Calculating Your Cardiac Risk Ratio

How Do You Calculate Your Cholesterol Ratio?

Let’s look at an example to guide us in our calculations. If your total cholesterol level and HDL level are 200 mg/dL and 50 mg/dL respectively, then your cholesterol ratio is 4:1. You get this ratio by dividing the total cholesterol value by the HDL count. Ideally, this cholesterol ratio should be below 3:1, however, a ratio of under 5:1 is good for maintaining a healthy balance.

The Bottom Line On the Cholesterol Ratio Numbers:

• A higher ratio difference implies higher risk for developing heart problems, whereas smaller difference relates to lower risk individuals.
• High levels of total cholesterol and low level of HDL heightens the ratio, which is even more undesirable.
• On the other hand, higher HDL and lower total cholesterol lower the ratio difference, which is desirable.