Why Are Only My Triglycerides 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 .

What Are The Symptoms

High blood triglycerides usually do not cause any symptoms. Untreated or uncontrolled high blood triglyceride levels may increase your risk of serious complications such as coronary heart disease and stroke.

Very high blood triglycerides can raise the risk of acute pancreatitis, or inflammation of the pancreas that causes severe pain in the abdomen.

Inflammation And Autoimmune Diseases

Changes in your body that result from certain diseases can also have an effect on your triglyceride levels. Your body may produce triglycerides to decrease inflammation and ward off infection. However, this can lead to an overabundance of triglycerides in your body.

These types of autoimmune conditions include:

• Rheumatoid arthritis

You May Like: Is Eggplant Good For Cholesterol

What Are Normal Triglyceride Levels

Normal fasting blood triglyceride levels are:

• Lower than 150 mg/dL for adults
• Lower than 90 mg/dL for children ages 10 to 19

Your doctor may diagnose you with high blood triglycerides if your fasting blood triglyceride levels are consistently 150 milligrams per deciliter or higher.

Talk to your doctor about what your numbers mean for you.

Normal Cholesterol With High Triglycerides What Is That

When measuring total cholesterol levels, low-density lipoprotein , high-density lipoprotein , and triglycerides are used in the measurement.

For adults, standard cholesterol levels are:

• Less than 200 mg/dL is desirable
• Between 200 – 239 mg/dL is considered borderline
• Over 240 mg/dL is considered high

You May Like: How Much Cholesterol Should You Eat In A Day

Lower Triglyceride Levels Are Associated With Better Endothelial Function

FMD values were highest in the group with extremely low levels of triglycerides.

Lower triglyceride levels are associated with better endothelial function.

The group with extremely low triglycerides had fewer atherosclerosis risk factors.

The odds ratio for a lower quartile of FMD remained independently lower.

Diets High In Calories Carbs And Fats

Triglyceride levels increase with a positive energy-intake balance . In other words, when you eat more than your body needs, the surplus is transformed into fat, including triglycerides. Its easier to overeat when your diet is high in calories and contains lots of carbs and saturated fats .

Low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets are among the most common causes of high triglycerides. But wait we said that high-fat diets are bad, so doesnt that mean a low-fat diet should be beneficial? Not quite .

Saturated, unhealthy fats are bad. But your body needs healthy fats such as those found in olive oil and fish oil to keep your triglyceride levels normal and to maintain your overall health. If you dont get enough dietary fats, your body will revert to transforming the sugars you consume into fats .

This goes against the popular but unfounded belief that your body wont store fat as long as you dont eat fats. In truth, high-carbohydrate diets can be much worse than high-fat diets for your triglyceride levels. Many scientists advocate that high-carb, low-fat diets likely also contributed to the obesity epidemic in America over the past few decades .

Also Check: What Is Considered High Cholesterol For A Man

What Are The Different Triglyceride Levels

Triglycerides are a common fat in the bloodstream. They are a normal part of the blood and important for the body.

It is only when levels get abnormally high that a person may be at risk of negative health effects.

Testing reveals the triglyceride levels in the blood. As triglyceride levels increase, they fall into the following categories:

• Moderate hypertriglyceridemia: 150499 mg/dl
• Severe hypertriglyceridemia: 500 mg/dl or more
• Very severehypertriglyceridemia: 880 mg/dl or more

Desirable fasting levels of triglycerides are less than 150 mg/dl.

Triglyceride screening is typically just one part of a lipid profile blood test. The test will also check the levels of:

• total cholesterol
• low-density lipoprotein , or bad, cholesterol
• high-density lipoprotein , or good, cholesterol

Doctors may make specific recommendations ahead of the test. For example, they might ask the person to fast for

The ideal frequency of testing will depend on a persons age and other cardiovascular risk factors.

The recommend that adults undergo a cholesterol test every 46 years. The standard cholesterol test or lipid profile will measure triglyceride levels.

The test is simple and requires taking blood to test its contents.

The person may need to fast before the test. Fasting helps avoid the natural rise in triglyceride levels that happens right after a meal, giving the doctor a better idea of baseline levels.

Should You Worry About High Triglycerides

These blood fats can be one of the signs of metabolic syndrome, which increases the risk for having a heart attack or stroke.

