HDL cholesterol and swimming

The benefits of Swimming:

As one of the most practiced sports in many parts of the world. Swimming offers a wide range of potential benefits to the body, this is also a sport that does not affect the knee in a serious way like many other sports or exercises that are available, avoiding potential issues later in life.

Swimming has the potential to work all the muscles in your body depending on the strokes you use and as such can improve your general strength, but like many sport activities swimming has a great beneficial effect on the HDL cholesterol levels with the added advantage that swimming is fairly easy to get into, unlike for example going to the gym for the first time which is a big step for many people, swimming can be done on your own and you can pretty much start slow and work on your endurance from there on. Swimming is a great way to improve this endurance.

Why should you swim ?

Well swimming has a number of potential health benefits each and every one of them is probably reason enough to get started and keep going.

For example

Improved cholesterol levels

Improved HDL cholesterol

Health benefits to heart and lungs

Because it’s fun ?

is a low impact sport (good for the joints)

is a sport you can practice your entire life(even when your 100years old)

burns calories/improves metabolism

improved immune system

flexibility and muscle strength

to be a little more specific each kind of stroke has its own advantages and here are a few of the more popular styles.

Front crawl(freestyle)

This is often considered to be the fastest of the front primary strokes. This method of strokes has been used since ancient times, but in the western world this method of strokes was first seen in a swimming race held in London 1844. Swum at the time by Native Americans who easily won the race against the British who were using breaststroke. 

The front crawl has a number of benefits:

this kind of strokes is great to tone your gluts, abdominals, shoulders and is the best stroke to improve back strength according to some trainers. And swimming in general is great to improve HDL cholesterol but also has a small effect on total blood cholesterol.

It is a better calorie burner then jogging for those who are good at it, burning up to 600calories for 60minutes. And weight loss in itself is another good way to improve cholesterol levels in the blood.

Breaststroke

This is the slowest of the four official styles and considered to be by far the most difficult stroke to do right in terms of technique, due to timing and technique this is also the hardest to teach. The history of this technique going back as far as the stone age where pictures have been found in caves depicting swimmers using this technique in southwestern Egypt not far from Wadi Sora. Variants have been found in Babylonian and Assyrian wall drawings to. Books have been written where this style of strokes show up since as early as 1538 where a man called Nicolas Wynman wrote a book containing a good methodical approach to learning this style to avoid drowning.

The breaststroke has a number of distinct advantages again of course it should be noted that like any other style this has a beneficial effect on blood cholesterol levels as general any kind of activity tends to promote a healthy cholesterol this one is no exception to cholesterol levels in your blood.

benefits to the breast stroke are :

has a tendency to expand the lungs, some woman claim it will increase the size of breasts, and this stroke has an effect on the chest muscles so they might just be right.

Tones the shoulders

Tones the triceps, hamstrings and legs

Works the inner thigh

Minor reduction to cholesterol levels.

HDL cholesterol

This kind of stroke burns less calories than the other strokes with “only” up to 360 calories every 60minutes but it should be that this is a long distance style of swimming and you can generally swim like this far longer than freestyle, great for endurance and less for speed.

Backstroke

Also often called the upside down crawl or back crawl this is one of the styles regulated by FINA. The advantage of this stroke is easy breathing but with the added disadvantage of not seeing where you are going so collision may occur. A very ancient style of swimming this style of swimming has been used in competition since 1900 in the Paris Olympics. The backstroke is very similar to the butterfly in terms of speed. The backstroke has a very specific effect and several benefits to the healthy body,

this kind of stroke is very good the following:

Tones the legs and buttocks

Tones arms and shoulders

Tones the stomach area

Minor reduction to cholesterol levels.

HDL cholesterol

Helps elongate the hip flexors which is a great way to compensate for sitting at a desk all day at work.

This kind of stroke burns up to 480calories every 60minutes if done right, which is more than breaststroke does en less than the freestyle does. Still the effect on cholesterol from movement like this is very good and you should always look for the style you prefer the most to make it easy to keep on swimming.

Butterfly

Last but last of the four primary strokes is the butterfly (no not butterfly effect on cholesterol) but the stroke. The butterfly is one of the more difficult strokes to learn and master, this requires strong muscles and good technique to perform adequately, this technique is the newest swum in competition going back since 1933 and originating out of the breaststroke.

In terms of history this is a very new form of stroke compared to the other three, while there are records found on the other three going as far back as ancient times some from cave drawings, this technique has only been invented by a Australian who lived in 1881 to 1945, his name was Sydney Cavill, moving to America when he followed his brother to San Francisco.

The butterfly technique has several benefits but it is a technique hard to master as a beginner thus while it’s a good technique it may be wise to start with a breaststroke and learn from there,

Benefits :

Minor reduction to cholesterol levels.

HDL cholesterol

Upper body strength.

Tones the chest, abdominals, arms and triceps and back muscles.

Stretches the body and will increase your flexibility.

While it is a stroke that should not really be tried before you master the other three, it should be noted that this is the most intense stroke of the four and will burn up to 900calories every 60minutes, making this by far the best stroke to use for short but intense exercise and is another great way to improve cholesterol levels.

Here is a study showing the benefits of Swimming :

The effect of a long-term swimming program on body composition, blood lipids and aerobic capacity in 14-19 year old girls with diabetes type 1

This study has 2 groups, one group of nineteen girls aging 14-19 with diabetes type 1 and another group of twenty-eight healthy girls aging 14-18.

Before and after the swimming program the weight, height, body mass index, body fat percentage, four skinfold thickness were calculated. Total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides where estimated.

