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Maintain Healthy Cholesterol Levels

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Healthy Cholesterol Levels

Maintaining healthy cholesterol levels are one of the most significant keys to keeping your heart in good health and living a long life. Often poor diet and low levels of physical activity combine to throw cholesterol levels out of the healthy range and as a result atherosclerosis, or plaque buildup in the arteries, begins to form. If you do not take action to maintain a proper balance between HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol) and LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) then you may be putting yourself at risk for future complications such as clogged arteries, stroke, and heart disease. Poor cholesterol levels are also one of the potential causes of dementia so you've got that to think about as well.

To understand how to keep your cholesterol levels in balance you have to take the time to understand the difference between HDL cholesterol and LDL cholesterol because both kinds work in the body in different ways. Both forms of cholesterol are nessesary so you don't want to eliminate one or the other but it is important to know that lazy dieters typically overload their system with too much LDL cholesterol and not enough HDL cholesterol.

Healthy LDL Cholesterol Levels

Generally speaking in a lipid profile you want your LDL cholesterol levels to fall below 100 and your HDL cholesterol levels to fall above 50. Total cholesterol count in an ideal world would be below 150. This would almost ensure a healthy cardiovascular system for a lifetime but the typically stated goal is a count below 180.

Healthy HDL Cholesterol Levels

The great thing about increasing good cholesterol is that good cholesterol works to flush bad cholesterol out of the system. Thus is you try to increase HDL cholesterol levels you will likely be lowering your LDL cholesterol levels at the same time. Thus if you also work on lowering your LDL cholesterol levels in conjuncture with raising HDL levels you will more easily bring your cholesterol levels back into balance.

There are a few ways to naturally work on balancing cholesterol levels and these are great places to start. Often bad cholesterol levels are the result of poor diet and no exercise so you can always start by laying off your fast food and going for a run in the morning. Incidentally this also helps with managing arterial hypertension too. If developing ideal cholesterol levels is a significant goal you can take it one step further and align your diet with foods that naturally raise HDL cholesterol and lower LDL cholesterol. You doctor can also advise on medically sound alternative methods of maintaining healthy cholesterol levels as well.

What is important, however, is that you know what your cholesterol count actually is, that way you have a basis for comparison as you actively try to improve your health. Improving the health of your arteries and lowering blood pressure is absolutely necessary in decreasing the risks of heart disease and stroke and considering that both of these two conditions are in the top five causes of death in America you'd be hard pressed to find another way of living longer by increasing your mortality rate. To ensure that you live a longer and healthier life, go to your doctor and check to see if you have healthy cholesterol levels. If you don't, then take action today to do something about it.