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Vitamins to Help HDL

High-density lipoprotein, also known as HDL, is the good kind of cholesterol. In contrast, low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, is the bad kind of cholesterol. Your body needs more HDL than LDL in order to reduce your risk of heart disease and other disorders. Eating right and getting enough exercise can help to ensure healthy HDL levels. However, you can also take certain vitamins to help HDL serum levels increase naturally.

  1. Get Heart Smart

    • Understand what's so good about HDL. You need more of this substance than LDL for two basic reasons. First, LDL is considered unhealthy because it's the type of cholesterol that leads to an accumulation of fatty deposits in your arteries that can block the transport and delivery of blood and oxygen to your organs, including your heart. Second, HDL cholesterol moves LDL out of your bloodstream and back to your liver for disposal before it has a chance to clog your arteries.

      Consider that increasing your HDL levels can also help to lower your triglycerides count. This is another kind of fat produced from unused calories that is stored in tissues, resulting in excess poundage around the waist. Triglycerides also piggyback along with low-density lipoproteins to navigate through your bloodstream. So, your ultimate goal in using vitamins to help HDL levels increase also includes reducing triglycerides.

    Meet the Vitamins

    • Raise a little cane to increase your HDL levels. Policosanol, obtained from sugar cane, contains octacosanol, a type of long-chain fatty alcohol that prohibits the lipid oxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids. This nutrient also promotes the release of a specialized protein needed to move HDL into the bloodstream, sweeping away LDL cholesterol in the process. Cuban researchers have found that policosanol supplementation may reduce the risk of plaque buildup in the arteries, as well as help to prevent blood clots.

      Lose excess fat with another kind of sugar--inositol hexaphosphate (IP6). Commonly referred to as just inositol or myo-inositol, this member of the B complex family of vitamins is a lipotropic agent, meaning that it boosts your liver's ability to eliminate fats. This naturally results in a reduction of triglycerides and an increase of HDL cholesterol. As an added bonus, researchers at the Teikyo University School of Medicine in Tokyo have discovered that supplementation with inositol reduces LDL particle size.

      Double your efforts to use vitamins to help HDL levels increase by combining quercetin with alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E). Researchers at Annamalai University in India found that these two nutrients significantly help to prevent lipid oxidation and the development of arterial plaque. While the researchers acknowledge that either nutrient taken alone can produce these effects, they note that taking them together yields better results.

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