>At 04:07 AM 2/1/98 EST, Curt wrote:
>
>>I eat meat, and my cholesterol level is 135.
>
>Could you explain what metric this is?
Milligrams per deciliter in blood.
>But here in Oz we measure high
>density lioproteins separately from the dangerous low density lps, that
>ideally (I gather) ought to be about 3.5, and invoke a magic ratio between
>the two. My LDL is currently 6.3 [somethings] (was 8.9, 12 weeks back)
>with a ratio of 4.8. How does this map onto the US measure?
Poorly. The US does LDL/HDL ratios too. 180 is considered a "desirable"
cholesterol level in the way a 3.5 LDL/HDL ratio is, but they're different.
You can have a high ratio and a low cholesterol or vice versa.
There is a correlation in that a good cholesterol level *usually* comes
with a good ratio.
However, 135 is in the very low range and would be like a 2 - 2.5 ratio in
terms of risk.