If you drink alcohol and aren't willing to stop, do not exceed moderate amounts (no more than a drink a day for women or two daily for men). Eat fewer refined carbohydrates, and cut back on saturated fat from meat. Aim for a healthy weight, get regular exercise, and eat more whole, unprocessed grains. To get your triglycerides back into a normal range, start with lifestyle changes. Growing evidence suggests that above-normal triglyceride levels can raise the risk of cardiovascular disease independent of cholesterol levels. Values of 151 to 200 mg/dL are considered borderline high those 201 to 499 are high, and those 500 and higher are very high (and increase the risk of inflammation of the pancreas gland, called pancreatitis). Certain medical conditions -including diseases affecting the liver, kidneys, or thyroid, and poorly controlled type 2 diabetes - can also lead to high triglycerides.įor healthy adults, normal triglyceride levels are under 150 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL). Other things that can raise blood levels of triglycerides include being overweight or obese, smoking, or heavy drinking. When you eat extra calories - especially from carbohydrate-rich foods such as sweets and white bread - your liver churns out extra triglycerides. Your liver also converts carbohydrates into triglycerides. Hypertriglyceridemia is the medical term for elevated triglycerides in the blood. When you need energy between meals, hormones release the stored triglycerides into the bloodstream. A very high level is more than 500 mg/dL. But within a few hours, they're mostly cleared out. After a very heavy, fatty meal, your bloodstream may contain so many triglyceride particles that a blood sample may have a milky tint. Triglycerides can provide energy to fuel your body, while the extras are deposited in fat tissue. Your lipid profile lists two of these lipoproteins: low-density lipoprotein (better known as LDL cholesterol) and high-density lipoprotein (also called HDL cholesterol).īut there are actually several other types of lipoproteins, including some that contain mainly triglycerides. Non-HDL cholesterol, as its name implies, simply subtracts your high-density lipoprotein (HDL, or 'good') cholesterol number from your total cholesterol number. So they combine with cholesterol and protein to form lipoproteins. These types of people should under lipid profile blood examination in the nearby labs to rule out high or low triglycerides. These fatty particles can't move freely through the watery bloodstream. When you eat food, enzymes in your gut break down fats into their component fatty acids, which are then reassembled to create triglyceride particles. They consist of three fatty acid chains linked by a molecule called glycerol. Triglycerides are the most common form of fat in the bloodstream. What exactly are triglycerides, and how are they different from cholesterol?Ī. My cholesterol is high, but so are my triglycerides. I just got the results of my lipid profile.

Blood triglycerides normal range