More American patients seek treatment abroad to escape high medical costs
Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The number of Americans heading abroad for medical care rose sharply last year amid high health care costs and a poor economy in the United States, according to medical tourism industry figures.
Some of their preferred locations for life-saving surgeries and other procedures are India and Mexico, the health information company Health Digital Systems reported.
Surgeries like hip replacements, dental implants and heart bypasses can cost half as much in Southeast Asia and Latin America compared with the United States.
Among the six million Americans who traveled abroad for medical care last year, 45 percent traveled to Asia, 26 percent to Latin America and 2 percent to the Middle East, according to industry statistics.
Health care officials in the countries treating foreigners are upbeat about their patients. Medical tourism, primarily from the United States and Europe, represents a nearly $100 billion a year industry.
Mexico’s Health Ministry recently produced a report saying “the globalization of health services can offer excellent medical care at lower costs than developed countries.”
The health ministry has developed a strategic plan to encourage medical tourism by continuing “the effort to improve the perception of public safety and promote [Mexico's] image as a global capital of culture and entertainment.”
Any success by Mexico’s health providers in reaching American patients is most obvious in border cities like Monterrey, Tijuana and Chihuahua, according to the Health Digital Systems. Pharmacies, hospitals and medical specialty practices have sprung up to take care of them.
However, patients also assume risks by trusting their health care to foreign medical standards.
Only 2 percent of Mexico’s hospitals have earned “Joint International Commission” certification.
The certification means a hospital and its staff have met international standards that would allow them to be reimbursed by foreign medical insurance companies.
India’s medical tourism industry is losing patients to competing hospitals in Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia amid concerns about poor sanitation.
Indian hospitals have been struggling with a “superbug” that is resistant to disinfectant.
As a result, some patients are reporting they become sick when they enter Indian hospitals for other treatments.
Nevertheless, the discount price of foreign medical treatment is creating a backlog of patients for hospitals with good reputations.
Mediescape, an Indian medical tourism company, reports that India’s hospitals offering medical services to patients from the United States and Europe say their booked up to December.
Between 15 percent and 20 percent of India’s hospital income now comes from medical tourism, according to industry data.
There were 800,000 foreign patients in India last year. They are expected to generate a $3 billion a year industry for India by 2015, up by more than a third from 2010.
Behind the figures on rising medical tourism is the desperation of patients who cannot afford health care in the United States, where about 40 percent of the population lacks adequate medical insurance, according to U.S. government statistics.
Some Americans are even treating themselves for serious ailments, not always with successful outcomes, according to a recent survey by TMD Limited, a medical tourism company.
“Today we are seeing many breast cancer patients that self-treated for years,” said Antonio Jimenez, a doctor raised in New Jersey who now runs the Hope4Cancer Institute in Mexico’s Baja California. “Unfortunately, cancer treatment is not a do-it-yourself project.”
Many of the women search for treatments on the Internet.
“We see more and more women who have spent thousands of dollars on supplements and wonder cures they used at home,” Jimenez said. “When those treatments fail, they look for a clinic that can help.”
The American Cancer Society reports that 230,480 American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year. Of those, 39,520 will die.
View full post on Health Treatment Stories
Soaring Health Costs Pinned On Medical Devices
United States (KaiserHealth) – While squabbles over the rules for approving new medical devices rarely attract much attention outside the insular world of manufacturers, regulators and medical professions, a fight is brewing that could have a major impact on efforts to control health-care spending.
The device industry has launched an aggressive campaign to avoid tighter Food and Drug Administration rules that would help generate the information needed to show whether newer devices are actually superior to the ones they replace. The latest devices – from heart valves and defibrillators to artificial knees and hips – are usually significantly more expensive than older devices, and the intense marketing surrounding the introduction of new devices has become a major driver of rising health care costs.
