What Number of LDL Cholesterol Should I Aim For?

LDL cholesterol levels at or below 100 would be ideal. Watch this video to learn more from Dr. Curtis Mann about the number of LDL cholesterol you should aim for.

Transcript

00:00

When I look at LDL levels I like to look at it in three different tiers. So the 100 tier, the 130 and then the 160. You know for

00:08

those patients at the highest risk of a heart disease or actually have a heart disease we'd want that below 100. So people that have

00:17

a heart disease equivalent to me are patients that have diabetes, people that have chronic kidney disease, people that have diseases

00:26

to arteries like carotid arteries or abdominal arteries, their peripheral vascular systems. Those are patients that we want below 100,

00:34

and ideally we'd really like to be aggressive and get those below 70. In the 130 camp these are patients that have two or more heart

00:43

disease risk factors. So when we look at heart disease risk factors, this would mean age, family history, are you a smoker, do you have

00:51

high blood pressure, is your HDL below 40. So each one of those is a heart disease risk factor. If you have two or more of those

00:59

we want your below 130. For 160 if you have one heart disease risk factor or

01:05

no disease risk factors you wanna see it below 160. The truth is, we love everybody around 100 or a little bit below 100. Anytime

01:15

you have an LDL above 100 you're very slowly or very rapidly accumulating plaque in your arteries so getting that at or below