Is Triglyceride The Same As Cholesterol

What Can You Do At Home To Treat High Triglycerides

The main way to deal with high triglycerides is to eat better and get more exercise. Here are some guidelines to help you manage your level:

Moderate exercise: Try to exercise 5 or more days each week. Lack of movement makes it hard for your body to process blood sugar and triglycerides as it normally does. So itâs important for you to get up and get moving more each day. Skip the escalator or elevator and climb stairs. Get off the bus or subway one stop early and walk. Find activities you enjoy: Walk, swim, or ride a bike. Join a gym. Talk to your doctor before you begin any exercise plan.

Watch your weight: If youâre carrying extra pounds, losing 5% to 10% of your weight can lower triglycerides. People with a healthy weight are more likely to have normal levels. Belly fat is associated with higher numbers.

Eat less bad fat and carbs: Try to lower the saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol in your diet. Cutting back on carbohydrates will help, too. Foods high in saturated fat, such as red meat, boost levels. Butter and cheese contain these same triglyceride-boosting fats. Choose lean meats or protein alternatives, such as chicken and unprocessed turkey, that are lower in saturated fat.

Another healthy option: Make meatless meals. Vegetarian pastas, chilis, and stir-fries are a delicious alternative to meat dishes. Avoid dishes loaded with cream or cheese in favor of recipes that use vegetable or olive oil and feature plenty of vegetables.

A Sign Of Metabolic Syndrome

People with metabolic syndrome are several times more likely to have a heart attack or stroke. The risk of eventually developing diabetes is even greater.

A syndrome is, by definition, a group of signs and symptoms that occur together because of an underlying condition. For metabolic syndrome, that group includes abdominal obesity , high blood pressure, high blood sugar, low HDL cholesterol and, yes, high triglyceride levels.

So as doctors have started to take metabolic syndrome more seriously, they’ve also started to pay more attention to triglyceride levels as one of its telltale signs.

Triglycerides go it alone HDL and triglycerides are metabolically connected and are often inversely related: As triglycerides go up, HDL goes down and vice versa. But that isn’t always so. People can have “isolated” high triglycerides without low HDL levels, and research is now showing that high triglycerides are an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease, no matter what the HDL is.

When To Seek Treatment

Deciding on whether you ought to be treated for high cholesterol or high triglyceride levels, whether that treatment ought to include drug therapy, and which drugs ought to be used is not always entirely straightforward. Still, if your cardiovascular risk is elevated, the right treatment aimed at your lipid levels can substantially reduce your chances of having a heart attack, or even of dying prematurely. So when it comes to treating cholesterol and triglycerides, it is important to get it right. You can read about current thinking on when and how treatment for blood lipids should be chosen.

Don’t Miss: What Does Good Cholesterol Do

How Long Does It Take To Lower Triglycerides

Depending on whats causing your high triglyceride levels, you may be able to lower them in just a few days. A night out drinking or eating foods high in sugar can cause a spike in your triglyceride levels. Limiting alcohol and sugar intake can bring your levels back to normal within a few days.

If you have consistently high triglycerides, it may take a few months for them to return to a healthy range. How fast they lower depends on the lifestyle changes, diet, and medications youre taking.

Understanding Cholesterol: Hdl Ldl And Triglycerides

There are two types of grocery shoppersthose who race in with a list in hand and meticulously grab every item on the list before checking out and leaving, and those who meander up and down every aisle, not sure what they want until they see it on the shelf.

But within those two types, theres another shopper you may have seenthe label-reader. This person is health-conscious and examines the nutrition labels of food items before placing them in the cart.

One of the most important categories to check for on a food label is cholesterol.

Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance found in your blood. Your body needs some cholesterol, but too much can build up on the walls of your arteries and can lead to heart disease and stroke. Checking your risk for heart disease and stroke is as simple as getting a lipid panel, which tests your blood cholesterol.