Many medical specialists say tighter rules are needed to ensure newer devices are safe and effective, which could help hold down costs. “Better regulation of medical devices has the potential to reduce health care costs,” said Steve Nissen, chairman of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. “New devices are often more complex and expensive than existing products, but may not offer any improvements in health outcomes. The current regulatory approach allows these devices to reach the market with little or no clinical data.”
“Requiring evidence of benefit of effectiveness for patients before device approval would prevent billions of dollars from being spent on technologies that are not helpful for patients and are even harmful,” said Rita Redberg, editor of the Archives of Internal Medicine and a cardiologist at the University of California, San Francisco. “There are many examples, such as vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty for back pain [compression fractures], on which Medicare spends approximately $1 billion annually. After they were FDA-approved, randomized clinical trials showed they were no more effective than a sham procedure in relieving symptoms.”
Despite the cry for tighter rules, think tanks funded by industry in recent weeks have released several studies claiming that the FDA is standing in the way of improved devices getting to market. Congress is holding hearings to investigate the issue. And a third of the members of the House has signed a letter calling for legislation that would roll back a small excise tax that proponents claim is choking off “innovation.”
The 2.3 percent tax projected to generate $20 billion over the coming decade was part of the health care reform law and was similar to excise taxes slapped on the drug and insurance industries, which have not launched similar campaigns. All three industries are among the most profitable in America.
The controversy has important regional political significance because many of the device manufacturers are major employers in the Midwest – especially in Minnesota, Ohio, and Indiana. With the backing of Midwestern lawmakers, the industry is fighting back. Rep. Erik Paulsen, R-Minn., whose district abuts the headquarters of industry giant Medtronic, last week released a letter with 154 co-signers, including four Democrats, that called for repealing the $2 billion-a-year tax.
“Device manufacturers will have to cut R&D or may be forced to lay off employees due to this disastrous tax,” the letter said.
Proponents of the industry warn that what they describe as hostile government action could lead to a loss of jobs. Moreover, some manufacturers claim that they are looking overseas for a more permissive regulatory environment. There are over 8,000 medical device companies in the U.S.; they generated about $136 billion in sales and employed over 422,000 last year, according to industry officials.
While the industry did better than the economy as a whole through the recession, losing only 1.1 percent of its jobs compared with nearly 5 percent of all manufacturing workers, its job performance lagged behind the rest of the health-care economy, which added employment throughout the downturn.
Two years ago, the medical device industry, which manufactures everything from heart valves to ace bandages, came under tougher scrutiny. The FDA had become more aggressive overseeing the industry in response to criticism that it had repeatedly caved to corporate and political pressure when approving new products. After health-care reformers targeted the industry for higher taxes to help pay for covering the uninsured, Democratic leaders in Congress asked the prestigious Institute of Medicine (IOM) to convene a blue-ribbon panel to determine if the industry needed tougher regulations to ensure the safety and effectiveness of its products. With the IOM’s final report due later this month, the industry is mounting a major public relations offensive to blunt calls for stronger oversight.
The Institute for Health Technology Studies, which is primarily funded by the industry, late last month released an industry survey showing American companies are increasingly going to Europe to get new devices approved. Industry executives also claimed that the FDA in the last few years has arbitrarily toughened its standards for new devices that are similar to products already on the market. In the past, those look-alike products usually received a less rigorous review than brand new medical innovations.
“As the FDA considers regulatory revisions, what’s at stake is the ability of companies to attract investors in order to continue developing innovative, life-saving products and sustaining American competitiveness in the global marketplace,” said John Linehan, a professor of biomedical engineering at Northwestern University and lead author of the survey.
Paulsen, the Minnesota lawmaker, cited the example of Xtent, a Menlo Park, Calif., device maker that tried to gain approval to start a U.S. clinical trial for its coronary stent. Surgeons had already inserted the company’s stent in hundreds of European patients. When the FDA refused to consider data from the European experiences and insisted on a prospective clinical trial, the company closed its doors and sold the technology to foreign investors.
