If You Drink Consider A Glass Of Wine
While the jury is still out on this recommendation, several studies over the past few decades have suggested that moderate alcohol consumption may help cholesterol management.
Specifically, animal studies have found that a compound called resveratrol, found in grapes and red wine, has a positive impact on coronary arteries.
Moderate use of alcohol has been linked with higher HDL levels, Romano explains. would be up to one drink a day for women and men.
While the results are promising in animal studies, human trials are still gathering information. Until then, researchers cant say for certain whether a nightly glass of pinot noir will raise your HDL cholesterol.
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Nutritionist Pooja Malhotra Outlined The Benefits Of Hdl Cholesterol In An Instagram Video And Underlined Ways To Increase It In The Body
Include nuts and seeds, fatty fish, mustard oil, olives to increase HDL
Our body needs cholesterol to build healthy cells, but high levels of cholesterol can increase your risk of heart disease. But not all cholesterol is bad. HDL , or good cholesterol, absorbs cholesterol and carries it back to the liver, which then flushes it from the body. High levels of HDL cholesterol can lower the risk for heart disease and stroke. Nutritionist Pooja Malhotra outlined the benefits of HDL cholesterol in an Instagram video, and underlined ways to increase it in the body. Pooja said that though HDL cholesterol was largely determined by genetic factors, diet and lifestyle, too, could help improve its levels.
Here are some of the ways to increase HDL cholesterol:
1) Include friendly fats in your diet
Include friendly fats in your diet. You can get it from nuts and seeds, fatty fish, mustard oil, olives, avocados, and other such foods.
2) Exercise regularly
We all know the importance of regular exercise. Pooja stated that aerobic exercises, high-intensity workouts and strength training also helps improve the HDL cholesterol level.
3) Quit smoking
Quit smoking if you want to increase HDL cholesterol levels. Smoking suppresses HDL cholesterol levels in the blood.
4) Eat purple-colour fruits and vegetables
Include purple-colour fruits and vegetables in your diet because they contain a family of antioxidants called anthocyanins that help improve the HDL cholesterol levels.
5) Skip trans fat
The Bottom Line To Boost Hdl Cholesterol
HDL cholesterol is just one part of the heart healthy regimen. For a more complete heart healthy plan, follow these steps:
Making these lifelong changes can help boost good cholesterol, lower bad cholesterol, protect your heart and promote overall health!
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Other Ways To Increase Good Cholesterol
Boost your HDL with a everyday supplements such as Bergamot , Healthy Dad essential stack, Blood Pressure RX, designed to complement a healthy diet and support a healthy ratio of the fats within the blood. Revive Lipid is suitable for any gender and contains citrus bergamot and beta-sitosterol, ingredients associated with reducing LDL or bad cholesterol. This helps bring balance back to your cholesterol levels and could even be beneficial in terms of blood sugar and insulin levels.
Have you had your cholesterol checked lately? Keep on top of cholesterol with a healthy diet, lifestyle, and supplements designed with you in mind.
Add Coconut Oil To The Diet
Studies have shown that coconut oil may reduce appetite, increase metabolic rate, and help protect brain health, among other benefits.
Some people may be concerned about coconut oils effects on heart health due to its high saturated fat content. However, it appears that coconut oil is actually quite heart-healthy.
Some studies have shown that coconut oil tends to raise HDL cholesterol more than many other types of fat.
In addition, some studies have shown that coconut oil may improve the ratio of low-density lipoprotein , or bad, cholesterol to HDL cholesterol. Improving this ratio reduces heart disease risk .
One study examined the health effects of coconut oil consumption in 40 females with excess abdominal fat. The researchers found that those who took coconut oil daily had increased HDL cholesterol and a lower LDL-to-HDL ratio.
In contrast, the group who took soybean oil daily had a decrease in HDL cholesterol and an increase in the LDL-to-HDL ratio .
However, more recent reviews suggest that the research into coconut oil and cholesterol is of poor quality, is not conclusive, and often reports that coconut oil can raise the levels of LDL cholesterol. Therefore, more research is needed .
