The Best Foods To Raise Your Hdl
Here at Allrecipes, we’re strong believers that all foods fit. As long as you’re not allergic to an ingredient, everything in moderation, we say! So while we’ll never say, “Don’t eat that!” we certainly will shout, “Load up on this!” And these four foods are particularly on our stock-up-now list since they’ve been shown to improve HDL cholesterol levels.
What Is Good Cholesterol
Cholesterol is a fatty substance found in the membranes of the majority of tissues in our body and they are transported in the plasma of the human body. There are two types of cholesterol: Low Density Lipoprotein and High Density Lipoprotein .Bad cholesterol is a type of lipoprotein that carries cholesterol in the blood. This index is not beneficial because it causes excessive cholesterol to enter the blood vessel walls, causing atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction,
Good cholesterol is a mucus protein and it has a fairly high density. In particular, it is possible to take excess cholesterol in the walls of blood vessels to the liver to metabolize, reducing the risk of stroke and myocardial infarction. If your HDL levels are higher than 60mg / dl, you do not need to worry about cardiovascular disease. However, if your HDL levels are less than 40mg / dl, you need to pay special attention to the symptoms of the body. For that reason, everyone wants to increase the good cholesterol.
Some Misconceptions About LDL And HDL
Potential To Treat Atherosclerosis Through Reverse Cholesterol Transport
The cost and health risks involved with cardiac stenting have turned physicians and researchers to explore alternative methods. Studies have shown success in treating atherosclerosis through preventive and lifestyle approaches. These approaches include nutritional intervention, exercise plans, and pharmaceutical intervention. In order to review and understand these methods and why they are successful, we must first understand how cholesterol is transported out of the arteries to stop the progression of atherosclerosis.
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Simple Ways To Raise Your Hdl Cholesterol
When you receive your annual health screening, one of the things that you get tested for is your cholesterol level. Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance that’s found in all cells of your body. Your body needs cholesterol to help produce certain hormones, cell membranes, vitamin D, and bile acids that aid your digestive system.
Many adults are hard-wired to believe that cholesterol is bad for your health. This is only partly true. High levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol can lead to an increased risk of heart disease. However, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol is great for your overall health and helps reduce your risk of developing heart disease.
According to WebMD, HDL cholesterol can help reduce your risk of heart disease by:
- Removing LDL cholesterol
- Transporting LDL cholesterol it to the liver where it can be reprocessed
- Acting as the maintenance crew for the inner walls of your blood vessels HDL scrubs the wall clean and keeps it healthy
In general, people with high HDL cholesterol are at lower risk for heart disease, whereas those with low HDL are at a higher risk of heart disease. For optimal heart health, adults should aim for an HDL level of 60 mg/dL or higher. An HDL level less than 40 mg/dL is considered to be low and puts you in the high-risk category.
Tip: Remember that not all olive oil is created equal. Always be sure to use extra-virgin olive oil to enjoy all of its health benefits.
Image created by Nensuria – Freepik.com
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Filed Under: Natural Home & Lifestyle
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Ways To Increase Your Hdl Cholesterol
There are some factors that lower your HDL that are outside of your control. But heres the good news: There are steps you can take to increase your HDL.
Experts recommend lifestyle changes starting with your diet as the best approach to improving your HDL. Examples include:
Swap fats. All fat isnt bad. In fact, you need fat for many body functions. Choose healthier fats such as omega-6, omega-3, polyunsaturated, and monounsaturated fats. These types of fats are in a wide variety of foods such as flaxseed, chia seeds, olive oil, and oily fish. The Mediterranean diet is a great example.
Forget or reduce sugar. The American Heart Association recommends males eat only 9 tsp of sugar per day and females eat 6 tsp per day. Most adults in the U.S. eat almost three times this amount daily. Sugar comes in many different forms, so be sure to read labels carefully when trying to eat less of it. If you have diabetes, controlling your blood sugar is especially important raising your HDL level may even improve your diabetes.
Move more. The AHA recommends 150 minutes of physical activity a week. Cardiovascular exercise, or aerobic exercise, increases HDL levels. Exercise may also make HDL work better, so it can clear out more LDL.
Stop smoking. Your HDL improves very quickly after you quit smoking . Quitting smoking isnt easy, but it has many health benefits.
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.
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Cut Out The Trans Fatty Acids
Trans fatty acids are likely present in many of your favorite prepared foods anything in which the nutrition label reads “partially hydrogenated vegetable oils” so eliminating them from the diet is not a trivial task. But trans fatty acids not only increase LDL cholesterol levels, but they also reduce HDL cholesterol levels. Removing them from your diet will almost certainly result in a measurable increase in HDL levels.
