There are some numbers you need to know in order to stay healthy — but which ones — and how high or low should they be before you need to take action?

The following figures are intended as a guide to help you make sense medical test results. Of course, these cannot be an alternative to medical advice and we can accept no responsibility for any inaccuracies.


Blood Pressure (mm Hg)

Low	Normal	Caution	High	Very High
Lower than 105/60	Between 105/60 and 120/80	Between 120/80 and 140/90	Between 140/90 and 160/100	Higher than 160/100

Heart Rate (beats per minute, at rest)

Very Good	Normal	Poor
Between 50 and 60	Between 60 and 90	Higher than 100

Cholesterol (mmol per litre)

Cholesterol results are often given as a total...

Ideal	Caution	Poor	High Risk
Lower than 5.0	Between 5 and 6.5	Between 6.5 and 8	Above 8

...but this is complicated by the fact that there are two kinds of cholesterol: Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) and High Density Lipoprotein (HDL). LDL is a bad type of cholesterol and HDL is good. LDL should be lower than 3 and HDL should be higher than 1:

Ideal Cholesterol Levels
Total	Lower than 5.0 male, 4.5 female
Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL)	Lower than 3.0
High Density Lipoprotein (HDL)	Above 1.0 male, 1.1 female
Total/HDL Ratio	Lower than 4.5

You can increase your HDL with exercise and reduce your LDL by cutting out saturated fats and eating monosaturated fats, but the impact of diet isn't as great as many people think — even if you ate no saturated fat at all, you might only reduce your figure by 5–10 per cent. A better approach is to eat regular amounts of plant sterols — the ingredients in products such as Flora Proactive and Benecol.

Intead of total cholesterol, a better measure is the ratio of the total cholesterol to HDL:

Total/HDL Ratios	Ideal	Caution	Poor	High Risk
Male	Lower than 5.0	Between 5.0 and 6.5	Between 6.5 and 8.0	Above 8.0
Female	Lower than 4.5	Between 4.5 and 5.9	Between 5.9 and 7.3	Above 7.3

Body Mass Index — weight(kg) / height(m) x height(m)

Underweight	Normal	Overweight	Obese
Lower than 18.5	Between 18.5 and 25	Between 25 and 30	Between 30 and 40

Waist-to-Height Ratio — waist/height

Waist/Height Ratios	Ideal	Increased Risk	High Risk
Male	Lower than 0.50	Between 0.54 and 0.58	Above 0.58
Female	Lower than 0.45	Between 0.49 and 0.54	Above 0.54