Understanding Your Cholesterol Numbers

Cholesterol is a fatty, waxy substance that circulates in your blood. Your liver makes some cholesterol, which your body uses to produce hormones and protect nerves. The rest comes from your diet.

Although you were likely told you have “high” cholesterol, that word can be misleading. High is bad when it comes to LDL cholesterol and triglycerides because they can harm your health. We’ll get into how they do that later on! But with HDL cholesterol, higher is better. It’s the healthy type of cholesterol. 

There is a common test done to check how high or how low your levels are.