Is Your Heart Health Routine Outdated? Four Surprising Truths About Women’s Heart Health

As women, we're bombarded with advice about our heart health. One day, fat is the enemy; the next, it's essential. We're told to obsessively track our cholesterol, then we hear that the numbers don't even matter that much. It's a confusing, often contradictory landscape. You might feel like you're doing everything "right"—eating the low-fat yogurt, choosing margarine over butter, taking the prescribed pill—but still feel a deep sense of uncertainty. Are you really on the right track?

The truth is, many mainstream narratives about heart health are built on foundational science that was largely ignored at the time. I recently went back to explore some of the pioneering, counter-narrative research from the 1990s that first raised the very questions we are still grappling with today. My goal is to share these insights with you, not as medical advice, but to empower you to look at your heart health more holistically and ask better questions. Let's dive in.

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1. Your Cholesterol Number Isn't the Enemy - What Women’s Heart Health Gets Wrong About Cholesterol

For decades, we've been conditioned to fear cholesterol. That number from our blood test has been treated as the ultimate marker of heart health. But the link between cholesterol and heart disease is not the simple cause-and-effect relationship we've been led to believe.

Consider this staggering fact from a study published in The Lancet: most patients who have heart attacks actually have normal cholesterol levels (Lancet, 1994; 344: 1182-6). This alone suggests that cholesterol is just one small piece of a much larger puzzle.

For women, the picture is even more complex. Efforts to lower a woman's cholesterol can also unintentionally lower her levels of HDL, the "good" cholesterol that protects our arteries. Even more surprisingly, another study found that higher total cholesterol levels have been associated with longevity in people over 85 (Lancet, 1997; 350: 1119-23).

This is so important because it shifts our focus from a single number to the true root causes of heart issues. The fixation on cholesterol may be a massive red herring, distracting us from what really matters—like the hidden costs of the drugs used to treat it, the industrial foods we're told to eat instead of whole foods, and the profound impact of our emotional lives.

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2. That Little Pill Might Be Costing You More Than You Think.

For those with "high" cholesterol, a prescription for a statin drug is often the first and only solution offered. But beyond being potentially ineffective for many, these cholesterol-lowering drugs come with serious, under-discussed risks to your overall well-being.

One of the most shocking links is the connection between lowering cholesterol (either with drugs or diet) and an increased risk of violent death, suicide, and depression. Dr. Hyman Engelberg proposed a theory connecting this to a reduction in brain serotonin, a crucial neurotransmitter that helps regulate mood and suppress harmful impulses.

"A lowered serum cholesterol concentration may contribute to a decrease in brain serotonin, with poor suppression of aggressive behaviour.”

This isn't just a statistical anomaly. Consider the story of "Margaret from Surrey," who was put on the statin drug Zocor for 18 months. She experienced a host of frustrating side effects, including dry mouth, nosebleeds, severe itching, and immobilizing breathlessness. When she complained to her doctor, her symptoms were dismissed. Margaret's story is a potent reminder of the importance of listening to our bodies and questioning whether a medication's narrow benefits truly outweigh the potential costs to our mental and physical health.

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3. It's Not the Egg, It's the Margarine.

How many of us have dutifully swapped our morning eggs for a "heart-healthy" piece of toast with margarine? We were told for decades to avoid the humble egg, warned it was a cholesterol bomb.

But this advice completely misses the mark. Whole, natural eggs contain beneficial monounsaturated fats and are a powerhouse of nutrition. They contain all eight essential amino acids in perfect ratios, are rich in sulphur and cysteine for detoxification, and contain eight times more lecithin—an emulsifier that helps keep cholesterol fluid—than they do cholesterol itself.

The true culprit is something far more insidious: artificial trans fatty acids (TFAs). These are created during an industrial process called hydrogenation, which turns liquid vegetable oils into solid fats like margarine and shortening. An eight-year Harvard Medical School study of 85,000 women delivered a stunning conclusion: eating margarine increased the risk of coronary heart disease.

This isn't just about one food swap; it's a powerful indictment of the entire philosophy that led us to fear cholesterol in the first place. The obsession with a single biomarker drove us away from a whole, nutrient-dense food (eggs) and into the arms of a highly processed industrial product (margarine) that was demonstrably more dangerous.

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4. Loneliness May Be a Bigger Risk Factor Than Butter.

Modern medicine often treats the body like a machine, focusing on plumbing (arteries) and fuel (diet). But it frequently overlooks one of the most powerful factors in our health: our emotional well-being and our connection to others.

According to research cited by Dr. Dean Ornish, traditional risk factors like smoking and high-fat diets only account for about half of all heart disease. So, what accounts for the other half? A major factor is isolation. Studies have shown that people who are lonely and socially isolated are two to three times more likely to die from heart disease, regardless of their cholesterol levels, blood pressure, or smoking habits.

The power of connection is beautifully illustrated in an animal study. Researchers fed two groups of rabbits a high-cholesterol diet. One group was left alone in their cages. The other group was regularly taken out, petted, and spoken to. The result? The rabbits that received love and attention developed significantly less cardiovascular disease than those left in isolation.

This reinforces the core naturopathic truth that we are more than just a collection of physical parts. Our emotions, relationships, and feelings of connection are powerful forms of medicine. You can, quite literally, be dying of a "broken heart."

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Nurturing Your Whole Heart

True heart health is holistic. It goes far beyond managing a single number or demonizing a single food group. It's about questioning outdated advice, choosing real, unprocessed foods over factory-made products, and understanding that nurturing our emotional lives is just as important as what we put on our plates.

If reading this has raised questions about your own heart health — not just your cholesterol numbers, but how stress, nutrition, medication history, and emotional well-being intersect — a conversation can help bring clarity.

I offer a 1:1 Discovery Call as a space to explore what’s relevant for you, discuss your current concerns, and consider whether a more integrated, physiology-informed approach would be supportive at this stage of your life.

Book a Discovery Call to explore the next appropriate step for you.