Having blood triglyceride levels above 150 mg\/dL puts you at increased risk for a heart attack, stroke, or heart valve disease, even if your blood cholesterol levels are normal.\u00a0 Triglyceride levels can be measured with routine blood tests.<\/p>\n
Safe triglyceride level are below 130 mg\/dL, while levels between 150 and 200g\/dL put a person at increased risk for cell damage. Levels higher than 200 mg\/dL put person at significant-risk for a heart attack and diabetes. Everyone who has a triglyceride level above 150 mg\/dL should be checked for diabetes, kidney and liver disease and low thyroid function. \u00a0 High triglycerides are often found in people who: You can lower high blood triglyceride levels with lifestyle changes including diet and exercise, and with established prescription treatments such as fibrates, omega-3 fatty acid preparations, and various biological agents What Causes High Triglyceride Levels?<\/strong> Normal fasting blood sugar is below 100, but a normal fasting blood sugar does not rule out diabetes because having a high blood sugar after meals usually happens earlier than having a high fasting blood sugar. You suffer cell damage even if your blood sugar levels are normal when you fast, but rise too high only after you eat. Many studies show that having a blood sugar greater than 140 one hour after eating a meal causes cell damage and indicates that you are already pre-diabetic or diabetic How High Triglycerides Cause a Fatty Liver<\/strong> Your body tries to protect you from high rises in blood sugar after meals that causes cell damage. Your pancreas releases insulin that lowers blood sugar levels by driving sugar from your bloodstream into your liver. However, if your liver is full of fat, it cannot accept the sugar and the liver then releases even more sugar from its cells to drive blood sugar levels even higher.<\/p>\n How to Predict High Risk for Diabetes<\/strong> Triglycerides Can Also Lead Directly to Heart Attacks<\/strong> Other Reasons for High Triglycerides<\/strong> Dietary Treatment for High Triglycerides<\/strong> My Recommendations<\/strong> Having blood triglyceride levels above 150 mg\/dL (1.7 mmol\/L) puts you at increased risk for a heart attack, stroke, or heart valve disease, even if your blood cholesterol levels are normal (Eur Heart J, Dec 2021;42(47):4791-4806). About 10 percent of North Americans suffer from high triglyceride levels. High triglycerides are often found in people who are diabetic, obese or alcoholic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1025,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1090,1089,317,754],"class_list":["post-874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-heart","tag-diabetic","tag-high-triglycerides","tag-pre-diabetic","tag-triglycerides"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=874"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8639,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874\/revisions\/8639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u2022 are diabetic, obese or alcoholic,
\n\u2022 have high blood pressure,
\n\u2022 have liver damage,
\n\u2022 have pancreatic disease,
\n\u2022 have kidney disease,
\n\u2022 have low thyroid function,
\n\u2022 have genetic disorders of fat metabolism,
\n\u2022 take beta-blockers, birth control pills, estrogen, diuretics or drugs that suppress a person\u2019s immunity<\/p>\n
\nWhen blood sugar levels rise too high after meals, sugar is converted to a type of fat called triglycerides, so high blood triglyceride levels are usually caused by a high rise in blood sugar after meals and usually mean that a person is already diabetic or pre-diabetic
\n\u2022 brain cells, to cause dementia
\n\u2022 nerve cells, to cause pain or loss of feeling
\n\u2022 matrix cells of bones, to weaken bones and cause osteoporosis
\n\u2022 the DNA of cells, which can cause the uncontrolled growth that is cancer
\n\u2022 the inner lining of arteries, to form plaques
\n\u2022 plaques that have already formed, causing them to break off, leading to a heart attack or stroke
\nThis is why diabetes has so many devastating side effects.<\/p>\n
\nWhen you have high triglycerides, you use up your good HDL cholesterol because it tries to protect you by carrying triglycerides from your bloodstream into your liver. This is the most common cause of a low HDL (below 40). Your HDL has helped you by clearing excess triglycerides from your bloodstream, but the excess fat collects in your liver to eventually form a fatty liver.<\/p>\n
\nYou are at high risk for diabetes if your:
\n\u2022 triglycerides are higher than 150,
\n\u2022 blood sugar is higher than 140 one hour after eating a meal,
\n\u2022 good HDL cholesterol is lower than 40.
\nA sonogram of your liver can be used to show whether you have excess fat stored there (“fatty liver<\/a>“).<\/p>\n
\nHaving high blood triglycerides also puts a person at increased risk for a heart attack because triglycerides can penetrate the inner lining of arteries to start plaques forming in them
\nThe ACC document covers the many other medical conditions associated with high triglycerides, such as poorly controlled diabetes, chronic kidney disease, rheumatoid arthritis or low thyroid function. Many medications can also raise triglycerides; check with your health care provider or pharmacist.<\/p>\n
\n\u2022 Eat lots of vegetables, but limit starchy root vegetables such as potatoes and sweet potatoes
\n\u2022 Eat lots of legumes (beans, lentils, chickpeas, soybeans, peanuts) and nuts
\n\u2022 Eat whole (unground) grains<\/a> and restrict refined grains (bakery products, pasta, white rice and so forth)
\n\u2022 Restrict mammal meat and processed meats.
\n\u2022 Eat seafood twice a week or more
\n\u2022 Avoid sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened beverages
\n\u2022 Avoid sugar-added foods
\n\u2022 Restrict salt
\n\u2022 Restrict alcohol<\/p>\n
\nIf your fasting blood triglyceride levels are greater than 150, you are likely to be pre-diabetic or diabetic and susceptible to cell damage from high blood sugar levels. If you have a big belly and small buttocks, the odds are that you are already diabetic. Check with your doctor immediately and go on a lifestyle program to cure diabetes<\/a> and prevent heart attacks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"