Benefits of Diet and Exercise to Cholesterol Values

healthy-living1By Christine Emery

Preventive Medicine

Cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of death within the United States (1, 4). Seventy-one billion people in the US are known to have high levels of LDL cholesterol; also known has the “bad” cholesterol (4).  It is important to diagnosis potential risk factors early to work at changing lifestyle choices in hopes of preventing more cases of cardiovascular disease (3). There are two components to total cholesterol: HDL cholesterol (High Density Lipoprotein) and LDL cholesterol (Low Density Lipoprotein).  A term known as dyslipidemia defines the risk for cardiovascular disease to be fasting levels of high total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides in correlation to low HDL cholesterol values (6). The Cholesterol/HDL Ratio has been known to be one of the best predictors for eventual cardiovascular disease. If ratios are greater than 5.0 in men and 4.4 in women, those participants have an average or greater than average risk for developing cardiovascular disease. If they are at or below 3.4 in men and 3.1 in women those participants have statistically half or less than half the risk for eventual cardiovascular disease (2). Our main goal is to focus on the best lifestyle changes to prevent or reverse risk of cardiovascular disease.

The combination of diet and exercise will be the most effective way to prevent cardiovascular disease. In an article conducted by Varady and Jones, researchers studied the effects of diet and exercise on lipid profile values both independently and together. The dietary controls were saturated fat and three types of nutritional supplements (fish oil, oat bran, and plant sterols). They found that in both diet control groups, changing the diet alone only bettered the LDL and total cholesterol values (6). Once endurance exercise was added to the lifestyle routine, HDL cholesterol levels increased while LDL, total cholesterol, and triglyceride values decreased. There were no statistical differences between the dietary interventions, but their main conclusion was that the combination of diet and exercise favorably affected all four-lipid profile values. In conclusion, in order to help better lipid profile values, the combination of diet and exercise will obtain the best cardiovascular benefit, then just conducting one independently (6).

  1. American Heart Association
  2. BaySport Inc. Preventive Medicine Information Packet, 2013
  3. Brief Reports: Race, ethnicity are heart disease factors. Healthcare Leadership Review. 2011.
  4. Center for Disease Control (CDC)
  5. Couillard, C., Després, J. P., Lamarche, B., Bergeron, J., Gagnon, J., Leon, A. S., … & Bouchard, C. (2001). Effects of endurance exercise training on plasma HDL cholesterol levels depend on levels of triglycerides evidence from men of the Health, Risk Factors, Exercise Training and Genetics (HERITAGE) Family Study. Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology, 21(7), 1226-1232.
  6. Varady, K. A., & Jones, P. J. (2005). Combination diet and exercise interventions for the treatment of dyslipidemia: an effective preliminary strategy to lower cholesterol levels?. The Journal of nutrition, 135(8), 1829-1835.

About the Author:

Christine Emery is currently getting her Masters Degree in Exercise Physiology from San Francisco State and is working to complete her Phlebotomy certification. She graduated from Loyola Marymount University in May of 2013 with a degree in Health and Human Sciences and has been been working with the Preventive Medicine team since June. She continues to do so while simultaneously obtaining her Masters Degree.

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