in today's video we're going to be talking about cholesterol and more specifically why you should
be more concerned about your triglycerides than your LDL we've been told for decades that LDL is
the problem that LDL is the bad cholesterol and we should be trying to lower it but the truth is
when it comes to cholesterol it's not as simple as good and bad there is a lot more context we need
to consider and it turns out that LDL might not actually be the demon it's made out to be [Music]
hey guys welcome back to my channel if you're new here my name is Kait I'm a certified health
and nutrition coach I post new videos twice a week here on YouTube talking all things insulin
resistance weight loss sleep and more so if you're ready to take control of your metabolic help make
sure to click that subscribe button and you can also find me on Tick Tock and Instagram where I
share new posts every single day today's video is sponsored by Squarespace for everything from
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that does it all head to squarespace.com forward slash health coach Kait to start your free trial
today having high cholesterol or high LDL has become synonymous with bad Health but there might
be more to the picture than just that the truth is is that there are several different types of
cholesterol and they all play a role in the body including LDL now when we refer to different types
of cholesterol we're actually referring to what carries the cholesterol and not the cholesterol
itself these carriers are known as lipoproteins the two main types that we often hear about are
LDL and HDL and although they are often referred to as good and bad cholesterol both are actually
important for our health LDL is responsible for carrying cholesterol particles throughout the
body to where they are needed and HDL goes around and cleans up the excess cholesterol
taking it back to the liver where it can be used again or excreted neither is necessarily good or
bad both play a role so it is true that having high LDL has been associated with poor health
it has been linked to a higher risk of heart disease which is why there is such a concern
over having high LDL but in real looking at LDL alone is not a good marker for our heart disease
risk or even our overall health in general the studies that have found in association between
LDL and heart disease risk have found just that an association when in reality 75 percent of
people who have heart attacks actually have what is considered to be normal LDL levels
and lowering LDL doesn't reduce their heart disease risk in fact when LDL is lowered
artificially through different medications we see the opposite happen it is also well known that for
people over the age of 60 LDL is not associated with heart disease at all and is actually
inversely associated with all cause mortality it seems that for older individuals having higher
LDL is actually protective which completely goes against the narrative that we should
be lowering LDL at all costs there is actually a stronger correlation with heart disease risk and
triglycerides than there is with LDL and we're going to get into why that is in just a moment
but first i'm quickly going to take a moment to thank today's sponsor Squarespace Squarespace is
the all-in-one platform that has everything you need for all of your online business needs I've
used Squarespace since I launched my business back in 2018 I host my website on Squarespace
I used one of their templates to create the design I have my mailing list there and I create and send
out monthly e-newsletters Squarespace is super easy to use you don't have to have any experience
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getting started is also super easy just head to squarespace.com forward slash health coach Kait
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coach Kait to save 10 off your first order thank you again to Squarespace for sponsoring this video
so what are triglycerides triglycerides are a type of fat that is found in our blood and
this is what is really dangerous triglycerides are what can contribute to the hardening of the
arteries and the thickening of artery walls which of course increases your risk of heart attack and
stroke the lower we can keep our triglycerides the better ideally you want them to be less than
1.7 millimoles per liter or 150 milligrams per deciliter anything higher increases your heart
disease risk and is actually a marker for metabolic syndrome and this is independent
of whether your LDL cholesterol is high or low now usually your triglycerides coincide with HDL which
is another marker of disease risk that's stronger than LDL as we already discussed HDL is considered
to be the good type of cholesterol the higher your HDL the better ideally over one millimole
per liter or 60 milligrams per deciliter low HDL is another marker for metabolic syndrome and again
this is completely independent of whether your LDL is high or low so what can you do if you have high
triglycerides and you want to bring them down thankfully there are many ways you can do this
naturally and these are changes that all of us can make starting today changes such as reducing
our alcohol consumption reducing our processed sugar consumption and prioritizing sleep can have
a big impact and I can't stress the importance of sleep enough not just the amount of sleep you're
getting but the quality now I do have several videos on my channel on how to improve your
sleep if that's an area you struggle with can't emphasize the importance enough I'm going to link
one of those videos up above if you want to know more and on that note I actually did a video a
few months ago on five foods you can eat to lower your triglycerides so I'll link that up above as
well but anyways guys that's all I have for you today thank you so much for watching I hope you
found this video helpful if you did feel free to share it with a friend who you think might find
it helpful and also let me know in the comment section down below whether your triglycerides
were high or low the last time you had them tested were there any changes you made to lower them and
did those changes work or did they not work let us know in the comment section down below and before
you head out remember to check out Squarespace the link will be down below as well if you did
enjoy this video you might also enjoy my video on five foods that can help you to lower your
triglycerides you can check that out here if you want to catch up on my most recent upload
you can find it here and if you want to check out my coaching programs including my seven
day insulin resistance Master Class you can find those here thanks guys I'll see you next time bye