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Q: my cholesterol is 5.9 is that high
Hi Yogash,
I'm not sure if 5.9 is your ratio of Total Cholesterol to HDL cholesterol or if it is your total cholesterol in a different unit of measure.
If it's your total cholesterol to HDL ratio, it is desirable for this ratio to be less than 5. It's optimal for the ratio to be 3.5.
If this is your total cholesterol, I'd need to know the unit of measure. I am familiar with mg/dL. Total cholesterol should be less than 200 mg/dL.
All the best,
Lisa Nelson, RD, LN
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The conversion from mmol/Liter to mg/dl is multiply by 38.64
in the US his mumber would be given as 228.
before suggesting that that is high please see the following study of all cause mortality vs. cholesterol levels:
http://dspace.lib.kanazawa-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2297/7526/1/ME-PR-MABUCHI-H-1087.pdf
note that the lowest all cause mortality is achieved at TC levels of 220 to 260!
current recommendations are based on short term studies that DO NOT look at all cause mortality...they were designed to achieve the best results to sell drugs!!! see the following article published in The Royal Society of Medicine in 2004.