| total cholesterol | ldl cholesterol |
|
desirable less than 200 mg/dL (< 5.18 mmol/L)
borderline high 200 - 239 mg/dL (5.18 - 6.19 mmol/L) high 240 mg/dL and above (> 6.19 mmol/L) |
optimal less than 100 mg/dL (< 2.59 mmol/L)
near optimal 100 - 129 mg/dL (2.59 - 3.34 mmol/L) borderline high 130 - 159 mg/dL (3.34 - 4.12 mmol/L) high 160 - 189 mg/dL (4.12 - 4.90 mmol/L) very high 190 mg/dL and above (> 4.90 mmol/L) |
Canada (and the UK) use the unit of mmol / L (millimoles per litre) to measure cholesterol levels. Americans use the unit mg / dL (milligrams per decilitre). There are lots of websites with info about cholesterol ranges using the American units, so I made this converter to put my numbers in context. The converter above works in both directions - if you want mmol / L just make sure that box is cleared.
The converter itself is trivial, all it does is multiply or divide by a constant factor of 38.6598. This is based on the fact that the molecular weight of cholesterol is 386.598. By definition a mole of cholesterol weighs 386.598 grams. Therefore one millimole weighs 386.598 mg.
1 mmol / L X 386.598 mg / mmol X 0.1 L / dL = 38.6598 mg / dL
I guess for mental calculations you could just multiply / divide by 40.
ranges (lots of different ranges out there, this is just one)
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/chol/wyntk.htm#numbers
cholesterol education from NIH
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/chd/
cholesterol CML representation
http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/chimeral/resources/cml/chimeral/cholesterol.xml
on converting cholesterol measurements
http://www.nurseminerva.co.uk/measure.htm#q8
javascript calculator examples (view source on this page to see my code)
http://javascript.internet.com/calculators/