How to Raise HDL CholesterolBoosting Your Heart's Protection

HDL cholesterol is called the "good" cholesterol because it helps remove other forms of cholesterol from your bloodstream. Higher HDL levels are associated with lower cardiovascular risk, making this the one cholesterol number you want to increase. Unlike LDL, which responds dramatically to medication, HDL is largely influenced by lifestyle factors—giving you significant control over this protective marker.

Raising HDL naturally requires a comprehensive approach. No single change produces dramatic results, but combining multiple strategies can meaningfully improve your levels while providing other cardiovascular benefits.

Exercise Regularly

Physical activity is the most effective way to raise HDL cholesterol. Aerobic exercise can increase HDL by 5-15%, with the benefit roughly proportional to how much you exercise.

What Works Best

Aerobic activities that elevate your heart rate for sustained periods produce the best results. Walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, and dancing all count. The key is consistency rather than intensity—moderate exercise performed regularly beats occasional intense workouts.

How Much Is Enough

The standard recommendation of 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week produces measurable HDL improvements. Some studies suggest that exercising up to 300 minutes weekly (about 40-45 minutes daily) continues to raise HDL further. Beyond that, additional benefits plateau.

How Long Until Results Appear

HDL typically begins rising within a few weeks of starting regular exercise, with the full effect appearing after 2-3 months of consistent activity. The improvement persists as long as you maintain the habit but fades if you stop exercising.

Quit Smoking

Smoking suppresses HDL cholesterol by about 5-10%. The effect reverses when you quit, with HDL levels rising within weeks of stopping. This is one of the fastest and most dramatic HDL improvements you can achieve.

Beyond raising HDL, quitting smoking stops the direct damage cigarettes cause to artery walls, reduces inflammation, and improves overall cardiovascular function. The cardiovascular benefits of quitting begin within hours and continue accumulating for years.

Lose Excess Weight

Carrying extra weight, particularly around the midsection, tends to lower HDL. Losing weight raises it—studies show that for every 6-7 pounds lost, HDL increases by about 1 mg/dL. For someone losing 20 pounds, that means roughly 3 mg/dL higher HDL.

The benefit comes from the weight loss itself, not just from the diet and exercise that achieve it. However, combining weight loss with increased physical activity produces larger HDL improvements than either alone.

Choose Healthy Fats

The type of fat you eat affects HDL levels. Replacing unhealthy fats with healthy ones can help raise HDL while also lowering harmful LDL.

Monounsaturated Fats

Found in olive oil, avocados, and nuts, monounsaturated fats can raise HDL slightly while lowering LDL. Making olive oil your primary cooking fat is an easy switch with multiple benefits.

Polyunsaturated Fats

Omega-3 fatty acids from fatty fish and omega-6 fatty acids from plant oils support healthy HDL levels. Eating fatty fish like salmon twice weekly provides significant omega-3 benefits.

Avoid Trans Fats

Trans fats lower HDL while raising LDL—a double threat. While most artificial trans fats have been removed from the food supply, check ingredient labels for "partially hydrogenated oils" and avoid products containing them.

Limit Refined Carbohydrates

Diets high in sugar and refined starches tend to lower HDL while raising triglycerides. Replacing refined carbohydrates with whole grains, vegetables, and healthy fats can help optimize both numbers.

The effect is particularly noticeable with sugary drinks and highly processed snacks. Cutting back on soda, candy, white bread, and pastries often produces measurable improvements in HDL and triglycerides.

Consider Moderate Alcohol

Moderate alcohol consumption—up to one drink daily for women and up to two for men—is associated with higher HDL levels. However, this recommendation comes with important caveats.

Alcohol also raises triglycerides, damages the liver, increases cancer risk, and can lead to addiction. Because of these risks, doctors don't recommend that non-drinkers start drinking for cardiovascular benefit. Those who already drink moderately may derive some HDL benefit, but the risks and benefits need individual consideration.

Address Sleep and Stress

Poor sleep and chronic stress can negatively affect HDL levels. While these factors are harder to quantify than diet and exercise, addressing them supports overall metabolic health.

Sleep

Adults should aim for 7-9 hours of quality sleep per night. Sleep disorders like sleep apnea are associated with lower HDL and should be evaluated and treated.

Stress Management

Chronic stress affects cholesterol through multiple mechanisms, including promoting behaviors that worsen lipids (poor diet, inactivity, smoking). Stress management techniques like meditation, yoga, or regular leisure activities may provide indirect benefits.

Medications and HDL

Unlike LDL, where medications produce dramatic reductions, raising HDL pharmaceutically has proven frustrating. Several drugs that effectively raised HDL numbers failed to reduce cardiovascular events in clinical trials.

What Didn't Work

Niacin raises HDL by 15-35% but didn't reduce heart attacks or strokes in large trials and caused significant side effects. CETP inhibitors dramatically raised HDL but either failed to help or caused harm. These disappointing results suggest that simply boosting HDL numbers isn't enough—the particles need to function properly.

What Might Help

Some medications prescribed for other purposes modestly affect HDL. Statins can raise HDL by 5-15% while dramatically lowering LDL. Fibrates, used mainly for high triglycerides, also raise HDL somewhat. But these medications aren't prescribed specifically to raise HDL.

Focus on Lifestyle

Given the failure of HDL-raising drugs, lifestyle changes remain the primary strategy for improving HDL. The approaches that raise HDL naturally—exercise, weight loss, smoking cessation, healthy diet—tend to produce particles that function well, not just higher numbers.

Realistic Expectations

Raising HDL is harder than lowering LDL. While lifestyle changes can significantly lower LDL, even comprehensive lifestyle improvement might only raise HDL by 10-20%. Here's what you might realistically expect:

Strategy	Expected HDL Increase
Regular aerobic exercise	5-15%
Quitting smoking	5-10%
Losing excess weight	1 mg/dL per 6-7 pounds
Replacing saturated fats with unsaturated	Modest improvement
Reducing refined carbohydrates	Variable

If your HDL is 40 mg/dL and you implement all these changes successfully, you might raise it to 45-50 mg/dL. That's meaningful but not dramatic. Still, the other benefits of these lifestyle changes—lower LDL, lower triglycerides, better blood pressure, improved blood sugar—make them worthwhile regardless of HDL response.