in today's video we are going to be talking about good and bad cholesterol
why some types of cholesterol are considered to be good and why some are considered to be bad
and whether or not there's more to the story having high cholesterol has become synonymous
with bad health but there might be more to the picture than looking at cholesterol as a whole
this is because there are several different types of cholesterol all with their own roles and that
impact us differently so in today's video we are going to be simplifying cholesterol
and talking about what you should be looking out for when you get your cholesterol lab test results
hey guys welcome back to my channel if you're new here my name is kait i'm a health coach and i post
videos on a high fat nutrient-dense way of eating if you like this video please give it a thumbs up
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facebook where's your new posts every single day today's video is sponsored by self decode
a genetics testing and analysis company that gives you personal health recommendations based on your
genes later in the video i will be telling you about their lab test analyzer feature which
allows you to upload your lab test results such as cholesterol and receive personalized reports
and recommendations to optimize your levels head to healthcoachkait.com labs to learn more we'll
start off today talking about what cholesterol is and the different types of it then we will
go into some misconceptions and we'll finish off talking about what you should be looking out for
when you look at your cholesterol lab results what is cholesterol cholesterol is a type of fat and an
essential structural component of human and animal cell membranes it is found in every single cell
in the human body and is important for several functions some of the roles it plays include
helping your body absorb fat soluble vitamins a d e and k creating hormones especially sex hormones
helping you to synthesize vitamin d and maintaining cell structure now most of the
cholesterol in our bloodstream which is what is being tested for when we get a cholesterol blood
test is created by our bodies we can get a small amount of cholesterol from eating animal foods
but increasing or decreasing dietary cholesterol has been shown to only impact blood cholesterol
levels marginally so worrying about eating a low cholesterol diet is a little bit silly because as
i said most of the cholesterol in our bloodstream is created by our bodies types of cholesterol
now when cholesterol is referred to as it pertains to our health it's not the cholesterol itself that
people are talking about it's what's carrying the cholesterol and this is known as lipoproteins
there are four types of lipoproteins but the main two tested for are ldl and hdl and though
they are often referred to as bad and good cholesterol both are important for our health
ldl is responsible for carrying cholesterol particles to where they need to be throughout
the body and hdl goes around and picks up excess cholesterol and brings it to the liver
where it can be used or excreted so neither is necessarily good or bad both do play a role
although ldl does have a pretty bad rep so let's talk about that now cholesterol misconceptions
here's where things start to get a bit tricky having high ldl has been associated with a
greater risk of heart disease and that is why there are concerns over having high cholesterol
but looking at ldl alone is not a good indicator of heart disease risk or even our
overall health in general studies that have found an association between high ldl and heart disease
have found just that an association the reality is that over 75 of people who suffer a heart attack
actually have what is considered to be normal ldl levels in one study where they lowered the ldl of
some participants into a range considered to be optimal after three years the total mortality was
twice as high as compared to the group with the higher ldl and it is well known that for people
over the age of 60 having higher ldl is actually associated with a lower all-cause mortality there
is a stronger association between people with insulin resistance and heart attacks than high
ldl and heart attacks although insulin resistance is something that often goes undiagnosed
so this connection is missed the point is is that looking at ldl alone is not telling us much about
our heart disease risk now before i get into some of the better markers of health you can look for
on your cholesterol test i'm going to take a quick moment to tell you about today's sponsor
self-decode self-decode is a genetics testing and analysis company but they also offer online
lab test analysis as well their lab test analyzer feature allows you to upload your
lab test and receive personalized reports and recommendations to optimize your levels
so often our lab test results are compared to standard reference ranges and those reference
ranges might not be applicable to you self-decode uses the latest peer-reviewed research to identify
the optimal ranges for your personal test results so you can lower your risk of disease
they are currently able to analyze over 500 lab markers everything from cholesterol to nutrient
levels thyroid hormones and more choose from either their annual lifetime or professional plan
to analyze your test results today you can head to healthcoachkate.com forward slash self decode labs
to check the med thanks again to self decode for sponsoring this video triglyceride to hdl ratio
so what is a better indicator of your heart disease risk if looking at your total cholesterol
or your ldl cholesterol isn't enough as previously mentioned being insulin resistant significantly
increases your heart disease risk along with your risk of developing type 2 diabetes dementia
pcos and more but if you are looking at your cholesterol panel there are two other numbers
you want to look out for that can give you a better sense of your heart disease risk and your
overall health these numbers are triglycerides and hdl triglycerides are the amount of fat in your
blood and as we already discussed hdl is the type of cholesterol that picks up excess cholesterol
and brings it to the liver so triglycerides you want to be lower ideally less than 1.7
millimolars per liter or 150 milligrams per deciliter an hdl you want to be higher ideally
over one millimolar per liter or 50 milligrams per deciliter and these are the reference ranges
that practitioners often recommend although for some reason they choose to focus on
ldl alone even if your triglycerides and hdl are optimal the ratio between triglycerides and hdl
cholesterol has actually been shown to be a much better indicator of heart disease risk
with one meta-analysis concluding although some lipid variables were associated with the extent
of coronary disease the ratio of triglycerides to hdl cholesterol showed the strongest association
with extent a ratio under 1.9 is considered to be optimal a ratio of 2 to 3 indicates moderate heart
disease risk and a ratio over three is a strong indicator of heart disease risk and these numbers
are also an indicator of how insulin resistant you are that's how much these two things are connected
and one last thing i want to note is that when you're calculating the ratio between triglycerides
and hdl make sure you are calculating it in milligrams per deciliter and not millimolars
per liter or else the calculation won't work out so in summary looking at your total cholesterol
or ldl cholesterol alone is not a good indicator of heart disease risk or your overall health
looking at your triglyceride to hdl ratio is a much better indicator anyways guys that is
all i have for you today let me know in the comment section down below if you calculate
your triglyceride to hdl ratio and what number you get and remember to check out self decode
for genetics testing and lab test analysis i will put the link to their website in the description
box down below thanks guys for watching if you did enjoy this video you might also like my video
on how you can increase your hdl cholesterol you can check that out right here if you want
to catch up on my most recent upload you can find it here and if you want to check out my keto diet
and carnivore diet coaching programs you can do that here thanks guys i'll see you next time bye