Last week, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee called in the FDA’s top device regulator to explain the changes underway at the agency, which Republican members claimed had gone too far. “In some cases, the conveyor belt for medical devices has come to a grinding halt,” charged Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-SC., who chairs the health subcommittee.
Jeffrey Shuren, a lawyer and physician who 18 months ago replaced the previous head of the troubled Center for Devices and Radiological Health at FDA, promised to “do a far better job to make the process more efficient without compromising our standards for safety and efficacy.”
Earlier this year, the FDA proposed new rules that would give companies more certainty about what would be expected from them when bringing new products to the agency. But it postponed consideration of any major changes in the oversight process pending the IOM report, which could propose companies do more clinical trials proving efficacy for follow-on devices.
The current rules are a product of the 1976 law that ushered in the modern era of medical device regulation. They require any new device whose failure would pose a serious risk to public health to go through rigorous clinical trial testing in humans for both safety and effectiveness before going on the market. But the law also set up a regulatory scheme, known as the 510(k) process, which allows follow-on devices deemed substantially similar to something already on the market to get approved without the same level of testing. Regulators have discretionary power to order more tests.
The vast majority of new devices use the follow-on process, even though their manufacturers often claim superior performance to the older models and charge accordingly. The result is a lack of scientific data for making those comparisons, which leaves Medicare, private insurers and physicians in the dark as to their relative worth.
The regulatory framework for potentially life-saving devices differs from drugs, where follow-on products – say, the four or fifth statin to come to market for lowering cholesterol – must still go through rigorous clinical trial testing. While that doesn’t meet the gold standard of head-to-head comparisons between competing products, at least that gives medical analysts sufficient information to know if one drug is significantly better or worse than another product in the same class.
Safety issues can arise when there are no clinical trials for follow-on devices. And that also contributes to rising health care spending, since it can result in costly recalls or even follow-on operations to replace faulty devices. The updated devices often change materials or tweak the engineering, which can alter their performance once put in the body or deployed in health care settings.
A study published earlier this year in Archives of Internal Medicine found that of 113 major product recalls between 2005 and 2009, only’ percent had gone through the more rigorous clinical trial testing required for new products, while 71 percent had used the follow-on process. There had been only 49 major recalls in the prior five years.
“Yes, the FDA’s getting tougher and it’s long overdue,” said the study’s lead author, Diana Zuckerman, executive director of the National Research Center for Women and Families. “Too many things were sailing through without clear evidence they were safe and effective.”
She cited last December’s recall of 359 million glucose test strips manufactured by Abbott Laboratories, whose malfunction could give diabetics false readings and lead to under or over-medication. Last week Redberg of UCSF told the oversight subcommittee to reject calls for speeding up the regulatory review process in the name of fostering greater innovation. She cited a 2009 Government Accountability Office report that found that a majority of high-risk devices do not go through clinical trial testing prior to marketing. “Only high-quality clinical trials can assure safety and effectiveness, especially when it comes to high risk devices that are used with invasive procedures,” she said.
– Provided by Kaiser Health News.
View full post on Health Stories
About Hypothyroidism – a Common Health Problem
By hypothyroidism, the thyroid gland is producing too less hormones to stimulate the metabolism, or the body is not able to utilize the hormones. The lack of thyroid hormones slows down the metabolism and thus all the activities in the body, giving a combination of many symptoms related to slowness of bodily processes.
Hypothyroidism is common, but the frequency of the condition is not well determined. Some authorities estimate that 0.5% of the total American population have the disease to some degree. The frequency is much greater among people over 50 years of age than among young people.
THE SYMPTOMS AND COMPLICATIONS OF HYPOTHYROIDISM
The most common early symptoms are: Mental and physical fatigue, weakness, weight gain or over-weight, and depression.
One or more of these symptoms also use to appear early: Constipation, sensitivity to coldness, cold hands and feet, thick tongue, decreased sweating, dry hair, thin brittle hair, thin brittle nails, muscle and joint pain, pale or yellowish skin, rashes and itching.