There are four important things checked in a lipid panel:

• Total cholesterol
• Low-density lipoproteins

HDL is known as the good cholesterol because it helps remove cholesterol by carrying it back to the liver where it can be eliminated from the body. Its good to have a high HDL number. LDL is known as the bad cholesterol because having too much LDL may cause a buildup of plaque in your blood vessels. Triglycerides are also a type of fat found in your blood. High triglycerides, low HDL, and/or high LDL numbers can increase your risk for heart attack and stroke.

Generally speaking, normal lab values are:

Don’t Miss: What Are Normal Levels For Ldl Hdl And Triglycerides

What Affects My Cholesterol Levels

A variety of things can affect cholesterol levels. These are some things you can do to lower your cholesterol levels:

• Diet. Saturated fat and cholesterol in the food you eat make your blood cholesterol level rise. Saturated fat is the main problem, but cholesterol in foods also matters. Reducing the amount of saturated fat in your diet helps lower your blood cholesterol level. Foods that have high levels of saturated fats include some meats, dairy products, chocolate, baked goods, and deep-fried and processed foods.
• Weight. Being overweight is a risk factor for heart disease. It also tends to increase your cholesterol. Losing weight can help lower your LDL cholesterol, total cholesterol, and triglyceride levels. It also raises your HDL cholesterol level.
• Physical Activity. Not being physically active is a risk factor for heart disease. Regular physical activity can help lower LDL cholesterol and raise HDL cholesterol levels. It also helps you lose weight. You should try to be physically active for 30 minutes on most, if not all, days.
• Smoking.Cigarette smoking lowers your HDL cholesterol. HDL helps to remove bad cholesterol from your arteries. So a lower HDL can contribute to a higher level of bad cholesterol.

Things outside of your control that can also affect cholesterol levels include:

Understanding The Test Results

A full lipid profile can be an important part of your childs health information. It shows the levels of each type of fat in the blood. These include LDL, HDL, triglycerides, and total cholesterol. Your childs doctor can tell you what the results should be for your child. In general, healthy levels are:

• LDL of less than 130 mg/dL

• HDL of greater than 35 mg/dL

Some children and teens have families with high cholesterol or early heart disease. In these cases, the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute advises these levels for cholesterol:

Total cholesterol

Adults

A lipid profile, which includes triglycerides, is recommended every 4 to 6 years to evaluate risk of heart disease in healthy adults. Children should have a lipid profile screening at least once between the ages of 9 and 11 and once again between the ages of 17 and 21.

Testing may be ordered more frequently when people have identified risk factors for heart disease. Some risk factors for heart disease include:

• Cigarette smoking

• Moves cholesterol from arteries to the liver.

LDL Low-density lipoprotein

• Makes up 60%70% of total cholesterol
• Main form of bad cholesterol
• Causes build-up of plaque inside arteries.

VLDL Very-low-density lipoprotein

• Makes up 10%15% of total cholesterol
• With LDL, the main form of bad cholesterol
• A precursor of LDL.

The numbers to know

Read Also: Does Coconut Water Raise Cholesterol

How Is It Used

Blood tests for triglycerides are usually part of a lipid profile that is used to help identify an individuals risk of developing heart disease and to help make decisions about what treatment may be needed if there is borderline or high risk. As part of a lipid profile, it may be used to monitor people who have risk factors for heart disease, those who have had a heart attack, or those who are being treated for high lipid and/or high triglyceride levels.

Results of the cholesterol test and other components of the lipid profile are used along with other known risk factors of heart disease to develop a plan of treatment and follow-up. Treatment options may include lifestyle changes, such as diet or exercise programs, or lipid-lowering drugs, such as statins.

What Is A High Triglyceride Level

High triglycerides can be dangerous to your health. Unfortunately, high triglycerides, like high cholesterol, rarely causes symptoms. Its vital to get routine lipid blood tests to check cholesterol numbers.

