living well

It's important to know your heart health numbers

71, 98, 140, 27 and 22. These aren’t lottery numbers, but some might say they’re better than winning the lottery. The numbers indicate that this woman’s risk for heart disease is probably low. Taken in order, the numbers represent: good cholesterol bad cholesterol triglycerides
waist circumference body mass index	Lisa Abrahams, MD Interventional Cardiologist

If you’re concerned about your heart health, and everyone should be, “numbers are a good place to start,” says Dr. Lisa Abrahams, an interventional cardiologist at the SMDC Heart & Vascular Center. It’s important to know your heart health numbers for a couple of reasons. “Optimal levels have changed,” Dr. Abrahams notes. “What you thought was good in the past may be wrong now.” And knowing your numbers can help you be your own health advocate. Your HDL or “good cholesterol” reading should be higher than 50 if you’re a woman and higher than 40 if you’re a man. Your LDL or “bad cholesterol” reading should be less than 100 if  you’re healthy. Triglycerides, another form of cholesterol, should be less than 150.

Here are the optimal heart health numbers for healthy people: Total cholesterol: Less than 200 HDL: Higher than 50 for women, less than 40 for men LDL: Less than 100 (70 or less for heart patients) Triglycerides: Less than 150 Waist circumference: Less than 35 inches for women; less than 40 inches for men BMI (body mass index): 18.5 to 24.9 Fasting blood sugar: Less than 100 Blood pressure: Less than 140/80 Click here for more tips on how to prevent cardiovascular disease and detect it early. Help fight cardiovascular disease by joining the Northland Start! Heart Walk on Sept. 26. Learn more.

Total cholesterol, the least important cholesterol number, should be less than 200.

If you’re a woman, your waist circumference should be less than 35 inches (40 inches for a man) and your body mass index less (BMI) than 25 – but more than 18.5. If you are in those ranges, it means you’re at a good weight and that fat has not accumulated dangerously around your middle. They are indications that your heart may be in good shape. A BMI indicating you’re overweight is 25 to 29.9 and obese is 30 or higher.

"If you’re obese, you are probably less active, you probably have higher cholesterol, and you probably have other risk factors. And BMI is modifiable,” Dr. Abrahams points out.

Even if you have no other risk factors, being overweight makes heart attack and stroke more likely, according to the American Heart Association.

Another number that’s good to know is your fasting blood sugar. It should be less than 100, indicating that diabetes – a disease closely associated with heart disease – is not present. If you have prediabetes, which is the 100 to 126 range, taking action through diet, exercise and perhaps medication could mean you’ll never develop full-blown diabetes.

“If you intervene on five people who have prediabetes, you can prevent diabetes in at least one of those people,” Dr. Abrahams says.

Everyone should know his or her blood pressure numbers, too, because high blood pressure is associated with heart attacks and strokes. Those numbers should be 140/80 or less for healthy people.

Two issues that don’t have numbers are the worst risk factors of all, according to Dr. Abrahams. They are smoking and a family history of heart disease. Smoking is a behavior that can be changed, but unfortunately nothing can be done about family history. Still, your doctor should know about it and might decide to be more aggressive about finding ways to improve your numbers, she says.

It’s important to be your own health-care advocate and knowing your numbers is part of that. “Our focus in the women’s heart clinic has been to have them take charge of their own information,” Dr. Abrahams says.

Patients who know their heart health numbers can ask their physician for advice if those numbers change. That helps identify potential problems early, according to Dr. Abrahams.