Current thinking also says that is the ratio between HDL and LDL rather than the outright figures themselves. There are also tests you can do which assess your risk of health side effects as a result of high colesterol, they give you a %. Anything above 15% risk is not good, despite me having high bad chol (of which around 80% is produced by the body and nowt to do with diet) when weight, blood pressure and various other factors were taken in to account my risk was less then 4%. Your GP can do them or some are online but you need the data.