Normal Levels of Cholesterol & How To Lower High Cholesterol Levels?

There are 4 measures you need to take and find out your normal levels of cholesterol. These measures are: LDL, HDL, total cholesterol and cholesterol ratios. Before finding out your cholesterol levels, you need to have a blood test.

After your blood test do not get too much alarmed if your total cholesterol level is higher than normal. You must understand the correlation of total cholesterol, LDL and HDL to the cholesterol ratio, which is explained below. Click here to Get "Cholesterol Lowering Secrets" Free Report. (Viewing this page will not be interrupted - link will open in a new window)

Normal Cholesterol Levels & Numbers

Total Cholesterol Levels
y Total normal levels of cholesterol should be under 200. 200 to 239 is borderline high; and 240 and higher is considered high.

LDL Normal Cholesterol Levels

y LDL normal levels of cholesterol, or "bad" cholesterol, should be under 130. If it's between 160 and 189, it's high, and if it's 190 or more, it's very high.

HDL/Good Cholesterol Levels

y HDL normal levels of cholesterol, should be over 40 - the higher, the better, because it helps protect against clogging of the arteries. The best would be to have it at more than 60.

Triglycerides Levels
y Triglycerides, another fatty substance that increase the risk of heart disease and stroke, are too high if they're over 150.

Cholesterol Ratio Levels

Probably the most important factor for normal levels of cholesterol is the cholesterol ratio. In Protein Power,Michael and Mary Eades write that this ratio of HDL to LDL and total cholesterol, is actually more important then total cholesterol in predicting heart attack, heart disease, stroke, coronary heart disease & other cardiovascular diseases. These numbers help tell us whether more cholesterol is being stored in our cells or else is being broken down and removed from our body. That's why you can see heart attacks in people that have low total cholesterol levels. Their HDL is low as well, and as a result their ratio is high. To determine these ratios for yourself, simply divide your total cholesterol and LDL numbers by your HDL number. The normal levels of cholesterol ratios for total cholesterol to HDL should be below 4 as a general rule for both men and women. However a very good ratio is 3.5, excellent is 3.0 and fantastic is 2.6. If you can get your ratio down between 2.4 and 2.8, you can actually experience a reversal of heart disease. Whereas the normal levels of cholesterol ratios of LDL to HDL should be less than 2.5. And remember that this is the best indicator of risk of heart disease and stroke. Discover a natural cure that helps lower high cholesterol levels .

What to do if you have higher than normal levels of cholesterol.

Reduce the amount of fats, especially saturated fats, in your diet. It has the effect of reducing your blood cholesterol. Some people are able to control their cholesterol levels without any other help. But for many, diet alone will have little effect. Estimates are that 75% of people suffering from higher than normal levels of cholesterol are not able to use diet to control their cholesterol because their liver produces high amounts of cholesterol regardless of the dietary cholesterol intake. Certainly you can use drugs to lower cholesterol. They are effective but their side effects are very undesirable at the least, and death causing at the worst. (That's why Bayer withdrew "voluntarily" Baycol, since there were a number of deaths due to usage of Baycol) You need to use clinically proven supplements, that have lowered cholesterol. For example, policosanol which is a safe and natural extract from sugar cane wax, has been clinically proven to lower cholesterol by at least 14 percent.

Policosanol has been the subject of numerous clinical trials involving over 30,000 people and has been used by millions in other countries since 1993. Policosanol works by helping the liver control its production and breakdown of cholesterol, as well as being a powerful antioxidant, preventing LDL oxidation. Clinical studies show that policosanol is as effective as prescription drugs in lowering cholesterol levels, without their dangerous side effects. See the tables below for specific trials comparing policosanol, with 3 different cholesterol lowering drugs.

Studies comparing Policosanol with popular cholesterol-lowering drugs:

Policosanol vs. Lovastatin (Mevacor) Following a 6 week cholesterol-lowering diet, 53 diabetic patients took either 10 mg. of Policosanol or 20 mg. of Lovastatin daily for 12 weeks. Product: Total Blood Cholesterol - reduced LDL Cholesterol - reduced HDL (good) Cholesterol - raised LDL to HDL Ratio - reduced Lovastatin 14.0% 16.8% no change 14.9% Policosanol 14.2% 20.4% 7.5% 23.7%

Comparative study of the efficacy and tolerability of policosanol and lovastatin in patients with hypercholesterolemia and noninsulin dependent diabetes mellitus. Crespo N, Illnait J, Mas R, Fernandez L, Fernandez J, Castano G. Enrique Cabrera Hospital, Havana, Cuba. Int J Clin Pharmacol Res 1999;19(4):117-27

Policosanol vs. Pravastatin (Pravachol) Following a 6 week cholesterol-lowering diet, elderly patients took either 10 mg. of Policosanol or Pravastatin daily for 8 weeks. Product: Total Blood Cholesterol - reduced LDL Cholesterol - reduced HDL (good) Cholesterol - raised LDL to HDL Ratio - reduced Total Cholesterol to HDL Ratio - reduced Triglycerides reduced Pravastatin 11.8% 15.6% no change 18.9% 15.7% no change Policosanol 13.9% 19.3% 18.4% 28.3% 24.4% 14.1%

