Cholesterol balance is a measure of “good” versus “bad” cholesterol in your blood.
You may have heard that cholesterol is bad for your heart’s health.
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Well, not exactly. Cholesterol is just a type of fat in your blood that’s, in fact, needed to build healthy cells. It’s produced in your liver and carried to your tissues by two lipoproteins—LDL and HDL. While the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) carries cholesterol from the liver to tissues, the high-density lipoprotein (HDL) carries it back to the liver from where it’s excreted.
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Things get complicated when this balance is disturbed. That is when you have excess LDL cholesterol. It clogs the blood vessels, increases the risk of heart disease and therefore are considered “bad”. HDL, on the other hand, is considered “good” as it helps in reducing your cholesterol count. To keep a tab of your cholesterol balance, two apolipoproteins—ApoA1 and ApoB—are measured. Apolipoproteins are proteins that hold particles inside LDL and HDL together. While ApoA1 holds the “good” HDL, ApoB holds the “bad” LDL. So, looking at the ApoB to ApoA1 ratio gives an accurate measure of the “good” versus “bad” cholesterol in your blood. The higher the score, the better is your cholesterol balance.

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