{"id":181584,"date":"2022-02-17T07:15:51","date_gmt":"2022-02-17T12:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=181584"},"modified":"2022-06-22T08:46:45","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T12:46:45","slug":"uconn-health-cardiologist-everyone-needs-to-know-their-cholesterol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2022\/02\/uconn-health-cardiologist-everyone-needs-to-know-their-cholesterol\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Health Cardiologist: \u2018Everyone\u2019 Needs to Know Their Cholesterol"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>High cholesterol is one of the major risk factors for the development of heart disease. Persistently elevated levels of cholesterol in our bodies can lead to a build-up of plaque in our blood vessels, potentially leading to a heart attack or stroke.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery adult needs to have their cholesterol checked to determine their baseline risk of heart disease, \u201c recommends Dr. John Glenn Tiu, a preventive cardiologist at the Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center. The frequency of checking your cholesterol depends on a number of factors, including your baseline risk and whether you are taking cholesterol-lowering medications.<\/p>\n<p>The blood test, called a \u201clipid panel,&#8221; is comprised of 4 main components:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Total cholesterol<\/strong> \u2013 Ideally should be below 200<\/li>\n<li><strong>LDL cholesterol<\/strong> \u2013 Or so-called \u201cbad cholesterol\u201d; ideally should be less than 100<\/li>\n<li><strong>HDL cholesterol<\/strong> \u2013 Or so-called \u201cgood cholesterol\u201d; low levels (&lt;40 in men and &lt;50 in women) imply increased risk<\/li>\n<li><strong>Triglycerides<\/strong> \u2013 Ideally should be below 150; higher values confer increased risk<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Based on these results and factoring in your other medical issues, your doctor or cardiologist can determine whether you are at low, intermediate or high risk of heart disease.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"UConn Health Minute: Cholesterol and Heart Health\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/baok9ShjmB8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn general, we recommend lifestyle changes alone for individuals at low risk and cholesterol-lowering medications for individuals at high risk,\u201d says Tiu, \u201cfor individuals at intermediate risk, we have a discussion regarding the potential benefit of cholesterol-lowering therapies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For intermediate risk individuals who are unsure about starting medications, there are specialized blood tests and tools such as a coronary artery calcium score that can help further refine their individual risk.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA calcium score is a CT scan that can quantify the amount of calcium build-up in the blood vessels of your heart,\u201d explains Tiu. &#8220;It is quick, has low radiation exposure, and does not require the use of contrast.\u201d Individuals with a score of zero may choose to defer starting medications for the time being, while individuals with a score greater than 100 will most likely benefit from cholesterol-lowering therapy. Of note, this test is generally not covered by insurance at this time and a fee of roughly $125 is usually charged for this test.<\/p>\n<p>Tiu emphasizes that a calcium score cannot specifically determine whether an individual has a blockage in their blood vessels. He recommends talking to your doctor or cardiologist to properly interpret the results and institute a personalized treatment plan.<\/p>\n<p>Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in U.S. adults, and estimates show that over 80% of cases are preventable with lifestyle changes such as consuming a heart-healthy diet, regular exercise, weight loss, smoking cessation, and adequate control of an individual\u2019s risk factors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI encourage everybody to take charge of their heart health,\u201d says Tiu, \u201cand getting your cholesterol checked is a good first step in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lipid panels, calcium scores, and more tools to stay on top of your health <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":181595,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1969,2231,2235,179],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1873],"class_list":["post-181584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cardiology","category-health-well-being","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-health","series-heart-health"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 23:13:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181584"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181936,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181584\/revisions\/181936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/181595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181584"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=181584"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=181584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}