Confused about cholesterol

[SparkyG]

I've just had a free cholesterol test at Sainsbury's pharmacy, and it showed my total cholesterol at 3.80 (so far so good!), but my HDL (good cholesterol) at 0.72. The pharmacist said it should be 1.2, but was a bit vague as to how I should increase it. He said do I eat a healthy diet, (yes), olive oil, oily fish etc (yes), so what do I do??

I appreciate that this was not a fasting test, so not 100% accurate, but I had similar results 3 years ago with a proper NHS lab test ordered by my GP.

When an 'ideal' cholesterol level is quoted are we talking about the TOTAL cholesterol, (in my case 3.80 - good), or the total cholesterol/HDL ratio, which in my case is 5.3? (not so good).

Should I be taking steps to increase my HDL without increasing the total cholesterol? How?:confused:

All advice welcome:D

SparkyG

[Ted_Hutchinson]

I think you'll find that Dr Davis of the Heartscanblog has cholesterol sussed. (http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Cholesterol)

Going wheat-free, along with a reduction in processed sugary foods like Hawaiian Punch, sodas, and candy, is the straightest, most direct path I know of to lose weight, obtain all the health benefits listed by our commenters, as well as achieve the lipoprotein corrections we seek, like reduction of small LDL particles and rise in HDL (http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/search?q=improve+hdl)

Best thing I ever did (apart from improving my vitamin D status) was going wheat free.