How Exercise Can Increase Your HDL Levels

How Exercise Can Increase Your HDL Levels

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Exercise Increase

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Exercise significantly affects our overall health and the functioning of our organs, including the cardiovascular system. Regular exercise can reduce the risk of developing serious health conditions, such as high blood pressure, stroke, and even coronary artery disease. What’s more, exercise can increase healthy cholesterol levels, HDL or high-density lipoprotein.

Benefits of Regular Exercise

Exercise can reduce bad cholesterol or LDL and increase good cholesterol levels or HDL. As exercise helps your body to use more energy and burn more fat, it then helps to reduce the amount of circulating bad cholesterol. Exercise also increases the number of receptors in the muscle responsible for removing fatty acids from the bloodstream, thus further helping HDL levels to increase.

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How Much Exercise is Enough?

Any physical activity will help increase your HDL levels, however, in order to gain maximum benefit and increase cholesterol levels, you should generally aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity at least 5 days of the week. Some examples of activities that can help increase your HDL levels are jogging, walking, cycling, swimming, or going to the gym.

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Other Ways to Increase HDL Levels

Aside from exercise, there are many other ways you can increase your HDL levels:

  • Stop Smoking: Cigarette smoking can reduce HDL levels, so if you smoke, quitting is the single best thing you can do.

  • Reduce Stress: Stress causes higher levels of LDL cholesterol, so looking after your mental health can help you improve your overall cholesterol levels.

  • Eat Healthy Foods: Eating foods such as whole grains, nuts and seeds, and healthy fats like olive oil and avocados have been shown to help raise HDL levels naturally.

  • Lose Weight: Excess body fat causes an increase in LDL cholesterol and decrease in HDL cholesterol. Losing weight is a great way to keep your cholesterol levels healthy.

Conclusion

Exercise is one of the most effective ways to increase good cholesterol HDL levels, as well as helping you achieve a healthier lifestyle. Combine regular exercise with healthy eating habits, weight management, and reduced stress to lower your cholesterol levels and help keep your heart healthy and strong.