Effects Of Exercise On Reverse Cholesterol Transport
While nutrition may be the most important lifestyle factor in stimulating reverse cholesterol transport, studies have shown that the intervention treatment is best when it is paired with exercise. One of the reasons for this is the positive effect exercise has on our HDL cholesterol levels. Epidemiological and clinical intervention data have consistently shown that low levels of HDL cholesterol are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. The first step in the management of low HDL cholesterol levels is to increase physical activity .
A study done in Czech Republic on obese women indicated that physical activity is required to trigger reverse cholesterol transport . Efflux of cholesterol from prelabeled macrophages to plasma acceptors of tested individuals was used as a reverse cholesterol transport measure. Changes in reverse cholesterol transport were analyzed in 15 obese women after 9-week intervention, which consisted of 5 sessions of increased physical activity per week. Each session lasted 60 minutes long and 3 of the 5 were under controlled conditions in a fitness center. The other two sessions were usually bicycling or brisk walking. At the beginning of the 9-week intervention and at the end blood specimens were obtained.
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How Do You Know If Your Cholesterol Is A Concern
High cholesterol often doesnt announce itself early with a tell-tale sign. You might learn you have troubling numbers only after having a heart attack or a stroke.
Healthy adults should have their cholesterol checked through a blood test every four to six years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Testing should be more frequent if you or your family has a history of heart disease or diabetes.
Its not just adults who should be tested, either. The CDC also recommends that children have their cholesterol checked at least once between ages 9 and 11. The agency also recommends a test between ages 17 and 21.
Tests results can open discussions with your doctor about unique risk enhancers such as:
- Family history, which could lead to a second test to find your Lipoprotein, or Lp, level.
Benefits Of Increasing Your Hdl Cholesterol
As mentioned, increasing your HDL cholesterol is good for your heart health. But what exactly does that mean? And are there other benefits? Research is ongoing, but studies suggest that target levels of HDL could:
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Lower your risk of heart attack: A fatty buildup in the arteries can lead to heart attacks. Experts believe HDL helps to clear cholesterol from the blood vessels, helping to prevent atherosclerosis. That said, theres probably more to the story, because improving HDL doesnt always reduce heart disease.
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Lower your risk of stroke: There are a few different causes of strokes, but one of them is atherosclerosis in the arteries that supply the brain.
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Improve your life expectancy: People who live longer have higher levels of HDL. Scientists believe the same genes that help you live longer are also responsible for higher levels of HDL. This may explain the genetic connection between a higher HDL and longer life expectancy.
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Lower your risk of dementia:Studies have linked lower HDL levels to memory loss and dementia. But experts dont yet understand exactly how this relationship works.
Its important to note that recent research suggests it may be possible for your HDL to be too high. Research is ongoing to figure out the optimal range for HDL levels.
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Substitute Healthy Oils In Place Of Butter And Margarine
Of course, its not always realistic to avoid fats when youre whipping up a tasty meal. When you do need to add fat for cooking, baking or pan frying, use healthy oils instead of solid fats, like butter, margarine, shortening and lard.
Solid fats are high in saturated fats, but oils are high in unsaturated fats, which remember are better for you. The American Heart Association recommends using oils that have less than 4 grams of saturated fat per tablespoon .
Many times, its easy to swap a solid fat to a healthier one. Try using olive oil, sunflower oil or grapeseed oil in place of a solid fat.
For example, if youd rather use olive oil than butter, substitute three quarters the amount of butter in a recipe with olive oil. You might also bring out some new, surprising, subtle flavors, too.
The Link Between Dietary And Blood Cholesterol
The liver produces as much cholesterol as your body needs. It packages cholesterol with fat in whats called very low-density lipoproteins .
As VLDL delivers fat to cells throughout the body, it changes into the more dense LDL, which carries cholesterol wherever it is needed.
The liver also releases HDL, which then carries unused cholesterol back to the liver. This process is called reverse cholesterol transport, and it protects against clogged arteries and other types of heart disease.
Some lipoproteins, especially LDL and VLDL, are prone to damage by free radicals in a process called oxidation. Oxidized LDL and VLDL are even more harmful to heart health .
Although food companies often advertise products as being low in cholesterol, recent research has shown that dietary cholesterol actually has only a small influence on the amount of cholesterol in the body .
This is because the liver changes the amount of cholesterol it makes depending on how much you eat. When your body absorbs more cholesterol from your diet, it makes less in the liver.
Current guidelines by leading U.S. health organizations for lowering risk of heart disease no longer contain specific recommended levels for dietary cholesterol, including the:
- American Heart Association (
- 7 )
The guidelines do recommend moderating cholesterol consumption, but this is more to limit the saturated fat that often accompanies cholesterol in foods than to limit intake of cholesterol itself .
