Nearly 107 million Americans have total cholesterol of 200 or higher, which is a level at which cardiovascular risk begins to rise.

Pauline Howell, concerned with her cholesterol says, "I think it's very, very important to keep a check on your cholesterol."

Like Pauline, many people realize the importance of getting their cholesterol checked. But now it's also important to know that you have 3 types: the good, the bad and then your total. Cardiologist Arthur Muller explains "Forty years ago we didn't have that. Now we have the technology to talk about the total cholesterol, the bad cholesterol we call LDL and the good cholesterol we call HDL."

Dr. Muller tells us that there's a simple way for you to know the difference between your good cholesterol and your bad. "You can remember that because H can stand for happy and the bad cholesterol, L can stand for lousy."

Dr. Muller says that you can have normal levels of what's known as bad cholesterol but if your good cholesterol levels are low then you are as much at risk for having a heart attack as someone who has high bad levels of cholesterol. "Because the good cholesterol prevents that bad cholesterol from being deposited in the arterial walls."

Research shows that the good cholesterol is eventually changed to bad cholesterol in our bodies so pharmaceutical companies are creating new drugs to prevent that from happening. Dr. Muller adds, "And so the new drugs are going to prevent that. So that your good cholesterol levels will start to go up. So we can attack the bad cholesterol and good cholesterol at the same time."

Exercising also helps elevate your good cholesterol. Men - your HDL should be above 40 and for women you're aiming for more than 50.

The American Heart Association recommends in general for people over the age of 20 to get a complete cholesterol test once every 5 years.