How Exercise Can Lower Your Cholesterol

How Exercise Can Lower Your Cholesterol

You know that regular workouts are good for you, that's common sense. An exercise program is vital in controlling cholesterol, along with a healthy diet and natural supplements.

What you might not know is why exercise is so important. Read on to discover the link between exercise and cholesterol.

Research Into Exercise and Cholesterol

There's been much research into the effects of diet and exercise on cholesterol. But one of the difficulties is that these studies have analysed the results of both dietary and exercise changes together. This makes it hard to separate the two, and work out what changes might have the optimum results.

The latest research focuses on exercise and the role it plays in maintaining a healthy blood flow and promoting a balanced cholesterol level.

Researchers in the past assumed exercise helped in lowering cholesterol levels. The question now is what form of exercise is the most effective and how it contributes directly to improved levels of cholesterol.

Whatever you're doing to improve your health, you need to know that it's effective. If you're like me, you'll lose interest pretty quickly in something that doesn't give you a good return for the energy you put into it.

Does Being Overweight Make a Difference?

It's clear that reducing your waistline and keeping it off is one of the best things you can do for your health - and your cholesterol. And exercise is a key driver in losing weight.

What happens when you're overweight is that it affects the level and composition of LDL(bad cholesterol) in your blood; high levels can lead to heart disease and other problems.

Importantly, exercise affects the makeup of LDL by producing larger proteins, effectively making them less dense which in turn allows the lipoproteins to move through the blood that much easier. When LDL is smaller and more compact it can easily lodge into the sides of arteries and be difficult to remove by the normal flow of blood.

Regular workouts produce enzymes whose job it is to move the HDL(good cholesterol) efficiently to the liver where it is used for digestion or removed from your body. That's the simple equation, the more exercise you do, the higher quality your LDL and the proportion of LDL to HDL is improved.

Controlling cholesterol, and the link to exercise, in summary:

Creates better quality LDL by producing more protein

Losing weight means less LDL

More efficient transport of HDL with more enzymes

The Next Step

Now that you know how exercise helps with controlling cholesterol, what do you do about it? Does it matter what type of exercise you do? Yes.

Unless you've been off-planet, you'll know that most health authorities recommend at least 30 minutes of exercise a day for optimum fitness. But before rushing off to renew your gym membership, or look for excuses as to why you can't fit that in to your busy schedule, let's take a look at the best form of exercise to take.

A study from Duke University found that intense exercise is better than moderate exercise. No real surprises there, but it helps to know that the regular stroll you plan on taking around the block will only moderately help your cholesterol levels but a more vigorous walk will help even more.

The type of exercise you select is really down to a personal preference. If you dislike going to the gym, don't do it. Find something you enjoy; walking, biking or working in the garden can work just as well as a professionally prepared exercise regime. The important thing is to keep at it, and whatever you are doing, do it just that little bit harder each time.

Summary

It should be clear that while exercise is a clear factor in controlling cholesterol, it should be seen as a part of a number of lifestyle changes that are necessary, including dietary changes and natural supplements.

Andrew L. Gibson is just beginning his journey into understanding the causes of high cholesterol and heart disease. He is dedicated to putting the explanations into plain, easy to understand language that everyone can understand.

By understanding the issues, he believes it will be easier for people to create an all-round plan to help in controlling cholesterol which combines diet, exercise and natural supplements.

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