What are Triglycerides?
Key Takeaways
Triglycerides are a type of fat that the body uses to store energy.
Some triglycerides are absorbed from the diet, and the liver also makes triglycerides whenever the body has excess energy available.
High triglyceride levels significantly increase your risk of heart disease, and can also lead to problems with the liver and pancreas.
Eating less saturated fat, trans fat, sugars, and starches can help to reduce triglyceride levels.
Reducing alcohol consumption, ensuring that you get enough exercise, and maintaining a healthy body weight can also help to lower your triglycerides.
What Are Triglycerides?
Triglycerides are a type of fat that the body uses to store energy. When your body has more energy than it needs, the excess is converted into triglycerides, which can then be stored by your cells for later use. All cells can store a small amount of triglycerides, but fat cells are specialized to store large quantities of them.
Everyone’s body has some triglycerides. They serve as an important energy source for your cells, and help to keep your energy levels more stable between meals. However, if the levels of triglycerides in your blood are too high, this can increase your risk of heart disease, as well as a number of other potentially serious health conditions. If you have high triglyceride levels, there are steps that you can take to lower these, which helps to protect your long-term health.
Sources of Triglycerides
There are two main sources of triglycerides. One source is your diet. Certain foods contain triglycerides, and your body can easily absorb these in your digestive tract. They enter the bloodstream, and your cells can then use them for energy or store them for later use. Foods that are high in triglycerides include fatty meats, butter, cooking oils, and dairy products (like cheese).
Your liver also synthesizes its own triglycerides. Whenever you take in more energy than your body needs, the liver converts the excess into triglycerides. This allows your cells to store the excess energy, so they can use it later.
This explains why certain foods tend to raise your triglycerides—even though they don’t actually contain any triglycerides. These include sugary foods and beverages as well as starchy foods like white rice, white bread, pasta, and potatoes. When you eat these foods, it causes a quick spike in blood sugar. The liver detects this and quickly converts the excess into triglycerides.
When you eat food with a high glycemic index (GI), the carbohydrates from the food are very quickly absorbed into your bloodstream. This leads to a spike in blood sugar, which in turn triggers your liver to make triglycerides. This explains why eating high-GI foods has been shown to raise your triglyceride levels.
Why Do Triglycerides Matter?
Everyone’s body has some triglycerides, and they’re a normal part of your body’s metabolism. However, when levels of triglycerides are too high, then they can lead to a variety of health problems. When there are a lot of triglycerides in the blood, they can deposit into the body’s tissues, which can interfere with critical body functions.
Atherosclerosis
High levels of triglycerides can deposit into the walls of arteries, causing them to become stiffer and narrower. This is known as atherosclerosis, or “hardening of the arteries.” When this occurs, it can interfere with blood flow through the artery, leading to symptoms like difficulty exercising. Atherosclerosis also significantly increases a person’s risk of experiencing a heart attack or stroke.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in Singapore, accounting for over one-third of all deaths. While older people are more susceptible, heart disease can also affect younger people. In fact, the proportion of deaths in people under 70 years of age that are caused by heart disease is actually higher in Singapore than in many other developed countries, including Europe and the United States. In addition to potentially shortening a person’s life, heart disease can also prevent them from living their life independently. In Singapore, heart disease is a leading cause of disability in people over 60 years of age.
To live a long and healthy life, it’s essential to reduce your risk of heart disease, and controlling your triglyceride levels is part of that. It’s also essential to pay attention to your cholesterol levels. High levels of LDL (“bad” cholesterol) also raise your risk of heart disease, and are commonly found along with high triglycerides, particularly in people who have a high body weight. By contrast, HDL (“good” cholesterol) is protective against heart disease, and high levels decrease your risk.
Fatty Liver Disease
Besides arteries, triglycerides can also deposit into other tissues. When this happens in the liver, high triglyceride levels can lead to a condition known as nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, also known as NASH or fatty liver disease. This is a common cause of liver failure. When it happens in the pancreas, it can cause pancreatitis, or inflammation of the pancreas. Very high triglyceride levels are a common cause of pancreatitis, which is very serious and can be fatal.
Learn More
What is Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL) Cholesterol?
Factors Affecting Triglyceride Levels
There are many different factors that can affect your triglyceride levels, including:
Diet. When you eat a lot of sugary and starchy foods, your liver generates large amounts of triglycerides. Similarly, eating a lot of foods that contain triglycerides, like fatty meats, butter, or cheese, causes your body to absorb high levels of triglycerides.
Alcohol consumption. Drinking alcohol is known to cause triglyceride levels to rise. When you drink alcohol, it acts on your liver to stimulate the production of triglycerides. It also inhibits the body’s ability to break down triglycerides. If you drink on a regular basis, then your blood triglyceride levels will be higher than those of a non-drinker.
Physical inactivity. When you’re exercising, your body burns triglycerides for energy, which lowers your levels. By contrast, when you’re inactive, your body doesn’t use up any excess triglycerides, which allows them to build up in your bloodstream. The more time you spend being physically inactive, the higher your triglyceride levels are likely to be.
Low thyroid hormone levels. Your thyroid gland creates hormones that regulate your body’s use and storage of energy, including fats. In people with hypothyroidism, or low thyroid hormone levels, the body’s energy balance is shifted, and triglycerides rise.
