Cholesterol Levels For Women
It is important for women to know what good cholesterol levels for women will be for their bodies. Watching your cholesterol has become something many people are now accustomed to doing. Generally doctors will start monitoring your cholesterol level fairly early in life to make sure that it stays in check or if you have a family history of high cholesterol. Watching your cholesterol levels helps keep your risk for cholesterol-related diseases and illnesses at bay.
The day of a cholesterol test it is best to refrain from eating foods or drinking sugary drinks. Cholesterol test fasting is the best way for your doctor to get an accurate reading of your cholesterol levels. If your body is in fasting mode and there are still high levels of fat in your blood, then you can take action against your high cholesterol levels. However, if you have eaten recently the fat levels in your blood may be skewed for several hours afterwards because of the time it takes for the body to fully digest food. Most doctors will ask you to fast for a night before the test or for most of the day, depending on when the test is taken.
As a rule of thumb, good cholesterol levels for women should be 200 mg/dL or less. Cholesterol levels that are higher than 200 mg/dL put women at higher and higher risk for developing heart disease. However, having a cholesterol level of 190 mg/dL or more is already high in comparison to healthy levels of cholesterol. Good cholesterol levels for women should be less than 100 mg/dL.
The blood test only measures the amount of fat; it does not necessarily diagnose any particular disease. Getting a blood test for cholesterol will help your doctor to know what to check for. If you are probably being at a high risk for heart related problems because your cholesterol levels are much too high, then your doctor will be able to run tests for heart disease and identify any problems faster. The major problem with high cholesterol levels is that the fats and other debris in the blood will begin to build up on the walls of blood vessels, making them narrower and stiffer. This condition is called coronary artery disease, and it makes the likelihood of strokes and heart attacks much higher.
Age plays a factor in the risk that women will run for heart disease. Cholesterol issues tend to be more manageable while the body is young and can pump blood adequately even through slightly clogged blood vessels. When the blood vessels become smaller, less oxygen is able to reach the body’s cells and in the case of stroke when the brain doesn’t get all the oxygen it needs, it can become very dangerous.
Cholesterol levels for women over 45 are still the same as when they are 20. In fact, the body is even less capable of dealing with high cholesterol the older it gets. Having at least one cholesterol test around your 40th birthday can help you know if you should be taking medicine or changing your diet to lower your cholesterol levels.
Women over 50 years of age should plan to have cholesterol tests performed more often as around this age many women will experience menopause. Menopause will drop the levels of estrogen in a woman’s body quite drastically and this causes the body to have more total cholesterol, and unfortunately it adds mostly LDL which is commonly known as “bad” cholesterol as it is the kind that is not helpful to the body’s functions. Cholesterol levels for women over 50, then, can change drastically even if they had good cholesterol throughout their 40’s.
Watching your cholesterol is important at every stage in life. The earlier you make sure to have a good diet and get exercise, the longer you’ll be able to keep cholesterol levels at bay. Good cholesterol levels in women will prolong life and health.