Huge wrote:
On 2008-03-04, Rod wrote:
Ed Sirett wrote:
snip

I have no idea what units blood cholesterol is measured in I just
know that 5.5 is pretty bad and 2.5 is pretty good.

5.5 ain't so bad. 8.6 is bad. (Don't ask me how I know...)


FYI:

'The amount of cholesterol in your blood is measured in units called
millimoles per litre of blood, usually shortened to "mmol/litre" or
"mmol/l". America uses the units milligrams per decilitre of blood:
"mg/dl" instead. Current UK guidelines state that it is desirable to
have a total cholesterol level under 5mmol/l, and an LDL level under
3mmol/l.'

http://hcd2.bupa.co.uk/fact_sheets/html/cholesterol.html

Interesting that "they" have changed from mass per unit volume to
number of molecules in a unit volume.

If you know the molecular weight of what is being measured, it's the
same thing, and biochemistry 'traditionally' uses molar measurements.

Current thinking (well, my doctor's anyway) is that it's the *ratio* of LDL
to HDL that's more important than the total amount cholesterol in the blood.
So if it's the ratio that's quoted, that is of course dimensionless.

LDL = low density lipoprotein or "bad" cholesterol HDL = high density
lipoprotein or "good" cholesterol

--
LSR (just started on statins...was 6.1 now 3.3)