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Cholesterol and Your HDL to LDL Ratio
By Paula Zuehlke
Cholesterol is a lipid, or fatty substance, that occurs normally in your body and which has important biological functions including maintaining the structural integrity of your cells. Your liver produces some cholesterol, and the remainder enters your body in the food that you eat. Meat, poultry, fish and dairy products are particularly high in cholesterol. The cholesterol contained in food is absorbed by your small intestine, and circulated in your blood stream packaged inside a protein coat.
Excessively high levels of blood-borne cholesterol are detrimental to your health. In particular, hypercholesterolemia is a leading risk factor for coronary heart disease. The cause of heart disease is a build up of cholesterol in the muscular walls of your arteries, which decreases their elasticity, reduces the space available for blood to flow and causes your heart to work much harder than it should do.
But not all cholesterol is equal – there are two types of protein-cholesterol packages. High density lipoproteins (HDL) are considered “good cholesterol”, whilst low density lipoproteins (LDL) are seen as “bad” cholesterol. HDL is good for your cardiac health because it extracts cholesterol from the walls of your arteries and encourages its removal through the normal metabolic processes of the liver. The ratio of the cholesterol sub-types is obviously important – low levels of HDL and high levels of LDL are undesirable, whilst high HDL and low LDL levels confer health benefits.
The risk of heart disease and atherosclerosis is strongly related to your overall cholesterol level, as well as to the HDL to LDL ratio. Some people have naturally high levels of HDL cholesterol and tend to live longer and suffer fewer heart attacks than individuals whose levels of HDL cholesterol are low. Although the average HDL to LDL ratio is approximately 4.5, it is more desirable for a ratio of between two and three.
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Lifestyle factors and other conditions can influence your level of HDL cholesterol and, by association, your risk of atherosclerosis and heart disease. People who smoke cigarettes, who consume excessive amounts of sugar, have diabetes or who are overweight or obese have lower HDL cholesterol levels. Lack of physical activity is also associated with lower blood HDL cholesterol levels. People who are lean and who exercise regularly have elevated HDL levels, as do women since the female sex hormone estrogen increases HDL.
There are several things you can do to raise your HDL cholesterol level and decrease your risk of heart disease. Quitting smoking, losing weight and making healthier food choices are among the best lifestyle modifications you can make. Drinking alcohol, especially red wine, can improve your HDL to LDL ratio, but this is not a standard recommended cholesterol treatment, since excessive alcohol consumption is an independent risk factor for many health problems. If dietary modifications fail to remedy cholesterol levels and ratios, there are certain medications that can increase HDL cholesterol. In particular, nicotinic acid, estrogen and the statin class of drugs are useful for raising HDL levels.
Boosting your HDL cholesterol is an important component of protecting yourself against heart disease.
Find out more about good and bad cholesterol levels and how to control them by visiting living-heart-healthy.com
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