consult with a heart doctor or a cardiologist. He would start by taking a sample of your blood and send it for analysis. This is called the blood cholesterol test. If you do this as frequently as required and if you heed the advices of your doctor, then you will free yourself from diseases such angina, atherosclerosis, and arteriosclerosis.

The blood cholesterol test would require a medical assistant or a nurse to prick your skin at the inner elbow. A certain amount of your blood has to be extracted and tested. It may hurt some, but it should be worth it and you won’t have wounds anyway. Once the test is done, you would know your actual cholesterol count, along with other relevant information about your blood.

There will be a total of three data obtained – the total blood cholesterol level, the level of good cholesterol, and the level of bad cholesterol, which you’re more interested in. A person may have a total cholesterol value of 100 – 500 or higher. As for total blood cholesterol count, the ideal is not more than 200. You should strive to get 199 and below to be safe. Borderline figure is 200 to 240. Being in the borderline doesn’t mean you’re safe or you’re at risk. It would still depend upon your body build, your heart failure history, and other factors. Your doctor can tell you if you should decrease intake of certain food items or not. However, if you found out that your cholesterol level is 240 and beyond, then you are indeed at the risk of acquiring heart diseases if you’re not careful. You might need to initiate some changes in your lifestyle.