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Signs & Symptoms of Low HDL Cholesterol

With cholesterol, there’s good and bad, or HDL and LDL. HDL cholesterol helps get rid of excess cholesterol in your blood. Most people worry about having high cholesterol numbers, but having low HDL cholesterol numbers can cause just as many problems. While your total cholesterol number may be fine, if your HDL number falls below 50 mg/dL for women and 40 mg/dL for men, you may be opening yourself up to health problems. While there are no outward symptoms of low HDL, there are internal signs and other indicators that can indicate low HDL.

  1. Atherosclerosis

    • Not having enough good cholesterol in your blood can cause similar problems to having too high a total cholesterol number. It is believed low HDL accelerates the development of atherosclerosis “because of impaired reverse cholesterol transport and possibly because of the absence of other protective effects of HDL, such as decreased oxidation of other lipoproteins,” according to eMedicine.net. If you have started to develop atherosclerosis, make sure your doctor also checks your HDL levels. If you can raise it, you may also be able to slow your atherosclerosis.

    Tangier Disease

    • Tangier Disease is an autosomal disease that causes an extreme loss of HDL. The levels may drop to lower than 5 mg/dL. With Tangier Disease, the patient develops orange tonsil and other abnormalities. HDL should definitely be checked and monitored if you develop Tangier Disease.

    Diabetes

    • If you are a diabetic and aren’t controlling it, there is a good chance you are also lowering your HDL. If you aren’t controlling your diabetes, you should at least try to raise you HDL by eating more soluble fiber and fewer saturated fats.

    Obesity

    • If you are overweight, there is a good chance that your HDL will be low. You need to aim for a healthy body weight. Begin exercising. As a general rule of thumb, exercising and losing weight can raise your HDL by 10 mg/dL.

    Cholesterol Testing

    • The one sure sign of low HDL is to actually take a cholesterol test. Ideally, your HDL should make up 20 percent or more of your total cholesterol number. If your HDL is below 40 mg/dL, take steps to raise it either through changes in your diet or through lifestyle changes.

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