My Personal Medical Information

19 Replies

Oh, hey! Would you like to look at my personal medical information? HIPAA be damned! (I know, HIPAA is about whether other people can give out someone’s personal medical information. But it doesn’t WORK to use the term ACCURATELY.)

I had a cholesterol test done, and the Icky Doctor (this is the guy who, when I asked to try a different brand of birth control pills because the current ones were making me emotional, wouldn’t switch me and suggested that instead I should see a psychiatrist and have my tubes tied) wanted me to pay another $25 copay to come in and have him explain the results to me, and I declined, saying I didn’t see the point of that unless the results were BAD. Which they weren’t.

The problem is that, um, I want the results explained. I got a copy of them, and the nurse said the numbers were “fine,” so I don’t NEED to know what they mean, but I’m interested. And my guess is that we have among us people who know exactly what these numbers mean and won’t even charge me the $25. So! Here are my numbers:

Triglyceride: 131
Cholesterol: 159
HDL: 45
Direct LDL: 85.0
CHDL: 3.5

And here is what I want to know:

  1. Is 159 “my cholesterol,” the way people go around talking about what their cholesterol is? How “fine” is it?
  2. Is HDL “bad cholesterol,” and is my number bad? How bad?
  3. Is LDL “good cholesterol,” and is my number good? How good?
  4. What are triglycerides, and are they good or bad, and what does that number mean?
  5. What is CHDL, and what does that number mean?

There! Dr. Comment Section, your patient is ready!

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19 thoughts on “My Personal Medical Information”

  1. Chraycee

    Hi Swistle,
    I can’t interpret your numbers for you, but I can tell you that LDL is the “bad” cholesterol and HDL is the “good” cholesterol. Here is how I remember that: In “HDL” I pretend that the “H” stands for happy, and in “LDL” I pretend that the “L” stands for loser. :)

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  2. Kelly

    Your numbers ARE good. With cholesterol your goal is to be below 200, which you are good on…The LDL (low density lipoprotein) is the bad cholesterol and is supposed to be less than 100 mg, and HDL (high density lipoprotein) is supposed to be less than 50. I don’t remember what the triglyceride level is supposed to be…Oh wait, google tells me it should be less than 150. You have excellent numbers! Finally, I can put my freshman anatomy & physiology class to good use.

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  3. Funnelcloud Rachel

    My doctor said the way to remember it is HDL is “Healthy” cholesterol and LDL is “Lousy” cholesterol. She said your HDL should actually be as high as possible, but at least 40. In fact, (actually according to my google search) HDL levels above 60 can protect against heart disease). Apparently, you can increase that number with aerobic exercise. My HDL is 70, to which she said “You must be a really active person!” Um, does sitting my butt in front of a computer all day reading blogs count as “active”?

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  4. Rachel

    Actually the HDL level to aim for is >60. It goes around scavenging cholesterol from your blood and taking it back to the liver to be excreted or incorporated into something else. 40-49 is the middle range, it isn’t a “bad” thing to have HDL in this level. Having HDL >60 can reduce your risk for cardiovascular disease.

    Triglycerides are the form dietary fat is transported in to be used in the body. High triglycerides are linked to increased risk of cardiovascular disease but this can be reduced by having the proper LDL:HDL ratio.

    I hope that helps!

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  7. Swistle's brother

    I can help with two things.

    1) Your sister-in-law, total cholesterol 375, gets really mad at me when I mention my total cholesterol. (I make sure to mention it at least once a month in a bragging, smug kind of way.) Now she’s mad at you, too.

    2) On my test results form, there are little annotations under each box, presumably indicating desirable ranges: Total below 200 mg/dl. HDL level, female, 40-55 mg/dl or above. LDL level, female, 100 mg/dl or below. Triglyceride, below 150 mg/dl. You appear to fall within all of these recommended ranges.

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  8. Suzi

    Thankfully, I get a physical every year at work, but the doc, says “you’re good” and I typically leave it at that. Numbers make my head hurt.

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  10. Michelle

    Wow, everyone is all helpy-helpful! That’s so nice. And apparently I don’t need to add my two cents ;) Other than to say that your numbers look good, and I need to work on mine a little but fortunately just a little :)

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  12. hangel

    Okay…

    LDL is your “bad” cholesterol. You want that less 130 for most adults. Less than 100 if there are major risk factors for heart disease.

    HDL is your “happy” cholesterol. You want that as high as possible, but at least 40. As others have said, if it is 60 or higher, it is actually cardioprotective.

    Triglycerides you want to be less than 150.

    Your total cholesterol needs to be less than 200.

    Your ratio should be less than 4.5 and yours is.

    Everything looks good!

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  15. Bertino Verse

    Talk about rotten bedside manner! Looks like you’ve got all the answers to your cholesterol questions. I’m glad to hear that you are nixing that guy. If I’ve learned anything over the years, its’ that there are a lot of BAD doctors out there. I had a lot of them before I found one that I truly felt comfortable with and trusted. Then she moved her practice too far away for me to follow. I cried when she told me…actually cried. The search now continues. Good luck with yours!

    Reply ↓

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