One or more of these symptoms usually appear later: Poor memory, slow thought process, drowsiness, slow speech, thinning of eyebrows, hoarseness, low blood pressure, poor circulation, dry and flaky skin, decreased taste and smell, menstrual irregularities, skin thickening, puffy face, puffy hands and feet, swelling of extremities, overall swelling, muscle spasms, muscle atrophy, joint stiffness.
In children or young persons hypothyroidism may give developmental problems, like disturbed tooth development and short stature.
Hypothyroidism increases the risk of elevated cholesterol levels, heart disease and diabetes (diabetes mellitus). This occurs even by moderately decreased thyroid production.
THE THYROID GLAND AND ITS HORMONES
To understand the hypothyroidism, some knowledge about the thyroid gland and its hormones is essential.
The thyroid gland produces hormones that accelerate and in other wise regulate metabolism. A part of metabolism is the process of breaking down energy containing nutrients, and using the energy to produce molecules that all the processes and activities in the body use as fuel. Another part is the production of molecules that the body use as building materials.
The thyroid makes four hormones: Thyroxin (T4), triiodothyronine (T3), diiodothyronine (T2) and monoiodothyronine (T1). The hormones contain iodine, and the figures tell about the number of iodine atoms in each hormone molecule. T3 is not made directly, but is produced from T4. T3 is a more efficient hormone than T4. Therefore this conversion is important.
The pituitary, a gland under the brain, produces a hormone called thyrotropin or thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) that enhances the activity of the thyroid gland. If the body has too less thyroid hormone in the blood, the pituitary produces more thyrotropin. This makes the thyroid gland speed up its own production. By a too heavy thyroid hormone concentration, less thyrotropin is produced by the pituitary, and the thyroid gland slows down. This feed-back mechanism regulates the metabolism of the whole body.
THE MECHANISMS AND CAUSES OF HYPOTHYROIDISM
By hypothyroidism the body does not get enough thyroid hormone, or the hormones do not work effectively in the body. This causes the metabolism to slow down. When the metabolism decreases, the processes in the body do not get enough fuel and building materials, and all the body activities will therefore slow down. Energy containing nutrient will also be stored as fat, since they are not broken down.
Serious variants of hypothyroidism are called myxedema. This is a rare condition. However, less serious, but painful variants are common. There are several reasons for hypothyroidism, each giving a variant of the disease:
*An autoimmune reaction against the thyroid tissue can destroy the capability of the thyroid gland to produce hormones (for example Hashimoto’s disease).
*Sometimes the production of T3 by conversion from T4 is impaired. The total amount of hormones may be normal in these cases, but the body is still lacking T3, and gets the symptoms of hypothyroidism.
*Iodine deficiency can cause hypothyroidism, since the thyroid hormones contain iodine. In Europe and America the food is seldom short in iodine, but bad nutrition may result in iodine deficiency.
*Surgery or radiation at the thyroid area can destroy enough tissue to cause hypothyroidism.
*Injury or disease in the pituitary or of the part of the brain controlling the pituitary may cause a decrease in secreted thyrotropin, and then the thyroid will respond by producing less of its own hormones with hypothyroidism as a result.
*Some people have symptoms of hypothyroidism even though the amount of thyroid hormone in the blood is normal. One of the symptoms is raised levels of thyrotropin, indicating that the body signals need for more thyroid hormones. This variant may be caused by conditions elsewhere in the body that make it difficult for the hormone to reach their destination in the cells. In many of these cases the immune system produces anti-bodies against the thyroid hormones. This variant is called sub-clinical hypothyroidism, and responds to the same treatment as ordinary hypothyroidism.
*Some types of food can contribute to a depressed thyroid function or aggravate hypothyroidism when eaten raw in great amounts: Brussel sprouts, broccoli, corn oil, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, radishes, rutabaga, soy and turnips. By cooking these vegetables, the depressing effect is decreased
*Factors suspected for causing hypothyroidism are: The artificial sweetener aspartame, mercury pollution, dental fillings containing mercury, fluoride and heavy metal pollution.
