If you are at all concerned about your heart health (or if your doctor is), you’ve probably taken a “lipid panel” blood test at some point during a checkup. Or you may have ordered an at-home lab test kit to check up on your levels. These blood tests measure your cholesterol and triglycerides, which are two types of fatty substances that can be found in your body and give key insights into your overall cardiovascular health.
Keep reading for the lowdown on the differences between triglycerides and cholesterol, and why you need to be keeping track of both so that you can better understand your heart health.
What’s the difference between triglycerides and cholesterol?
When you go in for a checkup or to evaluate your risk for heart disease, your doctor will generally administer a “cholesterol test,” which gives you measurements of a couple of different fat levels which are present in your blood. These include both your blood cholesterol and your blood triglyceride readings.
Triglycerides and cholesterol are both fatty substances called lipids. Triglycerides are fats, while cholesterol is a waxy substance made by the liver. It is used to build cell walls and plays an important role in digestion and hormone production. Both cholesterol and triglycerides can be evaluated with blood tests. Both can also be influenced by similar lifestyle factors (and we’ll dive deeper into that in a bit).
They’re also related: triglycerides are carried around through your bloodstream and to your various cells by very-low density lipoproteins (VLDL), a type of cholesterol. This means that if your triglyceride levels are high, your cholesterol levels might also rise as a result.
But for all these similarities, it’s important to note that these are two separate measurements. Cholesterol levels and triglyceride levels have different chemical structures, and are also made and stored differently in your body. And at the end of the day, triglycerides and cholesterol also have completely different jobs:
- Triglycerides are the kind of fat that your body stores as fat tissue, and which can be “burned” and used later for energy
- Cholesterol is a fatty substance that’s used as a starting block for building hormones and creating bile for digesting dietary fat that you eat
So since they both have such different roles in your body, they also affect your health in different ways. But importantly, even though triglycerides and cholesterol are different kinds of fat that do completely different things, they are both generally measured in your blood tests because they can both be dangerous for your heart health if levels get too high.
5 Facts About Triglycerides and Cholesterol
1. High triglyceride levels can be caused by a variety of lifestyle factors, especially your dietary patterns.
The first reason that you might see high triglyceride levels is due to your eating patterns. Remember, the main purpose of triglycerides is to act as stored energy (aka fat tissue) in your body. So because triglycerides are formed when you eat an excess of calories, consistent overeating can lead to increased triglyceride levels.
This is especially true when it comes to your carbohydrate intake: carbohydrates are a very energy-dense macronutrient, so when they aren’t used, they need to be stored somehow. Your body breaks down carbohydrates into glucose, and when glucose levels are too high your body then signals to your liver to convert that excess glucose into triglycerides.
In a related vein, high triglyceride levels can also be caused by a lack of physical activity. The more active you are, the more calories you need to burn, which means that low physical activity can lend itself to a lower calorie need and thus more triglyceride storage when paired with a diet consisting of more calories than you really need.
Besides your diet and exercise, high triglyceride levels can also stem in part from genetics (this is called ”familial hypertriglycedimia”), smoking, and from the overconsumption of alcohol.
2. There are different kinds of cholesterol, and some are “good” while others are “bad.”
Contrary to popular belief, neither cholesterol nor triglycerides are inherently bad on their own. But when levels of either measurement are too high, it can cause issues with your heart and metabolic health in the long run. And when it comes to cholesterol, the types of cholesterol and their ratios matter as well.
Cholesterol is sometimes classified as “good” or “bad,” depending on how they are packaged. Because cholesterol is a fatty, hydrophilic substance that can’t travel well through your blood on its own, it needs to be packaged with proteins to be carried around and delivered to the cells that need it. The ratio of fat-to-protein determines the type of cholesterol it is.
- “Bad” cholesterol refers to low-density lipoproteins (LDL for short). LDL has more fat than protein, which makes it less dense and more apt to stick to the sides of your arteries.
- “Good” cholesterol refers to high-density lipoproteins (HDL for short). HDL has more protein than fat and actually collects excess fat during its travels, cleaning up the excess and bringing them away from your organs to be disposed of properly by your liver.
So you might be asking at this point: are triglycerides a good or a bad cholesterol? The answer: neither! Even though triglycerides are often included as part of a cholesterol test, triglycerides are a completely separate type of fat measurement.
3. Your triglycerides can be high even when your cholesterol is not.
Why might your triglyceride levels be high, but your cholesterol levels be normal?
Triglyceride and cholesterol levels are often linked to the same general factors, including your diet, lifestyle, and genetics. But because they are two separate readings, one can be high when the other is not. For example, a blood test could show that you have high triglyceride levels (hypertriglycedemia) but normal LDL, HDL, and total cholesterol readings. Remember, your triglyceride levels rise when you take in an excess of calories. Meanwhile, your cholesterol levels can increase due to a variety of factors like your saturated and trans fat intake and your genetics.
Similarly, these two different readings also affect your health in different ways when they’re high, but both are bad news for your health (and are especially indicative of problems when combined). For example, high cholesterol levels can lead to plaque buildup in your arteries and subsequent heart disease. Meanwhile, high triglyceride levels are thought to be related to issues like heart disease, as well as issues with your pancreas and liver.
4. High triglyceride levels and high cholesterol levels can be present in your body without any obvious symptoms.
Perhaps one of the scariest things that come along with high cholesterol and triglyceride levels is that they aren’t always obviously symptomatic. While you may be able to hazard a guess (ie: high cholesterol and triglyceride levels are generally linked to obesity, for example), you might not show any signs or symptoms that your cardiovascular health is at risk until it’s too late.
So if you are at all concerned about your cholesterol and triglyceride levels, the best way to keep an eye on both is to take a blood test! In fact, they’re such important biomarkers for your general health that the CDC recommends that healthy adults get their cholesterol checked every 4-6 years, and that people who are at higher risk get their blood tests done even more frequently.
While you can schedule an appointment to get a blood test with your doctor, it’s also now easier than ever to keep tabs of your lipid panels from the comfort of your own home, and as frequently as you need. At-home blood tests like Base’s Diet Test, which include a “Cholesterol and Lipids Test” that tests for HDL, LDL, triglycerides, and total cholesterol levels, make it convenient to get this important information straight to your smartphone — all without having to schedule an appointment or head off to the doctor’s office.
5. High triglycerides and high cholesterol levels are treated in similar ways.
So what do you do if you find out that you do have high triglycerides or high cholesterol … or both? The good news is that you can take several lifestyle actions that target both of these important blood fat biomarkers!
If you’re dealing with high triglyceride levels, you can take action and begin lowering them by:
- Limiting your carbohydrate intake
- Increasing your physical activity
- Losing excess weight if necessary
- Eating more healthy fats like omega-3 fatty acids
- Quitting smoking
- Limiting your alcohol consumption
In a very similar vein, people with high cholesterol levels can begin managing them by:
- Losing excess weight
- Increasing your physical activity
- Eating a heart-healthy diet with plenty of fiber, healthy fats, and antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables
The bottom line: triglycerides and cholesterol are different biomarkers, but keeping track of both is key for managing your heart health.
Contrary to what you might be led to believe, triglycerides and cholesterol are both important for keeping your body operating as normal. Triglycerides are part of your body’s energy storage system, while cholesterol helps your body create important hormones and digest food. But when either (or both) of these biomarker levels start to rise, it’s a sign to start paying closer attention. Because neither of these indicators tend to come with clear-cut signs, the best way to keep track of both is to take regular blood tests and make healthy diet and lifestyle choices.
