High Cholesterol
Cholesterol is more than one number. We look at particles, inflammation, and insulin resistance — the fuller picture of risk — in partnership with your physician.
The Number Is Only Part of the Story
High cholesterol gets reduced to a single number on a lab report and a decision about medication, but cholesterol is more nuanced than one figure suggests. What drives cardiovascular risk is less the total number and more the particles carrying it, the inflammation in the vessel wall, and the metabolic state behind it all. The body is not making cholesterol to harm you; it makes it because it is essential. The question is what the fuller picture shows.
This is the GoodMedizen lens. The body is not malfunctioning. It is responding accurately to the information it is being given. Change the inputs and the response begins to change with them.
What Cholesterol Actually Is
Cholesterol is a vital molecule — the body uses it to build cell membranes, hormones, vitamin D, and bile. It travels in particles such as LDL and HDL, and the standard panel measures the cholesterol those particles carry. Modern cardiology increasingly looks past the basic numbers to particle count and size, to markers like ApoB, and to the inflammation and insulin resistance that determine whether those particles actually damage the artery wall. A “high” number means different things in different people, and context is everything.
What Is Actually Driving It
- Insulin resistance and metabolic dysfunction, which shift the particle pattern toward the small, dense type linked to risk
- Inflammation in the vessel wall, which is what turns cholesterol into a problem
- Diet and the gut, which influence both cholesterol and inflammation
- Thyroid function, since low thyroid raises cholesterol
- Genetics, including familial patterns that genuinely require attention
- The liver, which manages cholesterol production and clearance
Why the Simple Number Misleads
Two people with the same total cholesterol can carry very different risk, depending on particle count, inflammation, and metabolic health — yet decisions are often made on the basic number alone. Some people are medicated who may not need it; others are reassured by a normal number while inflammation and insulin resistance quietly raise their risk.
Signs and Patterns
High cholesterol itself usually has no symptoms, which is exactly why the fuller workup matters. What we look for are the drivers and the company it keeps:
- Abdominal weight and other signs of insulin resistance
- High blood pressure or blood sugar
- A family history of early heart disease
- Fatigue, cold intolerance, or other thyroid signs
- An unhealthful triglyceride-to-HDL ratio
- Markers of inflammation
How We Look at It — The Testing
- Beyond the basic panel — where available, particle count and ApoB, since they reflect risk better than total cholesterol alone
- Metabolic drivers — HbA1c, fasting glucose and insulin, and the triglyceride-to-HDL ratio, a strong window on insulin resistance
- Inflammation — hs-CRP and the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, since inflammation is what makes cholesterol dangerous
- Thyroid — a full panel with antibodies, since low thyroid raises cholesterol and symptoms appear at a TSH as low as 1.75
- The liver — a comprehensive metabolic panel with GGT, given the liver’s central role
- Foundations — 25-OH vitamin D around 60 to 70 and a full iron profile
Broad baseline labs do not have to be expensive. Services such as Function Health let patients obtain large workups affordably, and we have no financial stake in that — we would rather your budget go toward care than toward lab markups. For targeted functional testing we order through Diagnostic Solutions (GI-MAP) for the microbiome, Quicksilver Scientific for heavy metals, and through Fullscript where it serves you best, with every marker read against optimal ranges rather than the wide line between “normal” and “abnormal.”
The Chinese Medicine Lens
Chinese medicine does not measure cholesterol, but it reads the metabolic terrain behind it clearly: usually dampness and phlegm accumulating from a Spleen that is not transforming food and fluids efficiently, often with Liver involvement — the same digestive-and-metabolic picture that underlies insulin resistance. Treatment strengthens the Spleen, resolves the damp and phlegm, and supports the smooth flow the Liver governs.
The focus on the metabolic engine, rather than on the number itself, mirrors where modern cardiology is heading.
How Acupuncture and Functional Medicine Help
Acupuncture supports the metabolic picture by helping regulate blood sugar and stress and easing the Spleen and Liver patterns behind the dampness. It is a supportive piece, not a cholesterol treatment on its own.
The functional work targets what actually drives risk: improving insulin sensitivity, lowering inflammation, supporting thyroid and liver function, and addressing diet and the gut — shifting the whole terrain, not just the number. We build the metabolic foundation, which is where durable change in the particle picture comes from.
Care That Works With Your Physician
This matters: cardiovascular risk is serious, and for many people — especially with genetic patterns or established heart disease — statins and other medications are genuinely protective and appropriate. We work alongside your physician and cardiologist, we support the terrain whether or not you take medication, and we never advise stopping a prescribed medication or making medication decisions on your own.
Your Body Isn’t Broken
If you have spent years being told your labs look normal while you clearly do not feel normal, you have not been imagining it. With cholesterol, the work is to understand and improve the fuller picture of risk — particles, inflammation, metabolism — in partnership with your physician, not to fixate on a single number. Your body is not broken. The support has just been missing.
At GoodMedizen in downtown Seattle, we treat the system driving the condition, not only the symptoms it produces.