Your cholesterol levels show how much cholesterol is in your blood. Your HDL is the one number you want to be high (ideally above 60). Your LDL should be below 100.

Studies suggest that an optimal total cholesterol level is about 150 mg/dL, with LDL-C at or below 100 mg/dL, and adults with LDL-C in this level have lower rates of heart disease and stroke. Talk to your health care professional.

Discordance, defined as values of LDL-P and LDL-C differing by ≥ 12 percentile units to give equal-sized concordant and discordant subgroups, was related to CVD events and to carotid IMT in models predicting outcomes for a 1 SD difference in LDL-C or LDL-P, adjusted for age, sex and race.

One is low-density lipoprotein, or LDL. The other is high-density lipoprotein, or HDL. A test measures the amount of each type of cholesterol in your blood. LDL cholesterol is considered the “bad” cholesterol because it contributes to fatty buildups in arteries (atherosclerosis).

LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol. This is sometimes called "bad" cholesterol. It makes up most of your body's cholesterol. High levels of LDL cholesterol raise your risk for heart disease and stroke. HDL (high-density lipoprotein) cholesterol. This is sometimes called "good" cholesterol.