How Exercise Can Help Physical activity can have a positive effect on your cholesterol levels and the health of your heart. For instance, it can do the following:
- raise your HDL level - known as the good cholesterol
- lower your triglyceride level
- burn calories to help you maintain a healthy weight
- reduce high blood pressure
- strengthen your heart
- help your body use insulin, which decreases your risk for diabetes, heart disease, and blood vessel disease
- help keep you off medicine
- help you to have a lower dose of medicine or help it work better
- make you feel better in general
Like a heart-healthy diet, a program of regular physical activity is essential to lowering blood cholesterol. It should be part of every cholesterol treatment plan. In fact, in its 2001 May guidelines, the National Cholesterol Education Program puts renewed emphasis on them. A healthy diet is one part of what it calls therapeutic lifestyle changes, or TLC. Exercise can improve your HDL and triglyceride levels. It can also strengthen your heart and help to control high blood pressure, diabetes, and weight gain, all of which are risk factors for heart disease. It may improve your cholesterol and triglyceride levels enough that you don't need medicine or that you can reach healthy levels using a lower dose of medicine.
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