Until recently, triglycerides tended to get less attention when looking at cardiovascular risk compared to LDL and HDL cholesterol levels. There’s no question that extremely high levels spell trouble and can lead to acute pancreatitis. But what about treating lower levels of triglycerides? Recent evidence suggests you should work to reduce triglyceride levels of they are higher than normal, especially if you have heart disease or have other risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure or smoking.

Triglyceride levels

*All values in milligrams per deciliter

Recommended Reading: What Drinks Can Lower Cholesterol

Sedentary Lifestyle Or Lack Of Exercise

The amount of exercise you get can have an effect on your triglyceride levels. If you lead an inactive lifestyle, youâre more likely to accumulate extra calories, which your body will quickly transform into triglycerides for later use.

However, if you arenât staying active enough to use those triglycerides, theyâll hang around in your system.

What Qualifies As High Triglycerides

According to MedlinePlus , blood levels less than 150 mg/dL fall under the triglycerides normal range, while anything higherknown as hypertriglyceridemiacan increase risk for heart disease. Elevated triglycerides can also be a very early sign of diabetes, states Kristin Thomas, MD, a board-certified internist and co-founder of Foxhall Medicine in Washington, DC.

Extremely high triglyceridesblood levels over 500 mg/dLmay be due to a genetic disorder and can increase the risk of pancreatitis, along with heart disease, including atherosclerosis , Dr. Thomas, co-author of You Can Prevent A Stroke, explains. It can be seen alone or in association with many other conditions, as well, such as metabolic syndrome, hypothyroidism, fatty liver disease and kidney disease, Dr. Malaney says.

Also Check: What To Eat To Reduce Cholesterol

Why Are High Triglycerides Bad

Very high levels of triglycerides are associated with liver and pancreas problems.

But studies show conflicting results on the role of high triglycerides and the risk of heart disease. Not all experts agree that triglycerides play a significant role in heart problems.

High triglycerides tend to show up along with other problems, like high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, high levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol, and low levels of “good” HDL cholesterol. So itâs hard to know for sure which problems are caused by high triglycerides alone.

For instance, some people have a genetic condition that seems to cause high triglyceride levels. But they donât have an increased risk of heart disease. Still, there is some evidence that high triglycerides, on their own, increase the risk of disease. Other studies show that high triglycerides may only play a minor role when other heart disease risks are taken into account.

With ongoing studies, scientists hope to find out whether drugs that lower triglycerides also reduce the risks of heart disease.

Overall, it’s important to remember that improving diet and lifestyle will lower triglycerides and lower the overall risk of heart and blood vessel problems.

High Triglycerides Common In United States: Cdc

3 Min Read

CHICAGO – One in five Americans has high levels of blood fats called triglycerides that raise the risk of heart attacks, yet few people take drugs or other steps to control them, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

They also found one-third of Americans have borderline high triglyceride levels.

A study earlier this year found the percentage of U.S. adults with high triglycerides had doubled over the past three decades, likely driven by climbing obesity rates.

Researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked to see how widespread the problem is and how doctors are addressing it.

Like low-density lipoprotein or LDL, known as the bad cholesterol, triglycerides can raise the risk of heart attacks. Cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins help lower LDL, but they often do not treat high triglycerides, a blood fat derived from the fats people eat and fats in the body.

Increasing evidence supports triglyceride concentration as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, Dr. Earl Ford of the CDC and colleagues wrote in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

They studied data and blood samples for 5,610 people 20 or older who participated in a national health and nutrition survey between 1999 and 2004. They found that 33.1 percent had triglyceride concentrations between 150 and 199 milligrams per deciliter, a reading in the borderline high category.

Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen editing by Maggie Fox and Mohammad Zargham

You May Like: How Does Cholesterol Leave The Body

Prevention Of High Cholesterol

Regularly monitoring your cholesterol levels can also help prevent your numbers from getting too high or low. In general, healthy adults should check their cholesterol every four to six years, but your doctor may ask to check your cholesterol more often depending on your age, overall health, and other risk factors. There are other ways to prevent high cholesterol, too

What Are Risk Factors For High Triglycerides

Factors that may raise triglyceride levels include:

• Excessive alcohol use.

