If hitting healthy cholesterol numbers seems trickier to you than picking a winning Powerball ticket, you're not alone. Once, the mantra was simply "lower is better." That was easy to grasp. But recent headlines warn that super-low levels of some types of cholesterol can actually be risky.

How low should YOU go? The short answer is, far enough to really reduce your personal risk for a heart attack or stroke -- the top killers of men and women. Inside your blood vessels, particles of LDL cholesterol attempt to spackle over any spot in your arteries where there's a nick or hole (often brought on by high blood pressure), but the spackle kick-starts the growth of heart-threatening plaque.

The first step in protecting your body and brain against heart attacks and strokes is simply knowing your cholesterol numbers. So get your LDL and HDL cholesterol tested every year (and if your doc says you just need total cholesterol, get a new doc). Do just that and you'll be more likely to live a more vigorous life than the 1 in 4 Americans who haven’t had an LDL and HDL cholesterol check lately, if ever.

Your second step? Don't be complacent about so-so numbers: In one large study, people who had more than one even slightly off-base number tripled their risk of heart disease. So, if you want to get the gold in your golden years (and enjoy the current ones more), know your numbers and get them where they should be. Where’s that?

Your New Cholesterol Targets
Once, having total cholesterol below 200 was considered healthy. Today, it's more important to custom-tweak three blood fats -- LDL, HDL, and triglycerides -- than to focus on that single number. In fact, knowing your total cholesterol without the other numbers is useless. The new heart math: Dropping levels of lousy LDL to 70 to 100 mg/dL is optimal -- especially if you have diabetes or heart disease already -- and we'd like to see you at the low end of that range. Near optimal is 100 to 129; borderline is 130 to 159; and 160 or more is high.

You should also raise your healthy HDL cholesterol (it keeps LDL in line) to 55 or higher for women and 50 or above for men, especially if you're over 60 years of age. There has never been a study of women where lowering LDL did any good if the women didn't also raise their HDL. So get it up, gals and guys. An LDL of 70 with an HDL over 60 stops plaque from growing in blood vessels and actually seems to pull it out of there if your blood pressure is a healthy 115/76. That not only helps keep your heart young but also makes for better sex and even keeps your memory intact.

Even little changes make a big difference: Your risk of heart attack falls 1% every time you lower lousy LDL by just 1 point. It drops 2% every time you raise your healthy HDL by 1 point. Doing both gives you an exponentially bigger bang for your cardiovascular buck. Finally, keep levels of heart-damaging blood fats called triglycerides below 100.

The best ways to rebalance all three blood fats? The usual do-gooders: Lose weight, exercise, go easy on alcohol, replace white bread and other refined grains with whole grains, and slash any trans fat and saturated fat in your diet (it's in full-fat ice cream, milk, cream, cheese, and fatty meats). Then, add one of these cholesterol-balancing supplements: niacin (check with your doctor first) or pantothenic acid (300 milligrams a day) or DHA omega-3 fat (600 milligrams of DHA or 2 grams of fish oil).

Sure, some statin drugs, such as Crestor, do this, too. But eating healthy foods, keeping physically active, staying connected with your buddies, and taking fish oil or DHA supplements do it with no risks that we can find. So that's what we YOU docs do. It's how we live. And, by the way, we eat deliciously.

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