Extremely low Cholesterol??

SilentGTboy said:

I gave blood at school at the end of last month and I called into get my cholesterol information. Well on the sheet that have the number to call it also had a cholesterol chart.
Total Cholesterol
Desirable Less then 200
Borderline High 200 - 239
High 240 and higher

I called and my cholesterol is 117. My friend who runs is 187. What is yours, and why is mine so low?

Genetics and diet.

Pop-[censored], Toninos pizza, and Soda?

SilentGTboy said:

Pop-[censored], Toninos pizza, and Soda?

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh you're the smart [censored] who chose his grandparents well....I always wondered who you were. 😄

How old are you? That has an impact as well.

17 yo male, 146 pounds

My old man once had a cholesterol value of 60. It was the lowest his doctor had ever seen . At the time he was superfit running garbage runs 5 nights a week in the old days when we still had garbage cans. However I'm under the impression that even though your value is low, some is better than none. This is due to the fact that cholestererol is vital in some quantity for survival although I'm not sure what the minimum is. Also cholesterol is actually a hormone and not a form of fat as some are misled nowadays.

Your cholesterol level is quite normal. Within the normal range of any biological marker there can be big difference between individuals due to genetics or even due to what you've eaten over the past 24 hrs.

Cholesterol is a lipid (fat like substance) precursor to the steroid hormones in the body and is used in cell memebranes. Even if you ate a very low cholesterol diet your body would still produce some from other sources.

thanks octagen, you're right, its a lipid . my mistake and thanks for the clarification. I'd forgotten it was required for hormones to function. good advice comes from many sources.

Hehe I'm just a picky chemist.

Duckwah said:

Hehe I'm just a picky chemist.

and a humble sydneysider like myself hehe. nrl tip for the finals???

Cholesterol is actually a lipid protein. At 17 years of age and male, that sounds about right. Your body is still growing and using all it can gather/make. It is low, make no mistake about that, but its not abnormally low. Mine was 120 at age 19 and its now 138 at 35+