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Tips To Cut Your Cholesterol Fast
If you have high cholesterol, youâre also at higher risk for heart disease. But the good news is, itâs a risk you can control. You can lower your âbadâ LDL cholesterol and raise your âgoodâ HDL cholesterol. You just have to make some simple changes.
âI tell patients that you have to start somewhere and just keep going,â says Suzanne Steinbaum, DO, an attending cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. âAs you adopt lifestyle changes, everything starts shifting, and the improvements you see at 6 weeks often increase by 3 months.â
Lifestyle isn’t everything — your genes matter, too. You still may need to take medicine to get your cholesterol back on track. But your daily habits do help. if you make just a few simple changes, you might be able to lower your medication dose and chance of side effects.
Follow these tips to cut your cholesterol and improve your health.
Two Types Of Cholesterol
After your provider checks your cholesterol, you will see a few numbers on your lab report. One of them is your total cholesterol. This looks at all the different types of cholesterol levels in your body. Here well look at two main types: HDL and LDL.
People often call high-density lipoprotein the good cholesterol. This is because its job is to bring bad cholesterol to the liver so your body can remove it. High levels of HDL help decrease your heart disease risk. Here are the recommended levels of HDL to get heart health benefits:
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For males: over 40 mg/dL
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For females: over 50 mg/dL
The other type of cholesterol low-density lipoprotein is your bad cholesterol. Thats because it can damage blood vessels, causing coronary artery disease, stroke, and peripheral artery disease. Lowering your LDL can decrease your risk of heart disease.
So how low does your LDL need to be to get heart health benefits? For people at low risk of heart disease, the LDL goal is less than 100 mg/dl. For those at high risk, or those with diabetes and/or heart disease, the goal is less than 70 mg/dl.
It can be difficult to remember the target levels of HDL versus LDL. Heres a simple way to remember the goals for each: Aim high for HDL. Aimlow for LDL.
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Good Vs Bad Cholesterol: How To Raise Hdl And Lower Ldl Naturally
Cholesterol levels can be confusing. The usual goal is low cholesterol levels, and people try to avoid consuming too much cholesterol. There are two kinds of cholesterol if you don’t have enough of the good kind, high–density lipoprotein or HDL, you’re at a greater risk for heart problems.
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Foods That Raise Your ‘good’ Cholesterol
Do you dread opening up the white envelope of lab results after your annual physical only to discover a jumble of numbers, red ink, and arrows pointing every possible direction? Lipid or cholesterol panel results can be confusing to comprehend, and when numbers come back “out of range” it can only further fuel feelings of discouragement and helplessness.
When it comes to cholesterol, not all types are created equal, and it is important to understand how lifestyle choices significantly impact cardiovascular health. High-density lipoprotein, or HDL, is known as the “healthy” or “good” type of cholesterol due to the fact that it scavenges and removes the “bad” type of cholesterol known to clog arteries. A desirable HDL level is anything greater than 60 milligrams per deciliter .
The good news is that changing your cholesterol levels is well within your control as some of the smallest lifestyle tweaks can yield a profound impact. A fast track to boosting HDL includes quitting smoking and increasing physical activity. The American Heart Association recommends 30 minutes of moderate physical activity at least 5 times per week with two sessions of resistance training. Your choices at mealtimes, however, may prove to be an easier more attainable way to make lasting change. Here are the foods that raise HDL cholesterol.
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Mechanism Of Reverse Cholesterol Transport
Our understanding of reverse cholesterol transport and its role in cholesterol efflux has progressed over the last few decades . Reverse cholesterol transport is a pathway by which cholesterol is transported from the artery walls to the liver for excretion from the body. It is through this process that the body reduces the amount of plaque buildup in vessel walls and reverses atherosclerosis.
HDL is synthesized in the liver and is a key factor in RCT. The liver releases the nascent HDL particles into the bloodstream. ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 translocates cholesterol to the cell surface, where they appear to form lipid domains that interact with amphipathic -helixes in apolipoproteins. ApoA1 and A2 on HDL stimulate the enzyme LCAT, which then esterifies the cell surface cholesterol molecules to form cholesteryl ester, which migrate to the core of the HDL particle to form mature migrating HDL. Cholesterol esters are then exchanged for triglycerides in apoB100-containing lipoproteins . These cholesteryl esters are then taken up by the liver through the LDL-R Receptor. Finally, a liver protein named SR-B1 is the HDL receptor expressed on liver cells, allowing the liver to endocytose HDL, removing it from circulation .