What are normal cholesterol blood levels?

There are no “normal” blood levels for total and LDL cholesterol. In most other blood tests in medicine, normal ranges can be set by taking measurements from large number of healthy subjects.

For example, normal fasting blood sugar levels can be established by performing blood tests among healthy subjects without diabetes mellitus.

If a patient’s fasting blood glucose falls within this normal range, he/she most likely does not have diabetes mellitus, whereas if the patient’s fasting blood sugar tests higher than the normal range, he/she probably has diabetes mellitus and further tests can be performed to confirm the diagnosis.

Medications, such as insulin or oral diabetes medications can be prescribed to lower abnormally high blood sugar levels. Unfortunately, the normal range of LDL cholesterol among “healthy” adults (adults with no known coronary heart disease) in the United States may be too high.

The atherosclerosis process may be quietly progressing in many healthy adults with average LDL cholesterol blood levels, putting them at risk of developing coronary heart diseases in the future.