Real Moxie

Woebegone troglodyte hermitage.

Friday, July 08, 2005

Cholesterol test

I enjoy eating a lot of dairy and other high cholesterol foods, and occasionally someone gives me a lecture on how I am ruining my heart. I just had a medical test, and I have a total cholesterol of 161 and an HDL (good cholesterol) of 58, for a ratio of 2.8 to 1.

The optimum ratio is 3.5:1, and medical action is often recommended if the ratio goes above about 6:1.

As far as I know, there is absolutely no medical reason for anyone with a ratio below 4:1 or so to pay any attention to dietary cholesterol at all. A change in dietary cholesterol is unlikely to even have any effect on blood cholesterol.

My blood pressure was measured at 100 over 78. This is low, so there is no known harm to eating excessive table salt and some of the other things people worry about.

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