For decades, cholesterol has been labeled the enemy of heart health, with warnings about avoiding high-cholesterol foods and taking medication to lower it. But research shows that cholesterol is far more complex than just “good” and “bad.”

In reality, cholesterol is essential for life, and blindly lowering it without addressing the real causes of heart disease may do more harm than good.

For decades, conventional medicine has pointed to high cholesterol as the primary culprit behind heart disease. But emerging research—and what we see in functional medicine—tells a more complex story. Heart disease is not just a cholesterol problem; it’s an inflammation, metabolic, and lifestyle problem.

If you or a loved one are concerned about cardiovascular health, it’s time to shift the conversation from simply lowering cholesterol to addressing the root causes of heart disease.

Have you heard the expression "a canary in a coal mine?" Miners used to carry caged canaries while at work to detect carbon monoxide. The birds would die before the levels of gas became hazardous to miners. This signal became a fail-safe for the teams of men and women.

Our bodies have some fail-safe alarms, too. In fact, men have a warning signal that should never be ignored: erectile dysfunction (ED)

Most people, especially the elderly, simply do not drink enough water.

Facts to Know

Water makes up 60 to 70 percent of our body weight. But shockingly, up to 75 percent of Americans are chronically dehydrated—especially seniors.

Typical signs of dehydration include...

Growing research has shown that higher blood insulin can result in increased cancer risk.

Because insulin is a growth factor, high insulin levels trigger rapid cell division and can cause cells to lose control of their DNA regulator genes leading to increased potential for tumor progression and

Excitotoxins are chemicals substances that overstimulate certain type of cells in the brain, all of the nervous system and many other organs.

In high and excessive amounts these cells become damaged and may die.

The underlying mechanism of excitotoxins has been attributed to the following diseases...