Understanding cholesterol is an important part of understanding your risk of heart disease and stroke. Your total cholesterol is made up of LDL (The bad cholesterol), HDL (the good cholesterol) and Triglycerides (which are also bad). Since it is made up of both bad and good parts, total cholesterol can be misleading. In this episode we introduce, Non-HDL cholesterol and Apolipoprotein B as better measures of cardiac risk since they are the bad things we want to avoid. We also discuss, Lipoprotein a or Lp(a) as a very important, but not usually measured, factor that is found in many people with family histories of heart disease.