How fast can total cholesterol change?

[dweeks]

How rapidly can one's total cholesterol change?

I recently had blood work done, and had a higher total cholesterol number than I had expected.

I had not been eating very virtuously the previous several days; too much sausage, fatty foods, etc.

My general eating habits include quite a bit of pork, fish, chicken, but not that much red meat, so this was a sudden change.

How rapidly does dietary change for a relatively short period of time affect the total cholesterol number?

Overall, the results were pretty good, I thought, except for the higher total number.

Total 234
HDL 67
TC/HDL ratio 35
LDL 150
TriG 86

I'm 51, non-smoker, 5' 10" 145, size 31 waist.

[My Flight Surgeon]

I would stick to a good diet for 3 months and get it rechecked. With 234 total, diet will probably not bring it down to normal (<200). The Total cholesterol/HDL ratio of 3.5 is good.

The LDL of 150 is not what I want to see. IDEAL LDL cholesterol is <100 although some docs will accept up to 130. IMO why would I not want to have a cardiac risk in the ideal range?

[dweeks]

" The Total cholesterol/HDL ratio of 3.5 is good."

How much weight to do you assign to the ratio? From my reading, it seems opinions vary.

Also, TriG is quite low. The results sheet indicated less than 150 mg/DL is very good. Comments.

Lastly (and thanks again for your time), can a week or three of poor eating swing the numbers appreciably, or not?

[My Flight Surgeon]

First, it takes a few months to make changes.

The ratio is just an indicator. Most cardiologists I know rely on the LDL values.

A low triglyceride implies to me you have a normal blood glucose level.