Good Cholesterol vs. Bad Cholesterol And Simple Ways You Can Manage Cholesterol Levels

Cholesterol has been in the news for years now – decades, probably – but apart from the oft-quoted mantra that “you need to lower your cholesterol levels”, many people don’t really know what that means.

This article will explain what cholesterol does, the two different manifestations of it), and how you can manage your cholesterol levels to improve your health.

What Is Cholesterol?

Cholesterol is a waxy compound that your body uses to help create certain hormones (e.g. oestrogen and testosterone) as well as vitamin D, and build cell membranes.

Over three quarters of your cholesterol is manufactured in your liver, while the rest is derived from your diet, from items such as dairy products, eggs, fish, and meat.

Note that you can not obtain cholesterol from plants.

The liver not only creates cholesterol, but it also regulates how much of it gets into your bloodstream.

So, after you’ve eaten, any cholesterol that may be present in the foods you’ve just consumed is absorbed by the small intestine, metabolized (i.e. transformed into energy), and then stored in the liver, which will secrete it as required by your body.

The Two Manifestations Of Cholesterol

To manage your cholesterol levels, you need to understand the difference between “bad” and “good” cholesterol.

Notice how I used the word “manifestations” rather than “types”?

That’s because there is actually only one type of cholesterol.

Cholesterol moves around inside your body via your bloodstream, but the problem is that it doesn’t dissolve very well, so what it does is attach itself to fatty proteins – and there are two types of those.

It is when cholesterol attaches to these two types of fatty proteins that we refer to them as either bad or good.

The bad version is known as LDL cholesterol (where the LDL is short for low-density lipoprotein), while the good type is called HDL cholesterol (where the HDL is short for high-density lipoprotein).

LDL cholesterol is bad because it sticks to and leaves deposits on your artery walls, creating plaque, and when too much of it accumulates, it can cause a blockage. Over time, this can also cause damage to your arteries, which can lead to various diseases (e.g. atherosclerosis, often known as hardening of the arteries, and coronary heart disease).

On the other hand, HDL cholesterol dissolves more effectively than the LDL cholesterol, which means it is looser and therefore will not attach itself to your arteries.

This avoids the issues caused by LDL cholesterol (e.g. the build-up of plaque on the artery walls), and, even better, HDL cholesterol can pick up bad cholesterol and take that with it when moving around your bloodstream.

Note that triglycerides, which are another form of fat in your bloodstream, can also contribute to your total cholesterol, and just like LDL cholesterol, high triglyceride levels raise your risk of heart disease.

Also, there are no symptoms of high cholesterol, which is why you need to go for a specific test to determine what your levels are.

The secret to optimizing your cholesterol levels is, then, not to eliminate cholesterol from your diet, because your body needs it and manufactures it anyway, but to increase your good HDL cholesterol to help eliminate your bad LDL cholesterol.

To achieve this, there are a few things you can do:

1. Cut down on, or, even better, eliminate alcohol.
2. Eat healthy foods.
3. Exercise.
4. Lose weight.
5. Reduce stress.
6. Stop smoking.

Avoid Alcohol

Pure alcohol, by itself, does not contain any cholesterol – although what you mix it with may.

However, alcohol (and sugars) can raise your triglyceride levels, which in turn can cause high blood pressure and even heart attacks.

Even one drink will increase your cholesterol so keep to a maximum of one per day for women, and two per day for men.

Eat Healthy Foods

This doesn’t mean you have to radically change your diet, or go on any specific type of diet – you just need to make small but crucial adjustments to what you eat:

1. Apple Cider Vinegar. Adding a table spoon to water once a day will reduce both weight and cholesterol. It contains acetic acid, which helps you lose weight, and pectin and malic acid, which attract bad cholesterol so it can be removed from your body.
2. Avoid saturated fats. These are usually found in red meats (e.g. beef, lamb, and pork), so lowering your consumption of these can help. However, if you are following a keto diet then the fat gets burned quickly, so cholesterol is kept low.
3. Celery Juice. Celery has a high amount of antioxidants, so to help reduce your bad cholesterol levels, blend a couple of sticks of celery with some water and enjoy a healthy, refreshing drink.
4. Coconut Oil. This can help increase your HDL cholesterol, while reducing your bad cholesterol.
5. Eliminate trans fats. These are usually found in foods that contain vegetable oil, such as sweets and cakes, and they are generally bad for you all round.
6. Increase fibre. Fibre, especially soluble fibre, helps reduce cholesterol and can be found in apples, artichokes, Brussel sprouts, lentils, pears, and strawberries, amongst many other foods.
7. Fruit juice. Specifically, you should drink grapefruit, orange, or pomegranate juices, because they contain many nutrients, including fibre, minerals (e.g. magnesium, potassium), and vitamin C. But it’s the antioxidants they contain that are great for lowering cholesterol. Just make sure you either make your own, from the fresh fruit, or if you buy some, check that it’s not loaded up with additional sugars.
8. Green tea. Touted by some as the healthiest drink you can find, it contains antioxidants and nutrients that have positive effects on the body, including raising your good cholesterol levels.
9. Increase omega-3 fatty acids. These can lower both your LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Good sources of these fatty acids include some fish (e.g. anchovies, mackerel, and salmon, although wild caught Alaskan salmon is your safest option), as well as some nuts (e.g. butternuts, pecans, walnuts) and seeds (e.g. chia, flax, mustard).
10. Lemon Juice. As well as reducing cholesterol lemon juice also helps with weight loss. The best way to get your lemon juice is to make lemon water each morning.
11. Switching to heart-healthy proteins. While red meats, as discussed above, can contribute to heart disease, there are other proteins that do not have these problems and can lower your cholesterol and blood pressure levels, including beans, fish, low-fat dairy, nuts, and poultry.
12. Yoghourt. Known as a great source of probiotics, it can also help with your cholesterol levels, but try to go for a low-fat or Greek version. You can enhance yoghourts benefits by eating it together with fresh fruits (e.g. mango, peach).

