What Does A Low HDL Mean?
Your HDL Is Low. What Can You Do About It?
Your doctor told you that your HDL is low and that you want it to be higher.
But what does that actually mean, and more importantly, what can you do about it?
First, here’s why he wants you to raise it.
In general, low HDL is associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease.
But there is an important distinction between something being associated with risk and something directly causing that risk.
How Do You Raise HDL? What Levers Can You Pull?
Fortunately, many of the things associated with healthier HDL levels are things you can control.
Your major levers include:
Exercise regularly, including both resistance training and aerobic exercise.
Lose excess body fat, when appropriate.
Improve insulin sensitivity and blood sugar control.
Stop smoking, if you smoke.
Favor unsaturated fats from foods like nuts, seeds, olive oil, avocado, and fish over excessive saturated fat.
Here's the part that often gets missed:
Your goal isn't really to chase a higher HDL number.
Think about a car. A running car produces exhaust, but the exhaust isn't what makes the car run.
In a similar way, a higher HDL can be one of the signs produced alongside a healthier metabolic environment.
This isnt to say that HDL is useless. Its to say higher HDL is a byproduct of a healthy lifestyle, and not the cause of better cardiovascular health.
Exercise, better insulin sensitivity, healthier body composition, and not smoking can lower cardiovascular risk through multiple mechanisms.
A healthier HDL level can be one sign that accompanies those changes.
That's why simply finding a way to make the HDL number higher doesn't necessarily produce the same cardiovascular benefit.
This is an important distinction from LDL.
Elevated LDL-containing particles aren't simply markers of cardiovascular risk.
They can directly participate in the development of atherosclerosis by delivering cholesterol into the arterial wall.
So don't exercise or improve your diet just to make your HDL number go up.
Build the lifestyle that lowers your cardiovascular risk, and let HDL be one of the markers that helps us see what's happening.
The Bottom Line
If your HDL is low, don't panic and don't simply chase the number.
Instead, look at the levers underneath it.
Exercise. Improve insulin sensitivity. Address excess body fat when appropriate. Improve the quality of your diet. Don't smoke.
Change the environment that produced the lab value, and let the lab value help you track what's happening.
If you want help understanding what your lab values mean and identifying the levers you can pull to support better health:
Schedule Your Complimentary Strategy Call
We'll look at where you are now, what you can control, and what your next steps could look like.
Yours In Health,
Dr. Uche