Most studies have found that these health benefits occur at a dosage of about 2 tbsp of coconut oil per day. It is best to incorporate this into cooking rather than eating spoonfuls of coconut oil on their own.
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Hdl: Is Higher Always Better
If HDL protects the heart, should it be as high as possible? The answer may depend on several factors.
Most people will find that their HDL cholesterol does not climb to levels that are considered too high. Though no upper limit has been established, HDL cholesterol does not naturally elevate to unhealthy high levels in people with normal cholesterol processing and metabolism.
In rare cases, however, HDL cholesterol can become too high.
An article in the journal Science discusses a rare genetic variant that may cause exceptionally high HDL levels. The genetic variant alters the way that HDL works in the body, and can increase the risk of heart disease.
The variant is found in a specific molecule known as SR-BI. The mutation in SR-BI causes increased levels of HDL and an increased risk of heart disease.
The people studied had levels of HDL greater than 95 milligrams per deciliter . These levels are abnormally high. The researchers found that some of the people in their study did have this rare genetic defect.
Another study found that people who recently had a heart attack and who have both high HDL and high levels of a substance called C-reactive protein were at higher risk of having another cardiac event. C-reactive protein is produced by the liver when inflammation occurs in the body.
Furthermore, cholesterol balance may be an important factor to consider, according to a review in Atherosclerosis.
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What Causes Low Hdl Cholesterol
Lower levels of HDL cholesterol can have an underlying cause such as a health problem or certain medications. If you have low HDL cholesterol, your doctor can try to find out the cause so that they can treat it and bring your HDL up to a healthy level. Below are some of the possible causes.
Smoking
Smoking can lower your HDL levels because a chemical in cigarette smoke called acrolein appears to change the way HDL works in the body. It does this by changing the structure of a protein called Apolipoprotein A1, which forms part of HDL cholesterol.
This might speed up the process of atherosclerosis because HDL is less able to remove cholesterol from the artery walls.
If you stop smoking, your HDL levels can rise by up to 10% as long as you dont gain weight, which can sometimes happen when people stop smoking.
Insulin resistance
If you have too much fat stored in your body, particularly around your waistline, the hormone insulin is less able to control your blood sugar. This is known as insulin resistance.
Insulin resistance can lead to type 2 diabetes and its one of the problems that makes up the metabolic syndrome, which raises the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Insulin resistance also leads to characteristic changes in the pattern of fats often referred to as dyslipidaemia. Typically, this means:
- high triglycerides
- low HDL cholesterol
- normal or slightly raised LDL cholesterol. The LDL cholesterol also tend to be smaller and more harmful to the arteries.
Medicines
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What Is Hdl Cholesterol
Total cholesterol is a measure of the total amount of cholesterol in your blood, which includes HDL, LDL and triglycerides. However, total cholesterol is mainly made up of LDL or bad cholesterol. Having high levels of low-density lipoprotein or LDL can lead to plaque buildup in your arteries, increasing your likelihood for heart disease and stroke. LDL also raises your risk for a condition called peripheral artery disease, which can develop when plaque buildup narrows an artery supplying blood to the legs. The good news is that the higher your HDL level, the lower your bodys LDL level or bad cholesterol.
What is HDL? HDL stands for high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, which is commonly known as good cholesterol. High-density lipoproteins typically act as cholesterol scavengers by picking up excess cholesterol in your bloodstream and taking it back to your liver, where its properly broken down.
HDL is actually more complex than we once thought. Rather than being a single kind of particle, HDL is is now considered a family of different particles. All HDL contains lipids , cholesterol and proteins , but some types of HDL are spherical while others are shaped like a doughnut. Some HDL types remove bad cholesterol from the blood while other types are indifferent to cholesterol. Or even worse, some HDL transfers cholesterol the wrong way or protects LDL in a way that makes it more harmful to the arteries.
