Your non-HDL cholesterol is your total cholesterol minus your HDL (good) cholesterol. So if your total cholesterol is 190 and your HDL cholesterol is 40, your non-HDL cholesterol is 150.
Your non-HDL number tells you all the bad cholesterol circulating in your blood – not only your LDL cholesterol but also your levels of VLDL, IDL, and chylomicrons. All are linked with the “bad” protein – apoB, which means all are plaque-producing and artery-clogging.
What are optimal non-HDL cholesterol levels?
“The best levels are based on recent research analyzing the non-HDL levels of more than 18,000 heart patients, as well as research on 202 heart patients who lowered their non-HDL levels over the course of one year” states Dr. James Kenney, Nutrition Research Specialist at the Pritikin Longevity Center.
“Broad data recommends that non-HDL be no more than 100 for prevention and no more than 80 in those with established coronary artery disease or those at very high risk”, such as people with diabetes or with evidence of severely clogged arteries, including those who have had a heart attack or have angina (chest pain) or claudication. Claudication is difficulty/pain in walking due to insufficient blood supply to the legs and feet.
And certainly, any significant improvement in non-HDL likely means significant reductions in heart attack risk.
How to Improve Non-HDL
Non-HDL levels improve, and rapidly, when nutrition is corrected. On average, they fall 24% within three weeks.
We advise you stay the course of healthy living for life! It does not make sense to eat inflammogens (food that can alter your blood lipid levels which are markers of disease) when they can kill you! Food is medicine if we choose it right.
Research by scientists at UCLA have also found that two to three weeks on an anti-inflammatory nutrition plan leads to dramatic improvements in the quality of HDL particles, transforming them from pro-inflammatory to anti-inflammatory in nature.
Reducing inflammation reduces the amount of pain and inflammation one has in their body! Pain is crippling and life destroying and often times comes from our food! Stay clear of the a lifestyle that promotes sickness and disease.
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