HOW CAN HYPOTHYROIDISM BE TREATED
For serious hypothyroidism caused by tissue destruction, external supplement of thyroid hormones is necessary.
When the condition is caused by lack of iodine in the diet, dietary changes and iodine supplements will be a part of the treatment.
Less serious, but painful hypothyroidism is sometimes also treated with hormone supplements. In these cases it is difficult to find the right dose, and treatment may result in hormone poisoning.
You can sometimes alleviate hypothyroidism by reducing the amount of food suspected for depressing the thyroid function: Brussel sprouts, broccoli, corn oil, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, radishes, rutabaga, soy, soy products and turnips. However, these food types are valuable in many ways, so it is probably not wise to cut them out totally. Also try to avoid artificial ingredients like the sweetener aspartame, conserving additives and fluoride.
Changing out mercury dental fillings and avoiding mercury or heavy metal exposure may help to ameliorate the condition.
You may also alleviate the condition by eating food that stimulates the thyroid function according to practical experience: Chia seed, dulse, fish from the ocean, flax seed, pumpkin seed, seaweed, coconut and brewer yeast.
You can find nutritional supplements to help for hypothyroidism. The compositions of these products vary:
*They may contain building materials that the thyroid uses to make its hormones, for example: iodine, acetyl-L-tyrosine or L-phenylalanine.
*They may also contain vitamins and minerals that stimulate the mechanism of hormone production by being a part of necessary enzymes, or by helping the absorption of the ingredients that hormones are made from, like: Magnesium, zinc, selenium, copper and vitamin E.
*They may furthermore contain constituents that stimulate tissue regeneration by being part of tissue building enzymes, and thus helping to restore a degraded thyroid, for example: Folic acid or folate, vitamin B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B5 (pantothenic acid or pantothenate), B6 (pyridoxine), B12 (cyanocobalamin) and molybdenum.
About Author Knut Holt is an internet consultant and marketer focusing on health items. To find more advices and natural products to help against hypothyroidism and other health problems please visit:
Tofu is a Good Thing Treating Disease
Expert treatment of uterine fibroids is to eat
Tofu for the tonic heat health food, eat it regularly, can Buzhongyiqi, heat dryness, thirst, cleaning the stomach, is more suitable for hot body, bad breath, thirst, gastrointestinal unclear, fever, who nursed back to health after consumption. Modern medicine confirms that tofu addition to increase nutrition, help digestion, increase appetite functions, on the teeth, bone growth and development is also quite beneficial in the hematopoiesis in the increased content of iron in the blood; tofu does not contain cholesterol, high blood pressure , high cholesterol, high cholesterol and atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease in patients with medicated food. Tofu is rich in phytoestrogens, osteoporosis prevention and treatment of the role of a good, the tofu in the steroid steroids, stigmasterol, are the active ingredients of tumor suppressor.
tofu In southern Germany, a man named Forte of the town, where a man named “European Journal of Clinical” hospitals, which Klein, director of gynecology Gun grams (Klein Gunk), said he first noticed Japan, the proportion of women suffering from breast cancer than women in Europe is low, however, Japanese women living in the United States, the incidence rate will be increased, he thought, “This must be with the environment or diet.” In Japan, people love to eat tofu and soy products, so the beginning of Klein Gun grams of tofu. His results show that this is the female sex hormone beans on the plant. Klein Gun grams, these plants into the body of a female sex hormone, to occupy the body in the cell’s own estrogen, which play a barrier and hormone-related cancers, especially breast and uterine cancer. Gun grams Klein said, eat tofu and soy products also good for menopausal women, menopause can reduce the response, he said, “Japanese women in this respect is much less painful.
” Klein Gunn g results show that eating tofu can also reduce the incidence of uterine fibroids.
