For many years, the public was encouraged to lower their cholesterol levels by reducing their fat intake. As it turns out, there's a good form of cholesterol called HDL or high density lipoprotein that's important in protecting you against heart disease. While it's still important to lower your LDL or “bad cholesterol”, studies increasingly show that maintaining high levels of HDL is just as important as keeping the bad cholesterol down. How can you raise your HDL levels? There are a variety of natural approaches you can take to boost your levels of the “good cholesterol”. Here are some natural strategies to increase your HDL levels:
Drink a little wine.
Studies have shown that drinking one or two alcoholic drinks per day can raise your level of HDL. While any alcohol may have a positive raise HDL levels, the ideal choice would be wine since it has so many heart healthy antioxidants. Be sure to not exceed one to two drinks per day as this can cause other health related problems. Discover the power of exercise.
Regular exercise that raises your heart rate into the aerobic training zone for 30 minutes a day can increase HDL levels. A fast walk in the morning for 30-45 minutes can have positive effects on both HDL levels and heart health. Eat the right kinds of fat.
It's impossible to completely exclude fats from your diet and it wouldn't be healthy even if you could. It's important to make sure you're getting the right fats. Monounsaturated fats found in avocados, olive oil, and certain nuts can help raise your HDL levels and prevent heart disease. Avoid saturated fats and trans fats which are known to not only decrease HDL levels, but also raise levels of LDL.
Add some soy to your diet.
Studies have shown that three servings of soy protein a day can help to increase HDL levels as well as lower LDL. This can translate into a significant reduction in the risk of heart disease.
Maintain a healthy weight.
Being overweight not only lowers HDL levels, it also raises levels of LDL which translates into a higher risk of heart disease.
Increase your fiber intake.
Two servings of fiber on a daily basis from such sources as oats, oat bran, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables has been shown to raise HDL levels while lowering levels of LDL.
These are all natural ways to increase HDL levels. If your HDL level is extremely low and you have a family history of heart disease, your doctor may recommend a prescription medication to raise your HDL and lower your LDL. If you're concerned about the side effects of prescription drugs, you may want to give these strategies to raise your HDL level a try.
I was shocked and concerned when I had my cholesterol levels re-checked. My LDL had only dropped 10 points leaving it still very high, my HDL had dropped from 51 (normal) to 39 which put my HDL in the low unhealthy range.
I don\'t understand what caused this to happen. It seems to go against everything all my doctors and this article recommends. Now I don\'t know what to do. In fact, I was afraid that I was only making my health worse because it is my understanding that low HDL is actually more of a risk factor for heart disease than high LDL, so I stopped the diet I was on, the \"good fat pack\" and the exercise(temporarily because I hurt my back), but continued to eat only wholegrains as much as possible, reduced my consumption of fast foods to hardly having them at all, reduced my consumption of eggs, cheese, mayo., butter, salad dressing. I gained 30 pounds back. My triglycerides are perfect now. My total cholesterol level, and LDL has continued to drop to almost normal levels, while my HDL has still only increased 1 point to 40.
What can I do to actually make my HDL go up to normal again, besides exercising (which didn\'t work for me), losing weight (which also didn\'t work for me). Also, I\'ve been eating foods fried in canola oil and olive oil, salmon, Smart Balance margarine and Smart Balance peanut butter which is supposed to contain the good fats in them, and almonds which also hasn\'t raised my HDL.
What do you recommend? Should I take omega-3 natural supplements, or will that make my total cholesterol levels too high?