Increasing Good Cholesterol Levels, Part One
Increasing Good Cholesterol Levels, Part One
As important as decreasing bad cholesterol (LDL) is to a healthy lifestyle we need to increase our good cholesterol (HDL) levels. HDL scrubs the bad cholesterol from our blood vessel walls and plays an important role in reducing risk of heart disease. This is the first of a serious of articles of what we can do to increase HDL levels in our bodies.
As most people who are fighting with cholesterol levels know there are two types of cholesterol; good cholesterol, or HDL (high-density lipoproteins) and bad cholesterol, or LDL (low-density lipoproteins). HDL scour the walls of the blood vessels, sweeping away excess fat and bad cholesterol in the blood and carries it back to the liver for processing, preventing plaque build-up. We've all heard that it is important to decrease bad cholesterol, but it is just as important to keep our HDL levels high.
A couple of years ago I suffered a stroke. I have worked hard to decrease my bad cholesterol from extremely high levels to much lower healthy levels. But I never realized that it is also important to monitor your good cholesterol levels. Blood tests showed that all my health indicators were at fantastic levels, except that I had lowered my good cholesterol levels and needed to increase them. My HDL measured at 32 mg/dL. An HDL reading less than 40 mg/dL is considered to be a major risk factor for heart disease, with a reading between 40 and 50 mg/dL recommended, while readings over 60 mg/dL indicate a significantly lowered risk of heart disease. So, I have set out to find as many ways as possible to raise my HDL cholesterol to higher levels.
Exercise is one of the best ways to raise good cholesterol while also keeping bad cholesterol levels in check. Studies show that people who exercise regularly tend to have higher HDL. Research shows that HDL may be elevated as much as 20 percent from regular aerobic exercise that expends at least 800 to 1,200 calories per week. For example, walking at 3 miles per hour burns roughly 300 calories per hour, so walking 3 to 4 hours a week would meet this goal. Aerobic exercise is any constant activity that increases your heart rate.
Other studies show that the duration of exercise, rather than the intensity is a more important factor in raising HDL. Any aerobic exercise will have a greater effect the longer you can participate in that activity. Instead of increasing how hard you exercise, try adding a little more time to your activity for the greater HDL benefits. Studies show that for every 10 minutes of additional exercise HDL may increase by 1.4 mg/dL.
Please note that exercise has a powerful, yet short-lived effect, so it is important to exercise on a consistent basis.
The extra benefit of regular exercise is weight loss, which is also a factor to help raise good cholesterol levels. Researchers found that every kilogram (2.2 pounds) of weight a patient loses results in average increases to HDL levels of 0.35 mg/dL. Besides feeling better and looking fantastic, you will also get the healthy benefits of raising good cholesterol.
As you can see, exercise has great benefits for cholesterol management with other great healthy side effects. Activate the natural healing and get walking, hiking, swimming, biking or whatever. Just increase your activity and control what you eat.
The next articles, Increasing Good Cholesterol Levels Parts 2-5, will discuss other methods to increase your good cholesterol levels, including foods and supplements that will help raise HDL.