Heart and cholesterol
Triglycerides
TG
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Triglycerides are the main type of fat your body stores for energy. Your blood level reflects recent meals, alcohol, and metabolic health, and higher levels are linked with greater cardiovascular risk.
Triglycerides often travel with other metabolic signals.
When you take in more energy than you use, your body turns the extra into triglycerides and stores them in fat cells. Higher levels often show up alongside low HDL, extra weight around the waist, insulin resistance, or type 2 diabetes.
Triglycerides travel in particles that also carry cholesterol. When triglycerides are high, Canadian guidelines suggest ApoB or non-HDL cholesterol gives a more reliable picture of heart risk than LDL cholesterol alone.
Questions
Do I need to fast for a triglyceride test?
Most people don't, and Canadian guidelines accept non-fasting lipid tests. A very large meal or alcohol shortly before your blood draw can push triglycerides up, so your clinician may ask for a fasting repeat if your result is high.
What does a high triglyceride result mean?
Higher levels are linked with greater cardiovascular risk and often point to metabolic factors worth a closer look. Very high levels can also raise the risk of pancreatitis. Your clinician will read your result with your other results, medications, and health history.
What can raise triglycerides?
Alcohol, sugary foods and drinks, refined starches, extra body weight, and low activity can all raise them. Uncontrolled diabetes, an underactive thyroid, kidney or liver conditions, and some medications can too.