You’ve probably heard your doctor tell you about LDL cholesterol and how you need to keep it down (preferably under 100). But has your doctor told you about HDL cholesterol? This is the type of cholesterol that helps “scavenge” the bad stuff, package it up neatly and send it to the liver. So, having more HDL means more packages of bad stuff sent to the liver to, shall we say eliminate?
But how do you get more of the good stuff and less of the bad stuff? How can you actually increase HDL cholesterol? The answer won’t surprise you but hopefully it inspires you. Check out a summary of the study here but the bottom line is intensive exercise and eating to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight will help increase HDL cholesterol and keep LDL cholesterol down.
“What we’re learning is that even overweight people who are physically active and eating a healthy diet are getting benefits from the lifestyle change,” principal investigator Dr. Christie Ballantyne, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, part of the Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center at The Methodist Hospital in Houston, said in the news release.
“When you exercise and diet, you’re improving the function of your adipose tissue, your heart and vascular systems, and even muscle performance. You’re getting a lot of benefits that you may not see by just looking at the weight on a scale,” he added.