• American Academy of Family Physicians. High Cholesterol. Accessed 11/182/2021.
• American Heart Association. Cholesterol. Accessed 11/18/2021.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Getting Your Cholesterol Checked. Accessed 11/18/2021.
• Hormone Health Network. Triglycerides. Accessed 11/18/2021.
• MedlinePlus. Triglycerides Test. Accessed 11/18/2021.
• Merck Manual Consumer Version. Overview of Cholesterol and Lipid Fats. Accessed 11/18/2021.
• National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. High Blood Triglycerides. Accessed 11/18/2021.

Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. Advertising on our site helps support our mission. We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services.Policy

Don’t Miss: Is Coffee High In Cholesterol

Know Your Triglyceride Numbers

A blood test called a lipid panel checks both your triglyceride and cholesterol levels. Usually, your doctor will ask that you fast, or not eat or drink anything other than water, for 9-12 hours before the test. Youâll get blood taken from a vein in your arm. Some labs offer non-fasting lipid panels, or they may prick your finger for blood.

Here are the levels, based on a fastingblood test.

• Normal: Less than 150 mg/dL
• Borderline: 150 to 199 mg/dL
• High: 200 to 499 mg/dL
• Very High: 500 mg/dL or above

Anyone over age 20 needs to get regular tests to track their cholesterol and triglyceride levels, according to the American Heart Association.

Monitor Your Triglyceride Levels With Everlywell

High-calorie diets, unhealthy lifestyles, and certain medical conditions can often lead to elevated triglyceride levels. However, managing your cholesterol and triglyceride levels is crucial to maintaining your overall health.

Thatâs why regularly testing your lipid levels is so important. Detecting elevated triglyceride levels allows you to begin making changes to prevent severe health risks.

But life gets hectic, and sometimes even important things like visiting your healthcare provider can fall by the wayside. Fortunately, thereâs a simple way to stay on top of your health from the comfort of your home.

Welcome to Everlywell.

Weâre making it easier than ever to get a handle on your health and gain crucial insight into your lipid and triglyceride levels. The at-home Cholesterol & Lipids Test from Everlywell measures your triglyceride levels, in addition to three types of cholesterol lipids to give you a clear picture of your wellness needs.

Each test kit contains everything you need to safely and effectively measure your lipid levels, including lancets for collecting a blood sample and a prepaid address label for sending your sample to the lab for testing.

Whether your healthcare provider has expressed concerns about your triglyceride levels or you’re simply curious to find out where yours stand, the Everlywell at-home Cholesterol Test & Lipids Test can give you the insight you’re looking for.

Don’t Miss: How To Fix High Triglycerides

Dos And Donts In Managing High Triglycerides:

• DO exercise regularly.
• DO eat more fruits and vegetables and high-fiber foods such as oat bran. Cook with monounsaturated fatsolive, peanut, and canola oils.
• DO stop smoking.
• DO lose weight by changing your diet and doing aerobic exercise, such as walking, jogging, bicycling, or swimming. Exercise at least 30 minutes daily.

• DONT forget to treat other medical conditions such as diabetes and underactive thyroid.
• DONT drink more than two alcoholic drinks per day.
• DONT change your diet or medicines without your doctors approval.

Your Genes And Triglycerides

For people with certain genetic variants, the process of atherosclerosis may start quite early in life. Heart disease is typically associated with middle age and later life, but how your body handles cholesterol determines when arterial plaque begins to build up.

Some of the genes and gene variants thought to influence your TG levels include 5:

TRIB1 TA and AA genotypes were associated with higher TG levels compared to TT genotypes in one analysis. TA and AA genotypes also tended to have higher remnant cholesterol, apolipoprotein B, and LDL-C, and lower HDL-C. This analysis also noted that TRIB1 TA and AA genotypes had a 13% and 15% increased risk of ischemic heart disease and an 11% and 17% increased risk of myocardial infarction . 6

The same analysis found that GCKR CT and TT genotypes had higher TGs, remnant cholesterol, and apoB compared to CC genotypes, but that this gene didnt seem to affect levels of LDL-C or the risk of IHD or MI.

Knowing if you carry any gene variants that might alter how your body produces and metabolizes triglycerides could help you take steps to keep triglycerides in check.

