Good news about exercise and good cholesterol

It is widely accepted that high levels of good cholesterol, also known as high-density lipoprotein (HDL), seem to protect against heart disease. Instead of depositing fat into the blood vessels the way the “bad” cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein (LDL)) does, HDL carries cholesterol away from blood vessels to the liver. The liver then processes it for removal from the body.

However, once again there appears to be more to the story.  Several recent studies have shown that often times heart disease occurs in people with normal levels of HDL cholesterol. As a result, some researchers have theorized that even if people have adequate amounts of HDL cholesterol, it might not work well. They believe that perhaps the HDL may not be fulfilling other important duties in the body, such as reducing inflammation and acting as an antioxidant.

Since exercise has been shown to protect against heart disease in a variety of ways, Christian K. Roberts and his colleagues at UCLA tested whether HDL in men who weight trained regularly behaved in a healthier way than HDL in sedentary men. They found that the men who didn’t exercise were more likely than those who weight trained to have dysfunctional HDL.  This finding held true regardless of the men’s weight, which suggests that exercise, specifically weight training in this study, was more important for healthy cholesterol function than maintaining a healthy weight.  But before you go celebrate with that slab of cheesecake, remember that maintaining a healthy body weight is associated with many health benefits.