- without your involvement, the best lowering of cholesterol is unlikely to be achieved.
- knowledge of the results will allow you to continue to improve, or at least maintain control over your cholesterol.
- you need to be aware of target levels, so that you can sensibly review progress.
The three main components of cholesterol should be recorded; the triglycerides, the HDL cholesterol (or good cholesterol) and the LDL cholesterol (or bad cholesterol). Because the three components have different causes, and different consequences, it is not possible to make sensible judgements about the risk to life, or the need for treatment, based on a total cholesterol. Unless malnourished or suffering a serious disease the following applies:
- LDL cholesterol; the higher the reading, the bigger the risk of heart attack or stroke
- HDL cholesterol; the higher the reading, the smaller the risk of heart attack or stroke
- triglycerides; the higher the reading, the bigger the risk of heart attack or stroke. Although important, raised triglycerides are not as serious as raised LDL cholesterol. However, if you have diabetes or glucose intolerance (diagnosed on a fasting blood sugar, and the condition that precedes most diabetes), a raised triglyceride is more serious than it would be otherwise.
How should the information be recorded?
At the very least, the information should be recorded in a notebook, with one column for the date, and three other columns for LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides. An alternative is to enter the columns into a computer spreadsheet such as microsoft excell, lotus 123, or a microsoft works spreadsheet. This will allow you to graph the data, with three separate graphs of one of the cholesterol fractions against time. These charts are I charts and can be used by you for your own quality control. (just as they are used in industry to maintain and improve quality).