Effects of policosanol and pravastatin on lipid profile, platelet aggregation and endothelemia in older hypercholesterolemic patients. Castano G, Mas R, Arruzazabala ML, Noa M, Illnait J, Fernandez JC, Molina V, Menendez A. Medical Surgical Research Center, Havana, Cuba. Int J Clin Pharmacol Res 1999;19(4):105-16

Policosanol vs. Fluvastatin (Lescol) Following a 4 week cholesterol-lowering diet, 70 women, aged 60 to 80 years, took either 10 mg. of Policosanol or 20 mg. of Fluvastatin daily for 8 weeks. Product: Total Blood Cholesterol - reduced LDL Cholesterol - reduced HDL (good) Cholesterol - raised
Clinical Drug Investigation 2001; 21:103-13

Pravastatin 16.7% 22.9% 9.2%

Policosanol 19.3% 29.2% 19.8%

And, what's more policosanol costs much cheaper than cholesterol lowering drugs. You can find it for less than US $30. Compare this with the price of cholesterol drugs below.

Save Money!
These are the prices of one month supply of the most popular cholesterol lowering drugs. Lipitor (30 - 20 mg. tablets) Lopid (60 - 600 mg. tablets) Mevacor (30 - 20 mg. tablets) Pravachol (30 - 20 mg. tablets) Zocor (30 - 20 mg. tablets) $98.40 $94.20 $75.00 $75.30 $123.30

Finally, it wouldn't be fair if I did not let you know where to find a policosanol supplement to lower your cholesterol. For more information on policosanol and how it can lower your higher than normal levels of cholesterol, click here.

About Cholesterol Levels & How to Lower Cholesterol Naturally

In this article you will finally understand all about cholesterol levels, specific cholesterol numbers and what they mean. I have had personally a high cholesterol level of more than 200, which I lowered successfully with natural methods. Before you learn anything about cholesterol levels, you must understand:

Total Cholesterol Levels vs Cholesterol Ratio

Probably you already know that having high cholesterol levels above 200 is dangerous to your health, as it can lead to cholesterol build up in your arteries and as a result a higher risk for heart attack and stroke. However, what you will discover is that the total cholesterol level is not as important as the cholesterol ratio. Cholesterol ratio is simply your total cholesterol and LDL numbers divided by your HDL number. In Protein Power, Michael and Mary Eades write that this ratio of HDL to LDL and total cholesterol, is actually more important then total cholesterol in predicting heart attack, heart disease, stroke, arteriosclerosis, coronary heart disease, coronary artery disease and other cardiovascular diseases.

If you are looking to learn what are cholesterol levels that can be considered normal, high and very high, then you will find a full explanations of the cholesterol level scale & cholesterol numbers here, or at this other articles that talks about normal levels of cholesterol.
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About cholesterol levels and what affects them?

y Diet.

Saturated fat and carbohydrates in the food you eat make your blood cholesterol level go up. Reducing the amount of saturated fat and carbohydratesl in your diet helps lower your blood cholesterol level. y Weight.

Being overweight is a risk factor for heart disease. It also tends to increase your cholesterol. Losing weight can help lower your LDL and total cholesterol levels, as well as raise your HDL and lower your triglyceride levels.

Physical Activity.

Not being physically active is a risk factor for heart disease. Regular physical activity can help lower LDL (bad) cholesterol and raise HDL (good) cholesterol levels. It also helps you lose weight. You should try to be physically active for 30 minutes on most, if not all, days. y Age and Gender.

As women and men get older, their cholesterol levels rise. Before the age of menopause, women have lower total cholesterol levels than men of the same age. After the age of menopause, women's LDL levels tend to rise. y Heredity.

Your genes partly determine how much cholesterol your body makes. High blood cholesterol can run in families. As such if you have high cholesterol levels you might want to check out you children as well.

About cholesterol levels and how to lower them?

It is common sense that if you chose the type of food that you eat, lose weight and exercise you are going to lower your cholesterol levels. It is a fact that only with these changes you can lower cholesterol from 7 to 10 percent. Personally I'm not much disciplined to watch my diet carefully. I'm saying "not much disciplined" because I do watch and chose what I eat, but not to be fanatical and avoid all fats etc. So what I have found is that using supplements is a way that helps with the diet.

I used this supplement - Choleslo - and it lowered my total cholesterol by 58 points within 2 months. I believe one of the reasons is because it contains policosanol and guggulipid, which are two natural substances, proven in clinical trials to lower cholesterol. They have lowered total cholesterol by 14 percent, and raise HDL cholesterol (the good one that cleans the arteries from the bad cholesterol build up) by 7.5 percent, without side effects. So there's 2 things you can do right now: One is to check out Choleslo. Second is to leave this article about cholesterol levels & download the Cholesterol Lowering Secrets Free Report. All the Best Artin Vaqari Founder All About Lowering Cholesterol