Just like with excess cholesterol or glucose in the blood, having elevated levels of triglycerides can be associated with health problems. Triglycerides vary a lot depending on what you have recently had to eat and drink. National Cholesterol Education Program cutpoints for fasting triglyceride levels in adults are shown in the table.
Many people find the health risk of blood triglycerides to be confusing , which is understandable.
HDL particles may remove some of the lipids from the artery wall thus, higher HDL-cholesterol levels are better. In a healthy person, chylomicrons are absent from fasted blood. Chylomicrons are usually found in fasted blood when the total triglyceride value is 300 or higher. At very high triglyceride levels, the blood may actually have a milky appearance from the chylomicrons. Triglyceride values greater than 1,000 confer risk for acute pancreatitis, a painful inflammation of the pancreas that can be life threatening and that requires immediate medical intervention.