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Triglycerides
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Common Questions
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1. What type of diet is best for optimal triglyceride levels?
2. What drug treatments are recommended for uncontrolled triglyceride levels?
3. Can exercise help with triglyceride levels?
4. Can I monitor triglyceride levels at home?
5. What is VLDL and how does it relate to triglyceride?
1. What type of diet is best for optimal triglyceride levels?
Since triglycerides are circulating forms of fat, you might think that a high fat diet will raise triglycerides and a low fat diet would lower triglycerides. However, carbohydrate appears to be the most important dietary predictor of triglycerides. Diets high in carbohydrates, especially sugar, lead to increases in triglycerides.
2. What drug treatments are recommended for uncontrolled triglyceride levels?
For many people, uncontrolled triglycerides are caused by another disorder - like diabetes, obesity, renal failure, or alcoholism. Therefore the treatment strategy is to treat the primary cause. When high triglycerides are not caused by another disorder, they are often seen together with high cholesterol. Treatment is directed toward lowering both cholesterol and triglycerides. If diet fails, drug treatment is generally recommended.
3. Can exercise help with triglyceride levels?
Yes. Exercise is especially helpful in lowering triglycerides and raising HDL (which tends to decrease when triglycerides increase). Exercise also helps diabetics minimize their need for insulin. The metabolic changes that occur with exercise reflect better utilization of energy by body tissues. Even in the absence of weight loss, exercise will help you lower both LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, while raising HDL cholesterol.
4. Can I monitor triglyceride levels at home?
Several products are available to test triglycerides at home. There are two types of tests--those where you collect the sample at home and then mail it away to a laboratory for testing and those where you conduct the test yourself at home (self-monitoring). The American Heart Association hasn’t taken a position on the use of home testing devices for measuring cholesterol levels. Before making the decision to use one of these products, you may want to review the article about home testing on this site: With Home Testing, Consumers Take Charge of Their Health.
5. What is VLDL and how does it relate to triglyceride?
Very Low Density Lipoprotein (VLDL) is one of three major lipoprotein particles. The other two are high density lipoprotein (HDL) and low density lipoprotein (LDL). Each one of these particles contains a mixture of cholesterol, protein, and triglyceride, but in varying amounts unique to each type of particle. LDL contains the highest amount of cholesterol. HDL contains the highest amount of protein. VLDL contains the highest amount of triglyceride. Since VLDL contains most of the circulating triglyceride and since the compositions of the different particles are relatively constant, it is possible to estimate the amount of VLDL cholesterol by dividing the triglyceride value (in mg/dL) by 5. At present, there is no simple, direct way of measuring VLDL-cholesterol, so the estimate calculated from triglyceride is used in most settings. This calculation is not valid when the triglyceride is greater than 400 mg/dL.
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This article was last reviewed on
August 13, 2007.
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