Cholesterol Levels and Ratios – Are Your Cholesterol Numbers Confusing You?
Cholesterol levels are being tested all over the world in order to determine risk factors for heart disease, yet many people are confused by their cholesterol numbers and how they are expressed. Part of this confusion may stem from the fact that literature originating in the United States gives cholesterol levels in units that are different from those used in Canada, Europe, and a good portion of the rest of the developed world. So when you are looking for information to help you understand your test results, on the internet and elsewhere, you might not understand the numbers that are reported in the American literature because they might look quite different from the cholesterol numbers on your lab report.
The United States reports cholesterol levels in mg/dL (milligrams per decilitre) of blood. The rest of the world is using the measurement called mmol (or millimoles per litre). Without going back to basic chemistry from high school, let’s just say that they are different measurements. So is it any wonder that these two ways of expressing your cholesterol numbers are so different?
Here is how the two different systems of measurement stack up for desirable cholesterol numbers.
As expressed in the system of measurement used in the United States
Total cholesterol = less than 200 mg/dL LDL = less than 100-129 mg/dL (below 100 is best) HDL = more than 40 mg/dL (greater than 60 is considered protective against heart disease)
However, as expressed in the SI units (International System of Measurement) that most of the world is using the numbers are stated differently. (You can remember which letters refer to the good and the bad stuff by remembering it this way…H stands for healthy and L stands for lousy.)
Total cholesterol = less than 5.2 mmol/L LDL = in the range of than 2.6 – 3.3 mmol/L (less than 2.6 is best) HDL = in the range of more than 1 to 1.5 mmol/L (higher is better) mmol/L
Can you see the difference in how the cholesterol numbers are expressed? The difference of course is in the units that are being measured. Think of it like metric and imperial measures. Your weight in pounds might be a three digit number but in kilograms it could be a two digit number. Same weight different measurements.
Understanding the Cholesterol Ratio
When used to determine if you have cholesterol risk factors for heart disease it is not the specific levels that are analyzed but rather the ratio of HDL in your total lipid profile. This number is called the cholesterol ratio and it gives an indication of how much of your total cholesterol is the “good” stuff.
The reason this is important is because the HDL is so beneficial, if it is present is sufficient quantities it has a protective effect and the LDL in your system cannot do as much damage. So even if your LDL is higher than the desired levels, if the HDL is high as well and the ratio comes within the desired range then the risk of heart disease is less.
The goal is to keep the cholesterol ratio below 5:1; the optimum ratio is 3.5. The cholesterol ratio comes in at the same number no matter which system of measurement is used. The cholesterol ratio is obtained by dividing the total cholesterol number by the value given for the HDL. For example, if a you have a total cholesterol of 240 mg/dL and an HDL of 60 mg/dL, the ratio is 4. Using the SI system of measurement if the total cholesterol is 7.20 mmol/L and the HDL is 1.8 mmol/L the ratio is still 4.
You can see how this is a better way of understanding the cholesterol risk factors for heart disease and expressing it this way can prevent confusion that might result from not being familiar with the units that are used. This information is also helpful for understanding why the strategies recommended for cholesterol imbalances work. Some of the best strategies are the ones that raise the HDL levels. In particular, exercise has been found to be one of the best ways to improve the cholesterol ratio because it raises HDL levels. By contrast smoking has been found to lower HDL levels so no exercise and smoking is a recipe for low HDL levels, a poor cholesterol ratio, and a higher risk for heart disease.
Cholesterol is found in every cell of the body and is essential for the maintenance of good health. Low cholesterol levels have been associated with poor health so the goal is not to eliminate or reduce cholesterol entirely but to obtain the desirable levels of each type so that the protective benefits of the HDL can work for you in maintaining good health.
So don’t get mixed up when trying to understand your cholesterol levels. No matter what way the numbers are expressed the message is the same. You want to have enough of the good stuff and not so much of the bad stuff in order to reduce your risk factors for heart disease.
