A healthy way of life will help us to reduce dangerously high cholesterol levels by more than 25 percent. Often, this is easily more than enough to allow you to go back to leading a normal life. Medical treatments will never be able to obtain such a rapid and visible improvement without getting you into more trouble. There are many important factors to consider when trying to achieve a good lifestyle, and sports should come first and foremost.
Inactive lifestyles will only allow the bad cholesterol cells to deposit themselves faster on arterial walls, because sitting down for long periods of time equals bad blood circulation, leaving enough time for particles to stick to blood vessels. Over time, this condition will only get worse, increasing the risk of various cardio-vascular diseases.
A healthy and recommended way of reducing cholesterol levels is found by understanding the importance of physical exercise. For those that are very busy and usually have lots of things to do during a normal day, it can be easy to forget to do 30 minutes of exercise per day. Failing to stick to this schedule will cause you to gain weight over time, and gaining weight is a key factor that causes high cholesterol.
Your body mass index should ideally be situated somewhere below 25 kilograms per square meter. You can calculate it by using the following formula: weight in kilograms divided by the square of height (measured in meters). For example, a man that weighs 95 kilograms and has a height of 1.80 meters will return an index value of 95kg/(1.80×1.80) = 27.7 kg/square meters. This means he is overweight so he probably has high cholesterol and he will need to try and decrease it by losing weight through recommended exercises.
You cannot underestimate the importance of correct eating habits, but sometimes people are so overweight that they would have to starve themselves in order to regain an ideal weight and decrease cholesterol. Whilst starving the body is no option in all situations, daily exercises allow us to eat the necessary amount of nutrients and then burn the excess fat. Even half an hour of walking a day makes a huge difference.
One of the best cholesterol decreasing sports is swimming. Studies have shown that people who swim stand a great chance of living longer and are less likely to develop cardiovascular diseases. Swimming regularly will also increase the good cholesterol levels, allowing internal organs to receive more nutrients and regenerate tissues faster. Cell membranes are relaxed by the water pressure felt whilst swimming, and large amounts of bad cholesterol are eliminated.
People who are not great fans of sports such as running or swimming, in which they have to move around constantly, can try sports like tennis and badminton. Some people think that it seems as though you are just standing there, hitting a ball with a racket, but it’s not quite that simple. Tennis is a very demanding sport, allowing muscles to strengthen, grow and replace fat tissue, therefore reducing cholesterol levels.
People who are already in good physical shape but still have high cholesterol levels can try more active team sports, varying from football to basketball and even hockey. While they require commitment on your part, they are also a great way to spend time with friends. It’s proven that men who practice any kind of team sport at least twice a week have lower cholesterol than those who are simply sports fans, watching others who play.
It’s very important to decide on a sport that is enjoyable and fun. Endorphins are released during physical activity, and the excitement with which we await the next session is a highly determinant mental factor. It is also important to drink more than 2-3 liters of water a day when you are practicing sports. Also, it is important that you always have water whilst running or when going to the gym.
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