What Is HDL Cholesterol, and How Do You Raise It?

Updated July 2026

Not all cholesterol is the same. While LDL clogs arteries and drives heart disease, HDL is the "good" kind — inversely related to heart risk and one of the best mirrors of your overall metabolic health. Here's what HDL is, what your number should be, why it matters, and how to nudge it up.

What is HDL cholesterol?

HDL, or high-density lipoprotein, is the "good" cholesterol — an easy way to remember it is that HDL is Happy, and you want to keep it High. It works like a cleanup crew, carrying cholesterol out of the body and back to the liver for elimination. The more of your cholesterol that rides in this form, the better, which is why higher HDL is tied to lower heart disease risk. LDL, by contrast, is the "Lousy" kind you want to keep Low — more on that in what your cholesterol numbers mean.

What is a normal HDL level?

HDL should sit above 40 mg/dL in men and above 50 mg/dL in women, and in general, higher is better. About one in four Americans falls below 40. Very low levels — under roughly 35 in men or 45 in women — are a potent risk factor for early or aggressive heart disease. At the other end, an HDL above about 53 in men or 67 in women counts as a "negative risk factor," a bit of an insurance policy against clogged arteries.

Why does HDL matter?

Because it's one of the clearest windows into your metabolic health. While very low HDL can be genetic, an HDL sitting just below normal is usually a sign that lifestyle has drifted — excess weight, unsteady blood sugar, inactivity, and a poor diet all travel with low HDL. This is also why drugs that raise HDL have flopped as heart-disease treatments: making the number look better without fixing why it was low in the first place (sound familiar?) simply doesn't work.

How can you raise HDL naturally?

Lifestyle, not a prescription. The levers that actually work:

• Exercise — the single best tool. Aerobic activity (walking, swimming, cycling) raises HDL most, with strength training adding to it too. Even small increases help.
• Healthy fats — the unsaturated fats in olive oil, avocado, nuts, seeds, and fish raise HDL, lower LDL, and calm inflammation all at once.
• Lose excess weight — extra weight drives insulin resistance, and more insulin means LDL up, HDL down via disrupted fat metabolism.
• Manage stress — chronic stress raises cortisol, which blunts insulin sensitivity and drags HDL down the same way.
• Quit smoking — quitting quickly raises HDL and restores its protective function.
• Skip refined carbs and trans fats, and favor complex, whole-food carbs to keep insulin levels low.
• Alcohol is a wash — moderate drinking does raise HDL, but I never tell a non-drinker to start, and any benefit vanishes the moment sugary mixers come along (a piña colada is not a health drink; one small glass of dry red is a better choice – but even that not too often).

How do menopause, estrogen, and testosterone affect HDL?

Hormones move HDL, sometimes a lot. Estrogen raises it, so HDL commonly falls after menopause — or after both ovaries are removed. Hormone replacement therapy is typically not enough to yield a big dent in HDL levels as the estrogen amounts in HRT come nowhere near mimicking the levels we experienced when we were young (nor are they supposed to). Testosterone runs the other way and lowers HDL — so if you've started testosterone and your HDL has dropped sharply, it's worth a rethink.

Can HDL be too high, and does a high HDL cancel out a high LDL?

Two important caveats. First, more isn't endlessly better: the benefit plateaus around 80 mg/dL, and above that women gain little while men may even see a slight uptick in risk. In the unusual circumstance when HDL levels are very high – over 90 mg/dL in men and over 110 mg/dL in women – data is starting to show that this might actually be counterproductive to arterial health. After all, if HDL is the elimination form of cholesterol, are the levels high because there is something wrong with the elimination pathway? So now it's backing up and cholesterol is still cholesterol and it has to go somewhere…

But please don't panic if your HDL is high. As with all risk factors – these are RISK modifiers not disease guarantees.

Second, a high HDL does not make up for a high LDL. The two are independent particles — HDL mostly matters when it's low, whereas LDL tracks with risk across its whole range. A great HDL is not a free pass on a high LDL.

What if your HDL won't budge?

That's common — HDL is the hardest number on the panel to move, and even a 5-point rise is a real win. Two things worth holding onto: even small gains count (every 1 mg/dL of HDL increase is roughly linked to a 2–3% drop in cardiovascular risk), and heart disease is multifactorial, so if HDL stays stuck, the highest-value move is to shift your energy toward lowering LDL. None of your lifestyle work is wasted.

This is also where Step One Foods fits: while HDL rose only modestly in our clinical trial, the foods deliver the healthy fats and complex carbs that support HDL, drive a swift and significant LDL drop, and help with weight — several pieces of your metabolic health at once.

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