Exercise

Pretty much everybody should do some form or exercise on a regular basis, because it’s good for us, and the human body is meant to be in motion (as opposed to sitting in a chair all day).

This doesn’t mean you need to enrol at your local gym – exercise can take many different forms, and it doesn’t really matter which you choose, as long as you do something.

And the good news is that studies have shown that exercising can raise your HDL cholesterol levels.

So, here are just some of the options you can consider:

1. Cycling. Why not try using your bicycle to get to work and back (if that’s practical and safe, of course)? Studies have shown that older people who cycle typically experience less joint pains and fewer heart attacks. Note, though, that mountain biking can cause huge stresses on your body, especially your knees.
2. Dancing. Yes, this can be a valid form of exercise too, and for most people, it’s fun because it doesn’t feel like a work-out.
3. Jogging. You don’t need to be a sprinter – jogging more slowly over longer distances (e.g. a few miles) is actually better for you.
4. Sports. Many sports (e.g. squash, tennis) can be a great way to get your exercise in too.
5. Swimming. This is reckoned to exercise your entire body, making it a better option than jogging, running, or walking. And unless you’re swimming competitively, it’s easy on your body, since the water supports you, which can be helpful if you’re overweight.
6. Walking. Surprisingly perhaps, walking and running will burn off an equal number of calories over the same distance. It’s just that running will burn them off faster. However, walking is easier, and causes less strain on your body.
7. Weight lifting. This is a great way to reduce LDL cholesterol. Again, you don’t need to go crazy with this – you can start with a set of dumbbells, or try one of those home gyms, and if you find you enjoy it, then you can consider joining a gym and having access to a wider range of equipment (and professional training to ensure you stay safe).
8. Yoga or Tai Chi. People report that practising either of these can reduce both bad cholesterol and heart attacks.

All you need to do is pick one or two options from the above list that you enjoy, because if you don’t like them, you won’t keep it up – and try to do around 30 minutes every day.

Lose Weight

Studies have shown that losing as little as 10% of your total body weight can contribute to lower LDL cholesterol levels and fewer heart attacks.

Again, this doesn’t need to be more than making a few minor changes to your habits, including:

• Drink water instead of sodas (even the low-calorie ones).
• Take the stairs rather than the lift. At first, you could use the stairs to go down and the lift to go up, or you could go some of the way using the stairs, and then the rest of the way in the elevator.
• Try intermittent fasting.

Reduce Stress Levels

Anxiety and stress are known to increase blood pressure and bad cholesterol levels, which, as I’ve mentioned above, cause coronary artery disease.

One of the best ways to reduce stress overall is meditation, but you’ll find a selection of articles on different aspects of reducing anxiety and stress here.

Stop Smoking

When you give up smoking, the benefits of improved good cholesterol levels are almost immediate:

• Within 20 minutes. your heart rate begins to improve and your blood pressure goes to normal.
• And after three months your blood circulation and lungs begin to improve as well.
• After a year of no smoking, your risk of heart disease is reduced by half and cholesterol levels return to normal.

What Are The Recommended Cholesterol Levels?

According to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), your:

• Total cholesterol level should ideally be below 200 mg/dL (i.e. milligrams per deciliter, a deciliter being one tenth of a liter, or just over three fluid ounces). Anything over 240 mg/dL is considered high.
• LDL cholesterol should be below 100 mg/dL.
• HDL cholesterol should be higher than 60 mg/dL.

Statin Drugs

These are often prescribed to lower cholesterol, but there are, as always, risks involved, which include:

• Increased risk of various diseases and conditions, including cancer, cataracts, cognitive impairment, diabetes, dizziness, heart failure, neuropathy, pancreatitis, rhabdomyolysis (which is extreme muscle inflammation and damage), and a weakened immune system.
• Reduction in levels of CoQ10, which is required by every cell in your body to produce energy.
• Reduction in the production of ketones, which recent studies suggest are crucial regulators of longevity and metabolic health.
• Reduction in levels of vitamin K2, which helps prevent plaque build-up in your arteries.

As you’ve seen from the above, there are plenty of more natural, less risky ways of managing your cholesterol levels.

Conclusion

As with so much health information published over the past few decades, there has been a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding about cholesterol, and things like dietary advice seem to change almost every month.

Even the information in this article may prove to be inaccurate, one day. 🙂

The simple answer, in many ways, is to follow the accepted practices for overall good health (e.g. better diet, exercise, eliminate toxins and drugs), and remember to do everything in moderation.

And in the meantime, don’t forget to check out this collection of 25 recipes that can help you manage your cholesterol levels.