Triglycerides are fat particles in your bloodstream, the most common type of fat in your body. When you eat, your body converts extra calories into triglycerides and stores them in fat cells. When you need energy, your body releases these triglycerides. But having more of them than you need can contribute to problems with heart health.
What Causes High Triglycerides?
While your body needs triglycerides for energy, many factors can lead to having levels that are too high. For example, when you overeat and consume more calories than your body needs, especially from sugary foods, your liver creates extra triglycerides. Other risk factors include:
- Being overweight or obese
- Drinking a lot of alcohol
- Eating a diet high in sugar or carbohydrates
- Having certain genetic conditions
- Having certain medical conditions, such as liver, kidney or thyroid disease or Type 2 diabetes that is poorly controlled
- Smoking
- Taking certain medications
Triglycerides and Diabetes
For people with diabetes, high triglycerides can be a cause for concern. Having diabetes doubles your risk for heart disease and stroke, and high triglycerides can raise your risk even more. If you have diabetes, it’s very important to follow your primary care provider’s guidance to keep the disease under control. If your provider has told you that you have prediabetes or are at risk for developing Type 2 diabetes, make healthy choices to lower your risk.
How High Is Too High?
When you have a blood test to check your cholesterol levels, your triglycerides will also be measured. The National Institutes of Health has issued the following guidelines for triglyceride levels in milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL):
- Normal: Less than 150
- Borderline: 150 to 199
- High: 200 to 499
- Very high: 500 and above
Anything above 150 mg/dL can raise your risk for heart disease.
Having high triglycerides is also part of metabolic syndrome, a group of risk factors that increase your risk of heart disease and diabetes. If you have three or more of the following risk factors, you have metabolic syndrome:
- Abdominal obesity, or too much fat around your waistline
- Low HDL cholesterol level
- High blood pressure
- High fasting blood sugar
- High triglycerides
Having metabolic syndrome doubles your risk for heart attack and stroke, and puts you at five times greater risk for developing Type 2 diabetes.
Making Lifestyle Changes
Your primary care provider may recommend these healthy lifestyle changes to get high triglycerides down to a healthy level:
- Eat a heart-healthy diet. Introduce more fruits, vegetables and whole grains while limiting unhealthy kinds of fat.
- Get regular exercise. Aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity, such as walking, for at least five days every week, for a total of at least 150 minutes per week.
- Limit alcohol. This means no more than one drink per day for women or two drinks per day for men.
- Lose weight. Research has shown that losing 5 to 10 percent of your body weight can lead to a 20 percent drop in triglycerides.
- Quit smoking. Talk to your primary care provider about the best way to quit if you need help. Nicotine-replacement products and prescription medications can help some people.
In addition to diet and exercise and other lifestyle changes, some people may benefit from lipid and triglyceride lowering medications to lower triglycerides. Your primary care provider will tell you whether this is an option for you.
Choosing the Right Foods
Diet is an important part of maintaining heart health as well as lowering triglycerides. The American Heart Association recommends the following:
- Limit solid fats. These are found in full-fat dairy products, red meat and some tropical oils, such as coconut oil. Saturated and trans fats can raise triglyceride levels. Instead, eat food that contains unsaturated fats, such as fish oil.
- Cut back on simple sugars and refined grains.
- Make sure your diet contains plenty of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, low-fat or nonfat dairy products, lean meats and poultry, seafood, beans, nuts and seeds.
- Limit your alcohol intake. If your triglycerides are very high, avoid alcohol altogether.
