The Truth About Cholesterol and Heart Disease: What Women Need to Know
For most of my adult life, I believed cholesterol was the enemy. Like many women, I worried about heart disease, counted my fat grams, and chose low-fat yogurt over steak because I thought it was healthier. I now know how wrong that was.
Through years of study and listening to experts like Professor Bart Kay, Dr. Eric Westman, and Dr. Paul Mason, I learned there is no scientific proof that cholesterol causes heart disease. What the research shows is that cholesterol is present at the scene of the damage, it’s there to repair, not to harm.
This is a critical truth for everyone, especially for women as we age. The conventional advice to eat low-fat and high-carb diets is outdated and extremely harmful. Women deserve better information, grounded in science, not industry influence.
The Real Cause of Heart Disease
Dr. Paul Mason, an Australian physician and low-carb expert, explains that heart disease begins with inflammation and insulin resistance, not cholesterol. When blood sugar and insulin stay elevated from eating too many carbohydrates, they damage the delicate lining of the arteries. The body sends LDL cholesterol to repair the damage in the artery wall. LDL itself doesn’t cause plaque; the problem occurs only when inflammation and oxidative stress persist, damaging the repaired area and turning it into plaque over time.
In other words, cholesterol shows up to help, not hurt. It is part of the repair crew, not the cause of the injury.
Dr. Eric Westman, an internal medicine physician and long-time low-carb expert and researcher at Duke University, has seen this for decades. His patients who follow a low-carb or ketogenic lifestyle often show improved triglyceride levels, higher HDL (the “good” cholesterol), and better blood pressure, all markers of improved cardiovascular health.
Professor Bart Kay, a cardiovascular physiologist, is blunt about it: LDL cholesterol does not cause heart disease. Period. End of. He calls the “cholesterol-causes-heart-disease” theory the biggest medical error of the 20th century. The evidence simply does not support it.
What Low-Carb Living Does for Your Heart
A well-formulated low-carb or ketogenic diet helps restore metabolic health. It lowers blood sugar, improves insulin sensitivity, and reduces chronic inflammation, the real drivers of cardiovascular disease.
Here’s what happens when you reduce carbs:
• Lower insulin levels: High insulin is toxic to blood vessels. Lowering carbs reduces insulin, easing the strain on your arteries.
• Reduced inflammation: Ketones, produced when your body burns fat for energy, have anti-inflammatory effects that help protect the heart.
• Improved lipid profile: Triglycerides drop, HDL rises, and LDL becomes larger and less harmful.
• Stable blood pressure: Without excess sugar and processed carbs, blood vessels relax, and pressure normalizes.
Dr. Westman often says, “It’s not about lowering cholesterol. It’s about fixing the underlying problem.” And the underlying problem is metabolic dysfunction caused by excessive carbohydrates.
The Myth of “Needing Carbs”
You don’t need carbohydrates to survive. That belief is one of the biggest nutrition myths still circulating. Your body makes the small amount of glucose it needs from protein and fat through a process called gluconeogenesis. This is how humans have survived and thrived for thousands of years, long before grains and processed foods existed. There is no essential dietary requirement for carbohydrates.
I once had someone tell me he needed carbs for his long bike workouts. He didn’t. What he needed was efficient fat metabolism. Once your body becomes fat-adapted, it can access its own energy stores instead of depending on a constant supply of glucose. This is a whole topic for another day, but it’s important to understand. Carbohydrates are not required for endurance or strength. Many athletes perform better in a low-carb or ketogenic state because their bodies become metabolically flexible and no longer crash from fluctuating blood sugar.
Women and Heart Health After 40
As women age, our hormones shift. Estrogen, which once helped protect our arteries, begins to decline. This makes us more vulnerable to insulin resistance, inflammation, and weight gain. A high-carb diet only makes this worse.
A low-carb lifestyle helps stabilize hormones, supports a healthy metabolism, and reduces the inflammation that accelerates cardiovascular decline. It’s not about restriction. It’s about eating real food meat, eggs, fish, healthy fats, and low-carb vegetables that nourish the body and protect the heart.
The Bottom Line
We’ve been misled by decades of outdated and simply wrong advice, telling us to fear fat and avoid cholesterol. Women have paid the price with worsening metabolic health, rising rates of diabetes, and heart disease.
The truth is simple:
Heart disease is not caused by cholesterol.
It’s caused by chronic inflammation, insulin resistance, and metabolic dysfunction, all fueled by a high-carb, low-fat diet.
If you want to protect your heart, don’t focus on lowering cholesterol. Focus on lowering inflammation. Eat real food. Reduce sugar and refined carbohydrates. Nourish your body with protein and healthy fats.
The old paradigm is crumbling, and the new science is clear. It’s time for women to stop fearing cholesterol and start understanding what true heart health means.
Disclaimer: The content shared here is for informational and educational purposes only and should never be taken as medical advice.
In writing this blog post, my goal is to distill research findings into a clear, approachable format that encourages critical thinking and empowers you to make informed decisions about your health.
