How can exercise help to manage your high cholesterol?
Did you know that exercise can provide benefits to you to help you manage or even prevent high cholesterol?
Today, the teams at Longevity Exercise Physiology Drummoyne, Edgecliff, Marrickville, Bella Vista, Randwick, Pymble, Balmain, Neutral Bay, Coburg – Melbourne, and Barrie, Ontario – Canada discusses how exercise exercise helps to prevent and manage high cholesterol and how it compares to medications used to treat this condition.
Firstly, what is cholesterol?
There are different types of cholesterol in the body, these being High-density lipoprotein (HDL) and Low-density lipoprotein (LDL). High cholesterol is defined as a build-up of fatty substances in the blood. This can reduce blood flow, and increase the risk of stroke or a cardiac event to occur.
“High cholesterol is defined as a build-up of fatty substances in the blood. This can reduce blood flow, and increase the risk of stroke or a cardiac event to occur.”
High cholesterol can be hereditary, but is also the result of unhealthy lifestyle choices, such as a poor diet and reduced physical activity. The bad category of cholesterol is LDL, as this type of cholesterol will build up along the walls of arteries, making them stiff and narrow. The good cholesterol is HDL, as it helps to transport excess cholesterol back to the liver.
Exercise can help to manage your cholesterol to help prevent these!
By incorporating healthy lifestyle changes into your daily routine such as physical activity, you can increase HDL, decrease LDLs, and overall lower your risk factors for cardiac events such as a heart attack. Doing something is better than nothing, and incorporating an extra walk, or gym session into your week will have beneficial effects on how you feel. Doing this will help to increase energy, decrease pain, and overall, lead to greater longevity and quality of life. Best of all, exercise is FREE!
If you’re not sure where to start, work towards hitting the physical activity guidelines. The guidelines recommend 30 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic activity five days a week, and two resistance training sessions per week. Exercise has no side effects if managed safely and is one of the best ways to start addressing your cholesterol concerns. When starting a new exercise program, it’s important to manage the volume and intensity of exercise to avoid injury, and the best way to do this is by seeing an Exercise Physiologist. An Exercise Physiologist can develop an individualised, specific program, tailored towards all your health concerns, including high cholesterol.
“When starting a new exercise program, it’s important to manage the volume and intensity of exercise to avoid injury, and the best way to do this is by seeing an Exercise Physiologist.”
In terms of medical management for high cholesterol, the most commonly used class of drugs are called statins. Statins are a lipid lowering medication, and work by blocking a substance in your body used to create cholesterol. This medication is commonly prescribed to individuals with high LDL cholesterol, reducing the levels of in the body. Statins are effective in lowing cholesterol, but can come at a cost. Medication can be expensive and comes with side effects. Statins can cause individuals to feel more muscular pain, increased fatigue, headaches, and poor sleep. For this reason, exercise is the go-to for managing and preventing cholesterol problems.
It doesn’t take much to get started in developing healthy habits that will see great benefit in your long-term future.
Anything is better than nothing, and the best part is, exercise is fun, social and safe.
We swear by it and so will you!
If you want to engage in an individualised exercise program to help you prevent or manage your high cholesterol, give Longevity Exercise Physiology Drummoyne, Edgecliff, Marrickville, Bella Vista, Randwick, Pymble, Balmain, Neutral Bay, Coburg – Melbourne, and Barrie, Ontario – Canada a call on 1300 964 002 today!
Written by James Calacoci