Dr Frank Aieta's Naturopathic Formulas™ Supplements Blog
The 2 Markers You SHOULD Look At On Your Lipid Panel Results
High cholesterol is a sign that the body's hormones are not in balance. To treat the symptom (the high blood cholesterol), most physicians will resort to statin drugs to actually poison the liver's ability to produce cholesterol....not only can this worsen hormone imbalances, but it can greatly increase the person's risk of developing other more serious diseases.
Total cholesterol levels up to 300 were not considered important until there were pharmaceutical drugs available to lower the levels. In my practice I will first and foremost treat the cause of the cholesterol as a problem of nutrition and a problem of hormone imbalance.
So, when looking at the results of a lipid panel I tell patients to pretty much disregard the total cholesterol and primarily look at just the following 2 markers:
1) Triglycerides – these are fats in the blood that the liver will manufacture when you take in more sugar, carbohydrates and starches in your diet than what your body can burn. So, what the body does is that when there is too much fuel on board (glucose) the body needs to get rid of it so it turns it into a fat called a triglyceride which can be used later as an energy source or stored directly as body fat. When we see elevated triglycerides on a person’s fasting lipid panel, we can assume that they are in a state of carbohydrate and sugar excess and fat storage.
The ideal range for fasting triglycerides is between 60-90 mg/dL.
2) Total Cholesterol/HDL Ratio – this marker takes a look at the total cholesterol divided by the HDL cholesterol. Let’s discuss why looking at this marker is far superior to simply looking at total levels of cholesterol.
We ideally want to see this ratio below 3.5.
After looking at the above lab tests we will know how well your body is dealing with the amount of fuel you are taking in from your diet. Now we need to know how fast your cells are actually burning that fuel.