Your healthcare provider determines total cholesterol by looking at a combination of triglycerides, HDL and LDL numbers. If your triglycerides and LDL cholesterol are high, but your HDL is low, you have an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

For the most accurate reading, you should fast 8 to 12 hours before a lipid blood test. A healthy number for triglycerides is below 150 milligrams per deciliter .

Your healthcare provider classifies high triglyceride levels as:

• Mild: 150-199 mg/dL.
• Severe: Greater than 500 mg/dL.

You May Like: Is Wine Bad For Your Cholesterol

Will A Keto Diet Lower Triglycerides And Cholesterol

No, keto diets have been shown to increase cholesterol levels. The Mediterranean diet, however, has been shown to lower cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of cardiac events.

The Mediterranean diet promotes eating vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and healthy fats daily eating fish, poultry, beans, and eggs weekly reducing portions of dairy and limiting red meat.

How To Lower Triglycerides With Lifestyle Changes And Medication

• You can lower triglycerides by exercising, losing weight, and drinking less alcohol.
• If your triglycerides levels are very high like over 500 milligrams per deciliter your doctor may also recommend medication to lower triglycerides.
• Triglycerides, like cholesterol, are associated with a higher risk of heart disease if your levels are too high, though many people effectively lower these levels with lifestyle changes and medication.
• This article was reviewed by Jason R. McKnight, MD, MS, a family medicine physician and clinical assistant professor at Texas A& M College of Medicine.
• Visit Insiders homepage for more stories.

Like cholesterol, triglycerides are a form of fat, or lipid in fact, theyre the most common form of fat in a persons body. After you eat, fat and calories that arent immediately put to use by your metabolism are stored as triglycerides in your bodys fat cells.

You need triglycerides in the body for an energy source, says Sanjiv Patel, MD, a cardiologist at MemorialCare Heart & Vascular Institute at Orange Coast Medical Center. The issue becomes if you have too much.

Heres what you need to know about cholesterol and triglycerides, and how to lower your triglyceride levels if they get too high.

Read Also: Best Way To Lower Triglycerides Fast

Why Do We Need Cholesterol

Cholesterol plays a vital role in how your body works. There is cholesterol in every cell in your body, and its especially important in your brain, nerves and skin.

Cholesterol has three main jobs:

• Its part of the outer layer, or membrane, of all your bodys cells
• Its used to make vitamin D and steroid hormones which keep your bones, teeth and muscles healthy
• Its used to make bile, which helps to digest the fats you eat

Also Check: How To Know If Cholesterol Is High

Do Bananas Lower Triglycerides

The researchers also say that people with high triglycerides should focus on eating more vegetables fruits that are lower in fructose such as cantaloupe, grapefruit, strawberries, bananas, peaches high-fiber whole grains and especially omega-3 fatty acids, which are found primarily in fatty fish such as salmon, Apr 18, 2011

You May Like: Healthy Meals For High Triglycerides

Main Difference Ldl Vs Triglycerides

Cholesterol is a substance produced inside our body it is also provided by certain types of food such as meat, butter, margarine, oils etc. Cholesterol is waxy in nature and does not dissolve in water. The key difference between LDL and triglycerides is that low density lipoprotein is a type of lipoprotein, which helps in the transportation of cholesterol in our body whereas Triglyceride is a form of dietary fat synthesized in the liver.

This article explores,

How to Calculate the Total LDL Level in BloodHow to Control High Cholesterol Levels in Blood

3. What is Triglycerides?How to Reduce Triglycerides in the Body

4. What is the difference between LDL and Triglycerides?

Treatment Of High Triglycerides

In most cases, high triglycerides are managed by making lifestyle changes. You may be advised to:

• Exercise for at least 30 minutes every day.
• Eat less, particularly high fat foods.
• Increase the amount of fibre in your diet.
• Avoid high sugar foods such as lollies. Choose foods with a low glycaemic index such as legumes and wholegrain products.
• Eat more fish. Choose fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids such as salmon, mackerel, tuna and trout. Omega-3 in high doses can reduce triglyceride levels.
• Cut back on alcohol. The kilojoules and sugar in alcoholic drinks can raise triglyceride levels.
• Lose excess body fat using a combination of healthy eating and regular exercise.
• Manage coexisting health conditions such as diabetes or hypertension effectively.