Beverly Hansen OMalley is a nurse who is passionate about health promotion. Visit www.registered-nurse-canada.com where Bev explores the uniqueness of the nursing profession in Canada including comparison of nurse salary across the country, preparation for the Canadian nursing entrance test and how to become a nurse in Canada if you graduated in another country.
Cholesterol Levels And Ratios – Are Cholesterol Numbers Confusing You?
Cholesterol levels are being tested as part of regular health screening all over the world yet many people are confused by their cholesterol numbers and how they are expressed. Part of this confusion may stem from the fact that most of the cholesterol literature is coming from the United States where they still report cholesterol levels in units that are different from those used in Canada, Europe and a good portion of the rest of the developed world. So if you are looking for information to help you understand your cholesterol test results you might not be able to understand the numbers that are reported in the American literature, that includes the internet.
The United States reports cholesterol levels in mg/dl (milligrams per decilitre) of blood. The rest of the world is using the measurement called mmol (or millimoles per litre). Without going back to basic chemistry from high school, suffice it to say that they are different measurements. So is it any wonder that these two ways of expressing your cholesterol numbers are so different?
Here is how the two different systems of measurement stack up for desirable cholesterol levels.
* Total cholesterol = less than 200 mg/dL
* LDL = less than 100-129 mg/dL (below 100 is best)
* HDL = more than 40 mg/dL (greater than 60 is considered protective against heart disease)
However, as expressed in the SI units (International System of Measurement) that most of the world is using the numbers are stated differently. (You can remember which letters refer to healthy and lousy by remembering it this way…H stands for healthy lipoprotein and L stands for lousy lipoprotein.)
* Total cholesterol = less than 5.2 mmol/L
* LDL = in the range of than 2.6 – 3.3 mmol/L (less than 2.6 is best)
* HDL = in the range of more than 1 to 1.5 mmol/L (higher is better) mmol/L
Can you see the difference in how the cholesterol numbers are expressed? The difference of course is in the units that are being measured.
Think of it like metric and imperial measures. Your weight in pounds might be a three digit number but in kilograms it could be a two digit number. Same weight different measurements.
When used to determine risk of heart disease it is not the specific cholesterol levels that are analyzed but rather the ratio of HDL in your total lipid profile. This number is called the cholesterol ratio and it gives an indication of how much of your total cholesterol is the “good stuff”.
The reason that the ratio is important is because the HDL (good stuff) is so beneficial that it can protect you from the effects of the LDL if it is in your body in sufficient quantities. So even if your LDL is higher that desirable levels, if the HDL is high as well, if the ratio comes within the desired range then the risk to your health is less.
The goal is to keep the cholesterol ratio below 5:1; the optimum ratio is 3.5. The cholesterol ratio comes in at the same number no matter which system of measurement is used to express the specific cholesterol levels.
The cholesterol ratio is obtained by dividing the total cholesterol number by the value given for the HDL. For example, if a person has a total cholesterol of 240 mg/dL and an HDL of 60 mg/dL, the ratio would be 4.
Using the SI system of measurement if the total cholesterol is 7.20 mmol/L and the HDL is 1.8 mmol/L the ratio is still 4.
You can see how this is a better way of understanding risk and prevents confusion that might result from not being familiar with the units that are used to express cholesterol levels.
This information is also helpful for understanding why the strategies why the for cholesterol imbalances work. Some of the best strategies are the ones that raise the HDL levels. In particular, exercise has been found to be one of the best ways to improve the cholesterol ratio because it raises HDL levels. By contrast smoking has been found to lower HDL levels so no exercise and smoking is a recipe for low HDL levels, a poor cholesterol ratio, and a higher risk of heart disease.
Cholesterol is found in every cell of the body and is essential for the maintenance of good health. Low cholesterol levels have been associated with poor health so the goal is not to eliminate or reduce cholesterol entirely but to establish the desirable levels of each type of cholesterol so that the protective benefits of the HDL can work for you in maintaining good health.
