HDL Cholesterol

bnr4r22g5p

Have anyone experience low HDL I vary from 27-38 - I’m doing all I can, with supplements , such as fish oil coQ10, I eat salmon etc, and I workout moderately- my other levels are normal….. I’m looking for answers…. I do have a nutritionist, but knowing what others do can help… I also, eat avocados, I use olive oil etc…..

Thanks

rms62003

Unfortunately, HDL is mostly genetic, we can't budge it a whole lot. But, here's some info from Mayo Clinic on what you can do to help raise your HDL:

"Make your lifestyle count

HDL cholesterol levels are often lower in people who have metabolic syndrome. This is a group of conditions that includes obesity, increased blood pressure and high blood sugar levels.

Increased physical activity can raise HDL cholesterol levels while lowering levels of triglycerides, the most common type of fat in the body. As little as 60 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise a week can achieve this. Moving more also can help you lose weight.

Try not to include trans fats in your diet. Trans fats can increase LDL cholesterol and lower HDL cholesterol levels. Foods made with shortening, such as cakes and cookies, often contain trans fats. So do most fried foods and some margarines. Also limit saturated fat, found in meats and full-fat dairy products.

If you smoke, find a way to quit. Smoking lowers HDL levels, especially in women. And it may raise LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels."

AnnPT77

I increased my HDL a lot. Most of the time, it was at the low end of the reference range (in the 40s), but I have at least one report where it was 32 with a normal reference range of 40-59, and a couple of others where it was below 40. This occurred over a span of several years.

In June 2015, it was 39. By November 2015, 65. It's been in the 60s-70s most of the time since, with an isolated instance of 85.4 a couple of years ago.

The hard question is what caused that. I can't say for sure. I can say some things that changed, especially between June and November of 2015. With apologies for length, I'll say some things that changed, in case that helps. But I can't point to one simple cause.

One biggie change was weight loss. In April 2015, I started losing weight. My SW was 183, just over the line into class 1 obese for my height. My high LDL cholesterol and triglycerides started coming down. By June, I weighed 165. By November, 129.

I didn't increase exercise, though the above post is correct in saying that can help, especially aerobic exercise. I'd already been very active with a cardiovascular sport (rowing) for a dozen years by 2015, and my blood lipids remained pretty bad despite being active. I remained equally active throughout.

I didn't hugely change the range of foods I ate. I ate less, and ate fewer treat foods especially. (I'd been vegetarian since 1974, and I already at a lot of nutrient dense foods, just too much of those and way too many treat foods like baked goods, chips, fried foods and candy. Eating fewer baked goods in that time period may've reduced trans fat intake.)

I think I did improve my nutrition alongside weight loss, eating a higher proportion of my overall diet in veggies and fruits than I had before (though I'd already eaten a fair amount). I'm pretty sure I increased my intake of nuts and seeds, plus other sources of unsaturated fats like avocados, olive oil, etc. I may've decreased saturated fats, like eating less of things like cheese, but I still ate some. Eating more unsaturated fats has some correlation in research with increasing HDL, especially when the saturated fats are reduced at the same time. I increased probiotic foods like yogurt, kefir, raw vinegar, raw sauerkraut, miso, kim chi, etc.

Somewhere in there, I started supplementing Omega-3. If I were an omnivore, eating certain cold water fatty fish would've been a good dietary way to get more Omega-3s, but there aren't great vegetarian sources, so I supplemented. Omega-3s appear to increase HDL, but not for everyone.

While losing weight, I drank some alcohol, but only a little. Once I got to maintenance calories, I probably had alcohol a few times a week in moderate amounts with a meal, but my HDL didn't drop as a consequence. I don't smoke.

I don't know if that helps. From reading, I think there's a genetic component, but my experience suggests that it's possible for at least some people to significantly increase HDL: Mine has essentially doubled from it's lowest levels, going from below the reference range to above it. (In my case, given the totally of medical tests, my doctor doesn't consider it bad that I'm above the reference range.)

yakkystuff

As I worked to lower overall # and the LDL, my HDL also improved, but I could not pinpoint why either... I made similar to changes @AnnPT77 described.

Included more grains - pearl barley, quinoa, brown/wild rice medleys, oats daily for breakfast. Citrus fruit daily. Fish often, fermented sauerkraut...

In hand with shifting to more whole foods, cooking from scratch, daily exercise, weight trending down, sleep, quit smoking.

Food, and approach helped some. The overall # and HDL improved better than the LDL parts.

Did adopt a lot from the Mediteranean and DASH approached, and have wondered if it would drop further if I shifted to vegan or go more or less with a vegetarian approach.

Not sure I could stick with that on an emotional level, so at this point, I am somewhere inbetween, more than not.