📰 Autoimmune 411 Feature Article | By Alice McDonnel

If there’s one topic that’s been dragged through more misunderstanding, fear, and medical mythology than almost anything else in health… it’s cholesterol.

For over half a century, cholesterol has been villainized, blamed, restricted, medicated, and used to justify dietary trends that left entire generations sicker, not healthier. And after decades of research, thousands of patient conversations, and navigating my own autoimmune journey, here’s what I can tell you:

Cholesterol was never the enemy.
Confusion was.

Let’s walk through what really happened, why your numbers may not mean what you were taught, and what your body is actually trying to tell you.

⭐ 1. Cholesterol Is Not Optional — It’s Foundational

Cholesterol is essential for:

• hormone production
• cell repair
• vitamin D synthesis
• brain and nerve function
• immune regulation
• bile acid formation
• mitochondrial stability

Low cholesterol isn’t a “success.”
It’s often a sign your body is stressed, inflamed, or under-fueled.

Ironically, many autoimmune patients have worsened because decades of “cholesterol fear” caused them to avoid the very nutrient that stabilizes hormones, repairs tissue, and supports immune balance.

⭐ 2. How We Got Here: The Real History Behind the Fear

Modern cholesterol panic came from:

• Ancel Keys’ flawed 1950s diet-heart hypothesis
• selective early studies
• misinterpreted correlations
• aggressive food-industry messaging (“low fat is healthy!”)
• statins becoming a blockbuster drug category

The truth?

🔹 Cholesterol was never proven to cause heart disease.
🔹 Inflammation and oxidation were the true drivers of arterial damage.
🔹 Cholesterol showed up to patch that damage — not cause it.
🔹 But lowering cholesterol was easy to measure, easy to market, and easy to prescribe.

So the myth survived, while the science evolved.

⭐ 3. Why Cholesterol Rises — Your Body Is Trying to Repair Something

Cholesterol increases when the body needs more building materials.

Common reasons include:

• repairing the gut lining
• patching inflamed arteries
• producing stress hormones during burnout
• rebuilding damaged cells
• supporting brain protection
• responding to chronic infections
• buffering oxidative stress

This is especially true in autoimmune conditions, where the body cycles through damage → repair → damage → repair constantly.

The number is not random.
It is a message.

Context matters:

• High cholesterol + LOW inflammation markers → often benign or adaptive
• High cholesterol + HIGH inflammation markers → signals deeper issues that need addressing

⭐ 4. The Part Everyone Got Wrong: Healthy Fats ≠ Harmful Fats

The real dietary villain was never saturated fat.
It was the industrial seed oils we were told were healthy:

• canola
• soybean
• corn
• safflower
• cottonseed
• grapeseed
• rice bran

These oils:

• oxidize quickly
• inflame arteries
• disrupt hormones
• worsen insulin resistance
• damage gut lining
• distort cholesterol ratios

Meanwhile, ancestral fats were wrongly demonized:

• olive oil
• avocado oil
• butter & ghee
• eggs
• tallow & lard
• fatty fish

These fats support:

• hormones
• mitochondria
• immune balance
• brain health
• stable blood sugar

Inflammation — not dietary cholesterol — is what damages arteries.
Seed oils feed that inflammation.
Healthy fats help resolve it.

⭐ 5. My Husbands Statin Story 

When my husband was prescribed a statin of course I was highly skeptical and read through the package insert which stated:

“For this medication to be effective, a low-cholesterol diet is required.”

My eyeballs must've rolled right around to the back of my head 😑 

Of course I had to point out the obvious:

If diet lowers cholesterol…
and the statin lowers cholesterol…
how would you know which one worked?

The answer is:
Most people never do.

And worse:

Statins suppress numbers but never address:

• inflammation
• oxidative stress
• thyroid function
• insulin resistance
• liver congestion
• nutrient deficiencies
• poor dietary oils

Meanwhile, they can cause:

• CoQ10 depletion
• muscle pain
• fatigue
• brain fog
• hormone disruption
• blood sugar elevation

I’ve seen many autoimmune patients decline on statins because the root terrain was never addressed.

⭐ 6. What Actually Causes “High Cholesterol”? (And Why the Target Number Keeps Changing)

Cholesterol rises because your body needs help — not because it’s misbehaving.

In almost every case, elevated cholesterol is a response, not a cause. Your body raises cholesterol when it needs extra materials for repair, hormone production, immune balance, or cellular protection.

