A very convenient way of expressing your risk of heart disease which takes into account both the total (bad) and HDL (good) cholesterol is the ratio between the two. If this is under 4.5, you don't need to worry, although a 'perfect' score would be under 3.5. So if your total cholesterol is 200 mg/dl and your HDL 50 mg/dl, your ratio is 4, and you're OK. But if your total is 200 and your HDL 35, your ratio is 5.7, and you may have a problem.
The ratio is sometimes expressed as the LDL/HDL ratio, in which case the cutoff points would be lower, as shown in the Tables.. It's actually no better than the cholesterol/HDL ratio in terms of predicting who's at risk, and more expensive to perform.
Risk of Heart Disease according to lipid ratios-
MEN
|
Risk Group |
Chol/HDL |
LDL/HDL |
|
Below average |
3.8 & below |
2.3 & below |
|
Average |
3.9-4.7 |
2.3-4.9 |
|
Moderate |
4.8-5.9 |
4.9-7.1 |
|
High |
6.0 & above |
7.2 & above |
Risk of Heart Disease according to lipid ratios-
WOMEN
|
Risk Group |
Chol/HDL |
LDL/HDL |
|
Below average |
2.9 & below |
2.3 & below |
|
Average |
3.0-3.6 |
2.3-4.1 |
|
Moderate |
3.7-4.6 |
4.1-5.6 |
|
High |
4.7 & above |
5.7 & above |