You May Like: Does Coffee Cause High Cholesterol

The Difference Between Cholesterol And Triglycerides

The rapid increase in the size of the heart disease problem over the last few years has resulted in a growing awareness of the seriousness of the problem and the need for people to take steps to control the risk of cardiac disease. Medical research and hence treatment methods are getting more advanced by the day, but as even the best cardiologists would tell you, prevention is better than cure and therefore the need to check various parameters to keep them under control is of paramount importance.

Also Read: Great tips to lower Cholesterol

Among the number of factors and medical terms that relate to heart conditions are cholesterol and triglycerides. They are both lipids that are in the blood and high levels of either cause heart and circulation problems. Because they are both fats people often think of them as being the same thing, which is incorrect. They are different in the functions they perform and knowing about the difference is important to understanding what they do and how they affect heart health.

Can Coffee Increase Triglycerides

Drinking coffeeespecially unfiltered coffeesignificantly contributes to increased levels of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol , and triglycerides, researchers have reported. The more coffee consumed, the higher the concentrations of LDL-cholesterol and total cholesterol, they found.

Don’t Miss: Foods To Eat When Triglycerides Are High

How Do Triglycerides Circulate In The Blood

Pure cholesterol cannot mix with or dissolve in the blood. Instead, the liver packages cholesterol with triglycerides and proteins called lipoproteins. The lipoproteins move this fatty mixture to areas throughout the body.

Types of these lipoproteins include very low-density lipoproteins , high-density lipoproteins and low-density lipoproteins .

Diagnosis Of High Triglycerides

A blood test can reveal whether or not you have high triglycerides. You may need to have two blood tests for accurate results. Dont eat anything for at least 12 hours before each blood test because food particularly fatty food can temporarily boost triglyceride levels in the blood and skew your test results.Triglycerides are measured in mmol/L. The range includes:

• Very high over 6 mmol/L
• High between2 and 6 mmol/L
• Borderline high between 1.7 and 2 mmol/L
• Normal below 1.7 mmol/L

The doctor may also test your cholesterol levels. In many cases, high triglycerides and high cholesterol go hand in hand. This condition is sometimes known as combined hyperlipidemia.

Recommended Reading: What Happens If You Have High Cholesterol

Why Is There Tg In The Blood

The most common reason for elevated triglycerides is prediabetes. Chronically high insulin stimulates adipokines and hormone-sensitive lipase. This results in the release of too many fatty acids from fat cells. These excess fatty acids take up space in HDL and LDL particles.

TG can also become elevated in several inherited diseases.

Symptoms Of High Blood Cholesterol And Triglycerides

High cholesterol typically doesnt cause any symptoms. Symptoms may only appear after the increased cholesterol has caused significant damage.

For instance, symptoms may come in the form of heart disease symptoms, such as chest pain or nausea and fatigue. A heart attack or stroke may result from uncontrolled cholesterol, among other things.

Recommended Reading: Is Turkey Sausage Good For Cholesterol

How Quickly Can I Lower My Cholesterol

Your cholesterol levels may lower as quickly as a few weeks to a few months, depending on your treatment plan.

If your levels are very high, your healthcare provider may recommend taking medications at the start of your treatment plan. This may help lower your cholesterol levels more quickly. The sooner you can lower your bad cholesterol levels, the sooner you can lower your risk for plaques to form.

You can also lower your cholesterol through lifestyle and diet changes alone, but it may take three to six months to see results. Talk with your healthcare provider to figure out the best treatment plan for you.

You May Like: Is Greek Yogurt Good For Cholesterol