Common reasons cholesterol goes up:

• chronic inflammation

• leaky gut / intestinal permeability

• thyroid dysfunction (especially low thyroid)

• insulin resistance or dysregulated blood sugar

• chronic infections

• liver or gallbladder congestion

• toxin exposure / oxidative stress

• nutrient deficiencies

• harmful oils (seed/vegetable oils)

• chronic stress and cortisol dysregulation

In other words:

Cholesterol = the firefighter
Inflammation = the fire

Lowering the number without treating the cause doesn’t put out the flames — it just sends the firefighters home.

🔎 A Critical Piece of Context: Cholesterol Targets Keep Getting Lower (Without New Science)

This is a part of the story almost no patient is ever told:

The “acceptable” cholesterol number has been changed multiple times — not because strong evidence demanded it, but because guidelines shifted.

Historically:

• A total cholesterol of 240 mg/dL was widely considered normal.

• Later, the recommended level dropped to 200 mg/dL.

• LDL targets have also been repeatedly lowered — often right as new drug classes appeared.

Each time the goalposts moved:

• millions more people suddenly tested “too high”

• medication recommendations increased

• but chronic illness did not decrease

In fact:

• autoimmune disease

• metabolic disease

• insulin resistance

• thyroid dysfunction

• chronic inflammation

…all increased during the same period when cholesterol targets were aggressively lowered.

So when you're told your cholesterol is “high,” it’s worth asking:

“High compared to what baseline — the original one, or the newer, more restrictive one?”

And more importantly:

“Is my cholesterol rising because of damage… or because the definition of 'high' keeps changing?”

This is why advocating for deeper testing and understanding the root causes matters far more than hitting an arbitrary number.

⭐ 7. What Two Decades of Advocacy Have Made Clear To Me:

Across thousands of patients:

✔ Removing seed oils improves cholesterol
✔ Healing gut inflammation improves cholesterol
✔ Supporting thyroid/liver improves cholesterol
✔ Reducing stress improves cholesterol
✔ Correcting nutrient deficiencies improves cholesterol
✔ Improving metabolic health improves cholesterol

Cholesterol normalizes when the terrain normalizes.

The number was never the problem — the environment was.

⭐ 8. The Autoimmune Connection 

Autoimmune patients often experience elevated cholesterol because:

• inflammation is ongoing
• mitochondria are taxed
• thyroid function is disrupted
• cortisol is dysregulated
• detox pathways are overburdened

These are the very systems I teach about restoring inside Autoimmune 411 Academy™.

When autoimmune biology is supported properly —
cholesterol improves as part of the healing response.

No statin required.
No fear required.

⭐ 9. The Bottom Line: Cholesterol Was Never the Villain

If your cholesterol is “high,” the real question isn’t:

“How do I force this number down?”
It’s:

“What is my body trying to repair or protect?”

Your lipid panel is not a threat — it is a compass.
A single piece of data pointing toward deeper healing.

Interpret it with curiosity, not fear.

And bring this perspective into a real conversation with your doctor.
Not confrontationally — but confidently and collaboratively.

Let them know you want to understand why your cholesterol shifted and ask for testing that evaluates the systems most responsible for driving lipid changes:

• thyroid function

• inflammatory markers

• insulin and glucose patterns

• liver and gallbladder function

• nutrient status

• oxidative stress

• gut health and intestinal permeability

Explain that you want to address root causes first, before considering a medication that only lowers the number but doesn’t correct the underlying problem — and may cause additional issues.

You can even point out, gently:

“Since the ‘acceptable cholesterol ranges’ were lowered, chronic illness has only risen.
I want to make sure we’re treating the cause, not just suppressing a number.”

This reframes the entire discussion.

Your goal is to make sure the right problem is being treated.

Your body isn’t malfunctioning.
It’s communicating.

Listen to the message before silencing the messenger.

👣 Want the full, step-by-step SMART Path™ with protocols, lab guides, and sequencing tools?

Inside Autoimmune 411 Academy™,  I do a much deeper dive on this topic as I walk you through every phase of the SMART Path™—so you’ll know exactly what to do, when to do it, and how to adapt it to your body.
No more guessing. No more overwhelm. Just a clear, proven pathway.

💪 On the Frontlines with you,
Alice McDonnell
Founder & 20+ Year Veteran Patient Advocate
Autoimmune 411 ~ Hashimoto’s 411 ~ Autoimmune 411 Academy™

🚨 Disclaimer: I’m not a medical professional. I’m sharing what I’ve learned through over two decades of research, lived experience, patient advocacy and feedback. This is for informational purposes only—always consult your healthcare provider before making changes to your health plan.