Appropriate Levels Of Hdl Cholesterol Helps Eradicate Other Types Of Cholesterol From The System Here’s How You Can Increase Your ‘good’ Cholesterol Levels To Keep Diseases At Bay
Written by Arushi Bidhuri | Updated : November 29, 2021 9:05 PM IST
High-density lipoprotein cholesterol is referred to as “good” cholesterol since it promotes the elimination of other kinds of cholesterol from the system. Increased HDL cholesterol levels are related to a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease. Cholesterol is a waxy compound found in all of the cells that serves various purposes, including facilitating the formation of the body’s cells. It’s connected to lipoproteins and travels through the system.
HDL collects extra cholesterol in the blood and transports it to the liver, where it is broken down and eliminated from the body. While the body requires a certain amount of cholesterol to function, having too much cholesterol in the bloodstream increases the risk of developing heart disease. People with naturally higher levels of HDL cholesterol are less likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke. HDL levels are frequently lower in patients with metabolic syndrome, a group of disorders that includes obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Aside from aiding weight loss, greater physical activity can reduce triglycerides, the most prevalent form of fat in the body, while improving HDL levels.
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Hdl: The Good But Complex Cholesterol
More HDL cholesterol is better, but the benefits may depend on how you get there.
In the simplest telling of the cholesterol story, HDL fights LDL . Like knights in shining armor, HDL particles patrol the blood vessels, snatching cholesterol from circulating LDL particles and from the dangerous, gooey plaque that lines artery walls. The knights of the HDL cholesterol carry their fatty cargo to the liver for recycling or disposal.
The real story isn’t quite so simple. HDL cholesterol is turning out to be a much more complex substance than we once believed. Instead of a single kind of particle, HDL cholesterol is a family of different particles. Although they all contain lipids , cholesterol, and proteins called apolipoproteins, some types are spherical while others are doughnut-shaped. Some types of HDL are great at plucking cholesterol from LDL and artery walls while other types are indifferent to cholesterol, and some even transfer cholesterol the wrong way into LDL and cells.
To further complicate matters, different HDL types do more than just carry cholesterol. Some protect LDL from being chemically altered by oxygen, a change that makes LDL extra harmful to artery walls. Under some circumstances, though, they can do just the opposite. Various HDL particles can ease inflammation in artery walls, stimulate production of nitric oxide, a molecule that helps artery walls relax, and help prevent blood clots from forming inside arteries.
Desirable Cholesterol Numbers For Better Health
Your cholesterol numbers from a simple blood test provide a measure of your cardiovascular health and can be an early warning sign of heart disease. The AHA recommends your total cholesterol levels be measured at least once every five years once you reach age 20.
Total cholesterol is the sum of a few numbers: HDL cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol , triglycerides, and other lipid components of your blood. Each is reported in milligrams per deciliter of blood .
Your doctor can determine the best cholesterol level for you based on your health, medical history, and family history of heart disease. Desirable cholesterol levels, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , are:
- Total cholesterol less than 200 mg/dL
- LDL cholesterol less than 100 mg/dL
- HDL above 40 mg/dL in men and above 50 mg/dL in women
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Extra Virgin Olive Oil
The fats in olive oil are considered heart-healthy, making it a great substitute for other oils if lowering LDL is a concern. The great thing about this oil is that it tastes great too so that it can be used in salad dressings, sauces, dips, and numerous other recipes. It breaks down at very low temperatures too.
Regulation Of Cholesterol Synthesis
Biosynthesis of cholesterol is directly regulated by the cholesterol levels present, though the homeostatic mechanisms involved are only partly understood. A higher intake from food leads to a net decrease in endogenous production, whereas lower intake from food has the opposite effect. The main regulatory mechanism is the sensing of intracellular cholesterol in the endoplasmic reticulum by the proteinSREBP . In the presence of cholesterol, SREBP is bound to two other proteins: SCAP and INSIG-1. When cholesterol levels fall, INSIG-1 dissociates from the SREBP-SCAP complex, which allows the complex to migrate to the Golgi apparatus. Here SREBP is cleaved by S1P and S2P , two enzymes that are activated by SCAP when cholesterol levels are low.
