James Sullivan, the drummer for the Huntington Beach rock band Avenged Sevenfold, died on Monday, according to Orange County authorities. The cause of death is still under investigation. Sullivan, 28, was found unresponsive inside his home.
High total cholesterol and low HDL cholesterol increases the ratio, and is undesirable. Conversely, high HDL cholesterol and low total cholesterol lowers the ratio, and is desirable. An average ratio would be about 4.5. Ideally we want to be better than average if we can. Thus the best ratio would be 2 or 3, or less than 4.
As an example, if your TC is 158 mg/dL and your HDL is 43 mg/dL, your cholesterol ratio would be 3.7. Now, according to the AHA (American Heart Association), the number we are aiming for is below 5, with the ideal being close to 3.5. In other words, a lower TC/HDL ratio is better since your aim is to increase your HDL cholesterol numbers and reduce your total cholesterol overall.