Cholesterol: a Patient

Cholesterol: A Patient Conversation

Jennifer Jackson

Kaplan University

Cholesterol: A Patient Conversation

Hi Mr. Brown, my name is Jennifer Jackson I am your Physician’s Assistant today and I am here to give you the results to some tests that the doctor ordered for you. If you have any questions as I am going please feel free to stop me and ask all questions that you may have.

The doctor ordered a couple different tests for you. These tests were completed by a simple blood test. She tested your Triglycerides, Cholesterol, HDL and LDL. I am going to go over every one of these tests and explain the results and answer any questions you may have. I am here to help you understand all these results and to answer any questions that you may have about them.

First off we will start with you Triglycerides. Triglycerides are the fats from the foods we eat. Most fats come from things like butter and oils. Your test results for your triglycerides came back at 145 mg/dL. This is in the normal range. At this time we aren’t concerned with your triglycerides they are at a good level.

The second test we ran was you Cholesterol. Your cholesterol is the waxy substance found in the fats in your blood. Your body needs cholesterol to continue building healthy cells. However having high cholesterol increases you risk of heart disease. Your cholesterol levels were 210 mg/dL. This is in the borderline high risk level. This is something you are really going to have to work on before you start having heart problems due to high cholesterol.

The third test we ran was your HDL levels. Those numbers came back 33 mg/dL. These numbers are very concerning because you are at an increased risk for heart disease. Your HDL/high density lipoprotein is considered “good” cholesterol because it can help decrease the cholesterol buildup in the walls of the arteries that causes narrowing of their openings. This is very important for many reasons. You want these levels to be on the higher...