The first step in understanding your cholesterol results is to de-mystify the units of measurement.
Measuring cholesterol in your blood is done by determining the concentration of cholesterol in a blood sample taken from you
There are two different ways to describe a concentration.
Method One:
The first way is by weight....as in....how many milligrams of cholesterol are in a known amount of liquid. In this case a deciliter of your blood.
A deciliter is one tenth of a liter....a small cup of coffee would contain about one deciliter.
Don't worry...if you've never had a cholesterol test done....they don't take a whole deciliter!
If you live in the United States, then your cholesterol level results will be expressed in milligrams per deciliter on your lab report.
It will show on your lab results like this ..
Example: Total cholesterol 200mg/dL...which means there is 200mg of cholesterol in total..present in one deciliter of your blood.
Method Two:
The second way to express a concentration is by molecular count. This is measured in units called Moles.
If you ever took chemistry then that unit shouldn't be a total mystery to you! If you didn't take chemistry...that's ok...you don't need to understand the technicalities! ...as long as you know what you are looking at when you get your lab results and understand what a safe cholesterol level is...that's what matters!
Many countries outside of the United States use method two to express their cholesterol results on lab reports.
If you happen to live in the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia or New Zealand...among others...then your cholesterol level on your lab results will be expressed as millimoles per liter of blood.
It will look like this on your report.
Example: Total cholesterol 5.1mmol/l
If you want to convert Triglycerides from one unit to the other... do this...
150mg/dl of triglycerides divided by 89 = 1.68mmol/l
1.68mmol/l of triglycerides multiplied by 89 = 150mg/dl
..of course, these units are shown as an example
...use your own results with the conversion factors.
Measuring cholesterol in your blood is done by determining the concentration of cholesterol in a blood sample taken from you
There are two different ways to describe a concentration.
Method One:
The first way is by weight....as in....how many milligrams of cholesterol are in a known amount of liquid. In this case a deciliter of your blood.
A deciliter is one tenth of a liter....a small cup of coffee would contain about one deciliter.
Don't worry...if you've never had a cholesterol test done....they don't take a whole deciliter!
If you live in the United States, then your cholesterol level results will be expressed in milligrams per deciliter on your lab report.
It will show on your lab results like this ..
Example: Total cholesterol 200mg/dL...which means there is 200mg of cholesterol in total..present in one deciliter of your blood.
Method Two:
The second way to express a concentration is by molecular count. This is measured in units called Moles.
If you ever took chemistry then that unit shouldn't be a total mystery to you! If you didn't take chemistry...that's ok...you don't need to understand the technicalities! ...as long as you know what you are looking at when you get your lab results and understand what a safe cholesterol level is...that's what matters!
Many countries outside of the United States use method two to express their cholesterol results on lab reports.
If you happen to live in the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia or New Zealand...among others...then your cholesterol level on your lab results will be expressed as millimoles per liter of blood.
It will look like this on your report.
Example: Total cholesterol 5.1mmol/l
When dealing with cholesterol
results, if you want to convert HDL, LDL or Total Cholesterol from one
unit to the other...do as follows.
200mg/dl Total Cholesterol divided by 39 = 5.1 mmol/l Total Cholesterol
5.1mmol/l TC multiplied by 39 = 200mg/dl TC
5.1mmol/l TC multiplied by 39 = 200mg/dl TC
If you want to convert Triglycerides from one unit to the other... do this...
150mg/dl of triglycerides divided by 89 = 1.68mmol/l
1.68mmol/l of triglycerides multiplied by 89 = 150mg/dl
..of course, these units are shown as an example
...use your own results with the conversion factors.