Training sessions where implemented twice a week for fourteen weeks, and the results where :

After fourteen weeks body mass index did not change significantly for both groups but body fat mass was decreased significantly in both healthy and diabetic subjects, there were no significant changes to total cholesterol levels for both groups but HDL was increased significantly in the healthy group by about 9.7 percent.

Read More

The negative effect of tobacco

Tobacco

Was in use long before European settlers arrived and introduced it to Europe, often uses for  sacred ceremonial practices among the American tribes it is of no surprise that tobacco did not take long to become popular in Europe soon after its introduction.

Tobacco is a product created from dried leaves of a plant called genus Nicotiana, most commonly used as a drug tobacco can also be used as a pesticide.

The consumption of Tobacco by chewing, smoking or any other way has been known to cause certain negative effects and is consider to be the single greatest cause of preventable death worldwide, the use of tobacco often leads to diseases to heart, lungs and liver.

Smoking is the most popular way of consuming tobacco and smoking has been known to increase the risk factor for:

Heart Attacks

Strokes

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(copd)

Lung cancer, 
Cancers of the larynx 
Pancreatic cancer

Also a cause of vascular disease

Hypertension

Smokers tend to have a High cholesterol , high Triglycerides and high LDL and lower HDL cholesterol when compared to non-smokers.

The smoke caused by smoking has several products that bind to a person’s DNA and cause genetic mutations, tobacco also contains Nicotine which is highly addictive, making it extremely difficult for most people to stop smoking but considering the damage it causes the concept of quit smoking is far more interesting than just a way to reduce your cholesterol levels.

However we cannot ignore the fact that to quit smoking will improve your cholesterol levels and your blood lipid profile will improve greatly, HDL and LDL ratio and triglycerides will benefit if you succeed making this probably one of the few effects from smoking that are reverse-able if you can stop smoking in time.

The dose and time period a person smokes before he quit smoking often determines the change for any of the above. Even standing next to a person who is smoking can be enough to cause adverse effects in people for all ages

The world health organization made a estimated of over 100million deaths in the course of the 20^th century alone caused by the use of smoking  the total since it became available in Europe is likely to be much higher. Here is a study that is worth reading  published as early as 1989.

Cigarette smoking and serum lipid and lipoprotein concentrations: an analysis of published data.

To examine the association between the use of smoking cigarettes in adults humans and serum lipid and lipoprotein concentrations from the results of 54 different studies that have been published by then show a remarkable difference in serum cholesterol, people that where smoking had a  higher cholesterol, higher LDL a much higher VLDL and higher Triglycerides, while HDL was lower  compared to non-smokers.

 The numbers are:

Nonsmoker                       Light smoker                  Heavy smoker

Cholesterol

0                                             +1.8/4.3%                          +4.3%

Triglycerides

0                                             +10.7/11.5%                      +18.0%

VLDL

0                                             +7.2/44.4%                        +39%

LDL

0                                             -1.1/+1.4%                         +11%

HDL

0                                             -4.6/-6.3%                          -8.9%

Apo lipoprotein AI

0                                             -3.7%                                    -5.7%

When combined with the present study the conclusion was that smokers as a group face an average overall excess risk of coronary artery disease of +70%, estimated that cholesterol in smokers may account for at least 9% of that excess risk. It also shows that the increase in risk is dose-dependent. 

Read More

Alcohol and HDL cholesterol

Alcohol

A product that has been used by many civilizations over the ages in many different products and many different religious ceremonies, nobody really knows who was the First to drink alcohol but we can probably guess this was over ten thousand years ago, archeological evidence suggest that fermented beverages existed at least as early as the Neolithic age (10 000 B.C.) wine has been known as early as Egyptian times of around 4.000 B.C. so we can safely say Alcohol has been consumed in some manner for most of our civilized history and may be a older then even bread.

Alcohol in general tends to have a lot of effects to the health of a person, depending on how much or how little this person drinks it in his daily life these are some(but not all) of the effects a person can expect when consuming alcohol including of course changes in HDL cholesterol.

Potential long term effects of consuming alcohol :

Minor Consumption                                   

Increased Insulin sensititivity                             

Lower risk of Diabetes                                      

Reduced number of silent brain Infarcts            

Increased HDL-cholesterol                             

Decreases thrombosis                                            

Reduced fibrinogen                                            

Increase fibrinolysis                                              

Increased coronary blood flow                            

Reduced risk of gallstones                                     

Reduced risk of kidney stones                      

Large Consumption

Cancer

Anemia

Hepatitis

Increased Risk of diabetes

Depression

Psychosis

Sleep Disorder

Liver cirrhosis

Anxiety

Chronic gastritis 

As you can see moderate consumption has some potential benefits but one should always be careful to not cross that tress hold into a alcohol addiction, a few glasses a day/week is plenty to achieve some of the potential benefits while a few bottles will give you serious issues over time.

Here is a study that shows some interesting effects on HDL cholesterol when consuming moderate amounts of alcohol.

Moderate Alcohol intake reduced bile cholesterol saturation and raises HDL cholesterol

This study published by the University of Bristol department of Medicine in 1983 shows the effect of alcohol on blood HDL cholesterol and bile cholesterol saturation in 12healthy volunteers.

The 12 volunteers where people with a very low alcohol intake and where given 39grams of alcohol a day for 6weeks, then abstained for another 6weeks.

The results where a significant rise of HDL cholesterol during the first  6week period wand reduced back when they had to abstain from alcohol the following 6weeks. From 41 to 49 mg/dl.

The conclusion of this study suggests that moderate alcohol intake may have some protective effects against both cardiovascular disease and cholesterol gallstones.

To quote center of Disease control and prevention

moderate alcohol consumption is defined as having up to 1 drink per day for women and up to 2 drinks per day for men.

Read More