Cholesterol synthesis can also be turned off when cholesterol levels are high. HMG-CoA reductase contains both a cytosolic domain and a membrane domain. The membrane domain senses signals for its degradation. Increasing concentrations of cholesterol cause a change in this domain’s oligomerization state, which makes it more susceptible to destruction by the proteasome. This enzyme’s activity can also be reduced by phosphorylation by an AMP-activated protein kinase. Because this kinase is activated by AMP, which is produced when ATP is hydrolyzed, it follows that cholesterol synthesis is halted when ATP levels are low.
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When Should My Cholesterol Levels Be Tested
Your GP may recommend that you have your blood cholesterol levels tested if you:
- have been diagnosed with coronary heart disease, stroke or mini stroke , or peripheral arterial disease
- have a family history of early cardiovascular disease
- have a close family member who has a cholesterol-related condition
- are overweight
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Get A Cholesterol Test
A simple blood test can detect the milligrams of cholesterol per deciliter of blood in your body.
The CDC recommends healthy adults have their cholesterol checked every four to six years. For those with health issues, such as obesity or diabetes, or a family history of high cholesterol, tests should be done more often.
And its never too early to get a baseline cholesterol screening for those at higher risk.
Children with a parental history of hypercholesterolemia should get tested very early on between, 2 to 10 years of age, advises Dr. Poornima.
For those with no risk factors, she recommends a baseline cholesterol screening between ages 17 to 20, as children transition from pediatric to adult care.
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What Causes High Hdl Cholesterol
There are a number of possible causes for high HDL cholesterol, and some of these can be reversed. If you have high HDL cholesterol, your doctor should consider whats causing it to decide on a course of action.
What you eat and drink
Eating a diet high in saturated fats and drinking too much alcohol can contribute to a higher level of HDL. If you and your doctor discuss making lifestyle changes, you will need to keep these going for an agreed time period, such as three months, before checking your HDL cholesterol levels again to see if the changes are working.
Medication
Some medicines could raise your HDL levels, including:
- the oral contraceptive pill
- oestrogen replacement therapy
- anti convulsants.
Your genes
Your doctor should ask you questions about your family to understand if your high HDL could be inherited.
If members of your family, including your parents, grandparents and siblings, have lived for a long time, this is reassuring. If you have a family history of heart disease or strokes, your doctor may want to refer you to a lipid specialist.
Japanese ancestry
Some people with Japanese ancestry have high HDL levels due to a lack of a protein called CETP. This is inherited in the genes.
Menopause
Research has suggested that the changes in hormones that happen during the menopause can affect the way HDL works in the body, and HDL loses some of its protective effects in some women.
Hypothyroidism
Infections and inflammation
Switch To A Healthy Balanced Diet
A good example of a diet that can improve HDL-cholesterol and help decrease the risk of heart disease is the Mediterranean diet, which is rich in fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, herbs, and spices. It is also high in monounsaturated fats found in olive oil .
Fruits, Vegetables, and Fiber
Studies suggest that fiber, found in fruits and vegetables, is beneficial in general, while eating processed carbs can have a negative effect on HDL-cholesterol .
Olive Oil
Saturated fat, found in dairy and fatty cuts of meat, increases both LDL and HDL. Replacing saturated fat with âhealthy fatsâ has been shown to lower both LDL and HDL cholesterol .
Numerous studies have shown that supplementing your diet with olive oil can help lower total cholesterol and raise HDL cholesterol. Olive oil contains antioxidants called polyphenols that are responsible for its heart-protective properties .
Olive oil also improves cholesterol profiles by improving HDLâs ability to mediate proper cholesterol transport. A study in 26 healthy human volunteers suggests that olive oil improves cholesterol profiles by increasing the production of the proteins ABCA1 and ABCG1 which transport fats across cell membranes .
Olive oil also helps to increase the anti-inflammatory properties of HDL. A study performed in 20 healthy adults consuming extra virgin olive oil for 12 weeks had increased levels of a protein associated with HDL that helps to mediate HDLâs anti-inflammatory properties .
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