Diabetes. When your blood sugar levels are high, your body converts some of the excess sugar into triglycerides. Because of this, people with diabetes often have high triglyceride levels.
Body weight. In people whose bodies are carrying excess fat tissue, the fat cells release higher levels of triglycerides into the bloodstream. High body weight is also associated with insulin resistance, which tends to lead to higher blood sugar levels and therefore higher triglyceride levels.
Genetics. There are certain genetic conditions that change how the body makes and processes triglycerides, which can lead to high levels.
Testing and Understanding Triglyceride Levels
The only way to know what your triglyceride levels are is to have a blood test. Triglycerides are generally tested as part of a lipid panel, which also tests HDL and LDL cholesterol levels.
A lipid panel must be ordered by a qualified physician, so in order to get this test, you’ll need to visit a doctor. You will need to be fasting at the time that your blood is drawn for the test, which means that you shouldn’t have eaten for 8 to 12 hours beforehand. This is why most people choose to visit the lab for the blood draw in the morning, before breakfast.
Here in Singapore, the Ministry of Health (MOH) recommends that everyone should get a lipid panel at least once every three years, starting at the age of 40. If the results are abnormal, then testing is recommended more often. Those who are at a higher risk of heart disease, due to their family history, lifestyle, or medical conditions, should also get tested more often.
The MOH has published the following guidelines for triglyceride levels:
Desirable: less than 2.3 mmol/L
High: 2.3 to 4.4 mmol/L
Very High: 4.5 mmol/L or greater
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How to Manage Triglyceride Levels
Research has shown that high triglycerides are one of the strongest predictors of a person’s heart disease. If your lipid panel shows that your triglyceride levels are high, then taking steps to lower these can significantly decrease your risk of having a heart attack or a stroke.
Certain lifestyle changes have been shown to be effective for lowering triglyceride levels. These include:
Reduce saturated fat and trans fats. This means reducing fried foods, packaged foods, fatty meats, butter, and dairy products like cheese. For example, if you’re at an economy rice stall, avoid choosing the fried items. At a hawker food market, choose dishes with less gravy. You could also choose to snack on nuts instead of on packaged foods like chips. If you cook with butter, replacing this with a plant-based oil will reduce your saturated fat intake. Choosing leaner meats like chicken or fish instead of beef or pork will also help.
Reduce sugar and refined carbs. This means eating fewer sweets. If you drink sugar-sweetened beverages like soda, switching to sugar-free options like flavored water will make a huge difference. If you take sugar in hot beverages like tea or kopi, try reducing or eliminating this sugar. It will also help to switch from refined grains like white rice to whole grains like brown rice.
Increase physical activity. Exercise causes your body to use up the energy that has been stored in triglycerides, so they don’t build up in your bloodstream. Try to exercise for at least 20 to 30 minutes every day. This doesn’t have to involve a gym—it can be something simple like brisk walking.
Reduce alcohol consumption. Alcohol causes your body to make more triglycerides, and also prevents it from breaking them down. The less alcohol you drink, the lower your triglyceride levels are likely to be.
Maintain a healthy body weight. If your body weight is in the category of overweight or obesity, this can cause a significant increase in triglyceride levels. Taking steps to lose excess weight can make a huge difference in your triglyceride levels as well as your risk of developing diabetes. Lifestyle changes are effective on their own for some people, while others benefit from adding a GLP-1 RA medication.
If these lifestyle changes are not effective at bringing your triglyceride levels into a healthy range, then there are also medications available that may help. These include fibrates and statins. There are also medications containing omega-3 fatty acids, which have been shown to lower cholesterol levels. It’s important to note that these are different from over-the-counter omega-3 fatty acid supplements, which are not regulated and may not contain the right dosage of omega-3s to affect your triglyceride levels.
It’s also important to check for any other conditions that can cause high triglyceride levels, like hypothyroidism or diabetes. Your doctor will order any necessary tests to check for these conditions. If you do have a condition like this, then appropriate treatment can help to bring your triglyceride levels down.
Triglycerides and Overall Health
Your triglyceride level is one of the most important measurements of your heart disease risk, but it’s not the only one. Your cholesterol levels also provide important information. If you have high LDL and/or low HDL levels, this also increases your risk for heart disease. That’s why all three of these tests are included as part of a lipid profile.
In addition to your lipid profile, there are also other tests that can help to clarify your risk of heart disease. These include tests of other lipids, like lipoprotein (a) and apolipoprotein B, as well as other types of testing. For example, C-reactive protein is a measure of chronic inflammation, which can damage the lining of blood vessels and increase the risk of a heart attack or stroke. Not all of these tests are included as part of standard screening bloodwork.
Considering all of your results in context will provide you with the most comprehensive picture of your heart disease risk, and will give you the information that you need to take steps to protect your long-term health. Establishing a baseline early allows you to track changes over time, so you can make informed decisions about your health. In addition, If you regularly monitor your levels, then if anything starts to trend in an unhealthy direction, you’re able to take action quickly.
NOVI Assessment Max provides a holistic cholesterol check that goes beyond the standard test. It offers a comprehensive evaluation of metabolic and hormonal markers, giving you a complete picture of your heart health, and empowering you to take control of it.
Unlike other tests that leave you to interpret results on your own, NOVI Assessment Max includes a doctor consultation, where your results are explained in detail. The doctor then prioritizes areas of improvement and provides actionable recommendations.