How To Raise Good Cholesterol and Prevent Heart Disease

What is Good Cholesterol?

One must not be confused with the concept of cholesterol since there are actually two types of cholesterol – good and bad. The good cholesterol is also known as HDL, which you must attempt to increase since it helps to reduce the possibility of acquiring heart disease.

The act of measuring one's good cholesterol levels simply means that you are measuring your body's capacity to free it off excess cholesterol. When your HDL level goes below 40mg/dL put you at higher risk of developing heart disease, such as coronary artery disease. It is therefore important to increase your HDL levels and maintain a healthier cardiovascular system.

Increasing your HDL or Good Cholesterol

It is actually simple to boost your level of good cholesterol in the body. This could be done using dietary and lifestyle changes. To learn how you can achieve this, you can get more tips below.

Lose Excess Weight

When an individual is obese, it means they have an increased amount of bad cholesterol in the body. Hence, you need to begin your quest to prevent heart disease by reducing your body weight. Your risk for heart disease is even bigger when your excess fat is stored around the abdomen.

Regular Exercise

There are several benefits that one can enjoy with regular exercise and now you can add this one to its list of benefits. Aerobic exercise, to be specific, is especially beneficial for reducing the risk of heart disease. You can either do jogging, walking, brisk walking, or running for 20 to 30 minutes each day to boost good cholesterol. You need to work on increasing the duration, instead or intensity, of your exercise to raise your HDL levels.

Reduce Trans Fatty Acids

Trans fatty acids is commonly found in most prepared foods today, so make sure you read the labels carefully. You need to take particular note of foods that have “partially hydrogenated vegetable oils” in their labels and avoid them. It can be a bit of a challenge to eliminate them from your dietary routine.

However, it is very important to eliminate them off your diet since they are bad for your health in two ways: (a) they increase the amount of bad cholesterol or LDL levels in your body, and (b) they increase good cholesterol or HDL levels.

Drink Alcohol

Although several health organizations such as the American Heart Association advise against drinking alcohol, taking one or two drinks each day helps to boost the HDL levels in your body. This is one of the unique advantages that alcohol offers. However, this is quite tricky since you need only moderate amount of alcohol to enjoy these benefits. Drinking too much alcohol could result to serious heart problems, including heart failure.

Quit Smoking

For regular smokers, you can enhance your HDL level when you quit smoking tobacco. Thus, you can enjoy double benefits for quitting your smoking habit.

Increase Intake of Soluble Fiber

Another beneficial component when it comes to increasing the level of good cholesterol in the body is soluble fiber. There are several sources of soluble fiber, which includes fruits, vegetables, legumes, and oats, among other food types. The benefits of consuming soluble fiber is similar to eliminating trans fatty acids off your diet, which increases good cholesterol and reducing bad cholesterol to prevent heart disease.