What is a normal cholesterol level?

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Cholesterol results come as a panel, and the normal ranges per NHLBI: total cholesterol below 200 mg/dL is desirable; LDL - the bad one - below 100 is optimal, though your personal LDL target drops lower if you have heart disease or diabetes, sometimes below 70; HDL - the good one - should be 40 or higher for men and 50 or higher for women, with 60-plus considered protective; triglycerides below 150. Borderline total cholesterol runs 200 to 239, and 240-plus is high.

The key reframe: the panel matters more than the total. A total of 205 with high HDL can be a fine profile, while a total of 190 with LDL 150 and low HDL is not. Providers read the whole pattern - plus your age, blood pressure, smoking, and diabetes status - inside a 10-year risk calculator, and treatment decisions come from that risk, not from the cholesterol number alone.

What moves each line: saturated fat and inactivity push LDL up; exercise and not smoking push HDL up; alcohol, sugar, and refined carbs push triglycerides up; and genetics can keep LDL high despite a clean lifestyle - familial hypercholesterolemia is the inherited extreme. Testing should be fasting or as your lab specifies, and recheck intervals run every 4 to 6 years when normal, more often when treated.

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What is a normal cholesterol level?

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