I'm curious if anyone out there has ideas as to why a person may have low HDL, besides the obvious factors (or at least what I consider obvious): diet, exercise, genetics, Vit D, etc.
I've had low HDL for a while, it generally comes in around 35-40 or so.
Things I've tried:
Reduced carbs, restricted/eliminated wheat .... perhaps a very minor benefit
Increase serum D .... got a boost of a couple of pts, maybe
Niacin (Niaspan and also tried IR)... couldn't last very long on this due to palpitations. I did make it about 5 months or so on 500mg Niaspan, and my HDL dropped a point (35 to 34)
Exercise... increased riding my exercise bike to about an hour a day, 5x week. Did this for several months before my test. My HDL dropped a point.
Red Yeast Rice... tried this briefly under the advise of my cardiologist, years ago. My LDL/Trigs dropped, but so did my HDL (about 2 pts). Had to stop due to elevated liver enzymes.
Krill oil... I was doubtful it'd work, but figured I'd give it a shot. After two trials, I noticed no correlation at all between krill oil intake and HDL (or any lipid numbers).
Fish oil... never noticed any major increase in HDL from it. But too much fish oil has risen my LDL in the past.
What else... dark chocolate possibly could have helped, but can't be certain. Blueberries... no difference.
This time I figured I'd try something that should work. Olive oil. So I used 1-2 tablespoons daily, for several months.
My most recent HDL just came back today: 29
It was 34 (or thereabouts) around five months ago, before starting the olive oil.
So.... I'm all out of ideas... anyone else have any?