So don’t get mixed up when trying to understand you cholesterol levels. No matter what way the numbers are expressed the message is the same. You want to have enough of the good stuff and not so much of the bad stuff!
Beverly Hansen OMalley is a nurse who is passionate about health promotion. You are invited to visit www.registered-nurse-canada.com where Bev explores the uniqueness of the nursing profession in Canada including comparison of nurse salary across the country, preparation for the Canadian nursing entrance test and how to become a nurse in Canada if you graduated in another country.
Affordable Health Insurance- Dutch appeals court denies Apple’s plea to ban sale of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
- Online shoe, clothing store Zappos hacked; passwords for 24 million users reset
- Kansas, Oklahoma insurers won’t get a break on rebate rule
- FAA to issue rules on pilot fatigue more than a year after deadline
- Japanese household spending dips as retail sales, unemployment edge up
- Texas Lawsuit Identifies Problems In Medicare Hospice Provisions
- Daylight Savings Time 2011: things to remember
- Premiums, Deductibles And Cost Sharing In Employer Health Plans Keep Rising
- BlackBerry outage over, RIM exec apologizes
- Insurance broker wants a slice of pizza parlor industry
- Cheap Airline tickets
- Chrysler posts $225 million profit
- GM back on top as world’s biggest automaker
- VW sells record 5.1 million cars in 2011
- Honda widens recall for airbag problem
- GM CEO: Earnings good, but not good enough
- Chinese companies buying automaker Saab
- UAW ratifies deal with Ford
- Ford, United Auto Workers reach tentative contract
- GM enters electric car joint venture with Chinese automaker
- Honda recalls million cars worldwide
- Budget Car insurance
- Employers added 243,000 jobs in January
- First class stamp rises to 45 cents
- Visions for a healthier West Bank economy
- No. 1 worry among Americans is the economy
- German exports fall more than expected
- Illinois lawmakers to take up tax plan to keep CME, Sears in state
- Cottage industries offer hope in former war zone
- Fear of financial losses drive soaring price of gold
- Iron ore prices could slide to $140 per tonne
- Economists: U.S. has no way to avoid double dip recession
- Personal Loans
- Never send money to relatives using Paypal
- Prevent Banks from Holding Checks
- Sending Money Abroad – Western Union Alternatives
- Rent to Own Furnishings – A Rip-Off?
- Are Canadian Housing Prices at the Top?
- Low Interest Credit Card Checks
- U.S. lawmakers aim to lure foreigners to buy American homes
- BoE pushes banks to cut bonuses, dividends to improve balance sheets
- No monetary penalty for Fannie, Freddie in proposed settlement
- U.S. to sue big banks over risky mortgages
- Mortgages
- How Much House Can I Afford? Affordability analysis test
- U.S. housing prices show some gains
- Existing home sales fall 3.8% in May to lowest rate in six months
- S&P downgrades China’s property market rating
- Habitats | Clinton Hill, Brooklyn: Adopted by a Brownstone
- How Biweekly Mortgages Protect your Biggest Investement
- Food prices push China’s inflation to 34-month high in May
- Foreclosures Grow in Mortgage Market’s Top Tiers
- Hamilton Heights: Awaiting a Bounce
- The Mysteriously Shifty Interest Rate And Housing Industry
- Business Loans
- Micron CEO Steve Appleton killed in plane crash
- Price Chopper Supermarkets recall shredded taco cheese
- Novartis recalls four popular OTC drugs
- Best Buy cancels some online orders before Christmas
- Two major publishers announce bad news for newspaper industry
- Judge blocks Citigroup’s $285 million SEC settlement over mortgages
- Warren Buffett makes about face on investing in tech firms, acquires 5.5% stake in IBM
- U.S. Supreme Court upholds no limit on patient lawsuits against medical device makers
- Telenor refuses to pay $400M in fines to Bangladesh authority
- Post Office ads go after email
