Leisha For years we have been told that cholesterol is the enemy. The word alone makes people nervous, as though it were a poison to be purged from the body. Doctors prescribe statins almost reflexively, diets are stripped of fats, and marketing campaigns praise anything labeled low cholesterol. Yet the more I study and observe, the clearer it becomes that we have been misled. Cholesterol is not the villain. It is one of the body’s most essential substances, and to treat it as a danger is to misunderstand how life itself is built.
Cholesterol forms the membranes of every cell in our body. Without it, the cell walls would collapse, and communication between cells would falter. Cholesterol is also the raw material for hormones that guide everything from fertility to mood to energy. It is the foundation of vitamin D, which we cannot live without. It lines our nerves, allowing signals to pass smoothly. It is not an intruder, it is part of us.
When people attempt to starve themselves of cholesterol, the liver simply makes more. Read that again!
The body knows what it needs and will not be denied. This is why even the strictest low-cholesterol diet rarely reduces blood levels in the way people expect. The liver works harder to produce what has been withheld because survival depends on it.
What has confused us most is the misunderstanding of LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol. LDL is not a toxin. It is a transport system. I like to think of it as the garbage collector. LDL particles move cholesterol and fats around the bloodstream, delivering them to tissues that need repair or fuel. When there is injury, inflammation, or damage in the blood vessels, LDL carries materials to patch the problem. If the environment is inflamed, those patches can accumulate, and suddenly cholesterol is blamed for the mess. But the deeper issue is the inflammation itself, not the cholesterol that is trying to clean it up. We have demonized the very helper that shows up when repair is needed.
Statins are handed out as if they are magic bullets. They work by interfering with the liver’s ability to produce cholesterol. At first glance this lowers blood cholesterol numbers, which pleases doctors and looks neat on a chart. But the side effects tell the deeper story. People on statins often complain of muscle pain and weakness. Some develop cognitive decline, memory loss, or confusion. The reason is simple: when you interfere with cholesterol production, you are not just lowering a number, you are starving every cell, every hormone pathway, every nerve covering. The body cannot function optimally when its building material is blocked. I have seen people regain vitality after stopping statins, as though life itself returned to their tissues once cholesterol was no longer being withheld.
The obsession with cholesterol as a single number has also distracted us from the bigger picture. Health is not measured by how low you can force cholesterol, but by whether the body’s terrain is balanced and resilient. Inflammation, sugar damage, toxic exposure, and lack of movement create the real risks.
Cholesterol simply responds to those imbalances, showing up to try and repair. It is like blaming the firefighters for the fire because they are always at the scene. Lowering the number without addressing the flames does nothing to heal the true problem.
Fats themselves have been wrongly vilified. For decades, dietary guidelines warned us away from butter, eggs, animal fats, and even nourishing plant oils. We were told to replace them with margarine, processed seed oils, and fat-free products laden with sugar. The result was not health, but a surge in obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
The body needs fats. They provide long-lasting fuel, build hormones, cushion organs, and carry fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K into our cells. Good fats from grass-fed animals, coconuts, olives, avocados, nuts, and seeds are not luxuries, they are necessities. Without them, skin dries, hormones falter, moods swing, and inflammation grows.
The idea that the human body was designed to thrive on fat-free processed foods is one of the great tragedies of modern nutrition.
I think of the liver often in this conversation. It is the great regulator, making cholesterol when needed, storing it, breaking it down, and directing traffic. To wage war against cholesterol is to wage war against the liver’s intelligence. Instead of blocking it with drugs, we could support it with clean foods, bitter herbs, hydration, and rest. A liver that is overburdened by sugar, alcohol, chemicals, and chronic stress will struggle, but that is not the fault of cholesterol. Supporting the liver allows it to create exactly what the body requires in perfect proportion.
I have sat with clients who believed they were doomed because their cholesterol number was high. They spoke of it with fear, convinced they were on the brink of heart attack unless they took the prescription. Yet many of them also lived on processed foods, carried inflammation from hidden infections, or suffered from imbalanced blood sugar. Once they learned that LDL was not their enemy but a signal that the body was trying to clean up deeper issues, they felt relief. We worked on lowering inflammation instead of cholesterol. We supported the gut, reduced sugar, added real fats back in, and watched as energy and clarity returned.
The narrative that cholesterol must be driven down at all costs has blinded us to its role as a healer. We need to remember that the body is not careless. It does not create cholesterol to harm itself. It creates it because every cell and every hormone pathway depend on it. When numbers rise, it is worth asking what the body is trying to repair, rather than assuming the cholesterol itself is the cause.
I believe the future of medicine will require a return to this wisdom. Statins may lower a number on a blood test, but they do not heal. Healing comes from nourishing the body with the fats it requires, calming inflammation, and trusting the liver to balance what needs to be balanced.
Cholesterol is not a curse but a companion. It is a reminder that health is more complex than a single number and that our bodies carry intelligence far beyond our charts and graphs.
When I see an egg yolk shining golden, or butter melting into vegetables, or olive oil glistening on greens, I think of how those fats will be woven into cell membranes, hormones, and nerve sheaths. They will not clog me, they will sustain me.
When I think of cholesterol, I no longer think of danger. I think of life, structure, strength, and repair. We have had it all wrong, and it is time to remember that what we fear has always been one of our greatest allies.