Recommended Reading: Can High Cholesterol Cause Erectile Dysfunction

What Are High Triglycerides

Triglycerides are a kind of fat found in blood. Cholesterol is another kind. Stored in fat cells for later use, triglycerides are a major energy source. Normal amounts are important for good health. Eating more fat than the body burns can lead to high triglyceride levels . High triglyceride levels may result in hardening of the arteries , which increases risks of stroke, heart attack, and heart disease. They can be part of metabolic syndrome, which also includes too much fat around the waist, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and abnormal cholesterol levels.

Sometimes high triglyceride levels mean poorly controlled type 2 diabetes, low thyroid hormone levels , liver or kidney disease, or rare genetic conditions.

Finding Out Your Triglycerides Levels

Triglycerides are measured with a simple blood test. Triglyceride levels should be measured when you have a cholesterol test as they can also contribute to your risk of developing heart disease, and other disease of the heart and blood vessels. The triglyceride test measures the triglycerides carried in chylomicrons and VLDL cholesterol. National guidelines in the UK no longer recommend a fasting blood test .

What should your triglyceride levels be?

HEART UK experts state that we should aim for a non-fasting triglyceride level below 2.3mmol/L.

If your doctor has asked you to fast for a test then your triglyceride level should be below 1.7mmol/L. This “fasting test” number is lower because only the triglycerides made by the liver and carried in the VLDL cholesterol will be measured not the triglycerides you get from food. As you have not eaten, there will be no chylomicrons present in your blood.

Also Check: Which Lipoprotein Contains The Highest Percentage Of Cholesterol

Possible New Treatment For High Triglycerides

In the report in The New England Journal of Medicine, an international team of researchers describe a new therapy for high triglycerides. It involves a weekly injection of “antisense oligonucleotides” , pieces of DNA that short-circuit the livers production of triglycerides. The new report shows that ASOs can reduce triglyceride levels by as much as 70%.

Keep in mind that this was a phase 2 trial, which is designed to test whether a drug does what it is supposed to do . Larger, longer-term studies will be needed to see whether ASOs actually reduce the risk of heart disease, and what sorts of side effects they cause.

Many experimental medications that sparkle in early testing never become FDA-approved drugs. We wont know for several years whether ASOs will become available for individuals with high triglycerides.

What Are The Causes And Symptoms Of High Triglycerides

Causes include obesity, eating too much unhealthy food, genetics, certain illnesses including poorly controlled diabetes, kidney disease, and underactive thyroid . Some drugs, such as steroids and birth control pills, and drinking a lot of alcohol can also cause it.

Most people have no symptoms. Very high levels can cause small fat deposits under the skin and a painful inflammation of the pancreas called pancreatitis.

Recommended Reading: Is Popcorn High In Cholesterol

How Are Triglycerides Different From Cholesterol

Triglycerides and cholesterol are both fatty substances called lipids. But triglycerides are fats cholesterol is not. Cholesterol is a waxy, odorless substance made by the liver. It is used to build cell walls, helps the nervous system and plays an important role in digestion and hormone production.

High Cholesterol High Hdl Low Triglycerides

Dr T

Question:Answer:

There are 2 kinds of LDL cholesterol, A and B, of which B is associated with heart disease.Most labs calculate LDL as follows:

LDL = Total Cholesterol HDL triglycerides/5.

This doesnt explain the difference between LDL A or B .

Studies have shown that there is a strong correlation between a low triglyceride/high HDL level and LDL pattern A .

On the other hand, a high triglyceride/low HDL level is strongly associated with LDL pattern B . Thus high triglycerides are an independent risk factor for heart disease.

From this you can calculate that in your situation a high LDL is mostly Type A , confirmed by a high HDL and low triglyrerides and that therefore there a very low risk of heart disease.

Having high cholesterol may still be healthy if good cholesterol levels, triglycerides, and other markers of cardiovascular health are good. You can calculate this here. People with high good cholesterol levels and low levels of triglycerides may actually be at a lower risk for heart disease than people with normal cholesterol levels who have lower levels of good cholesterol and higher levels of bad cholesterol.

Hope this helps,

Don’t Miss: Can You Take Melatonin With Cholesterol Medicine