Sep 9, 2026 · 1h 36m
Will Cole connects cellular health to chronic disease
Episode #161: What’s Making You Sick: Cholesterol, Mitochondria & Chronic Disease Featuring DR. WILL COLE!!
The conversation examines whether symptoms, cholesterol, stress, sleep, and environmental exposures should be understood as interconnected signals rather than isolated problems.
- 1Functional medicine pairs necessary medical treatment with efforts to investigate underlying contributors to symptoms and abnormal lab results.
- 2Cell membranes and mitochondria shape how nutrition, genetics, cholesterol, and environmental stressors may influence whole-person health.
- 3Cold exposure, diets, supplements, and wearables require individualized judgment rather than universal protocols or polarized health claims.
Don't miss
The cholesterol segment challenges the assumption that lower LDL is always better, arguing that cholesterol also supports cell membranes and hormone receptors.
The brief
Dr. Will Cole frames functional medicine as an effort to interpret symptoms and lab results in context, while acknowledging that medication can still be necessary.
The conversation broadens from clinical care to community, spirituality, nature, and technology, arguing that health depends on connection and nervous-system regulation as well as biology.
Cole’s cellular model centers on membranes, mitochondria, receptors, nutrition, genetics, and epigenetics, treating symptoms as signals rather than isolated problems.
The cholesterol discussion supplies the episode’s sharpest tension: lowering LDL aggressively may have unintended consequences for cellular, metabolic, and neurological function.
Cold plunges, keto, carnivore diets, spinach, oxalates, melatonin, vitamin D, magnesium, and electrolytes all receive the same verdict: context matters more than ideology.
Featuring
Heal Your Cells
ibuprofen
Josh AxeBooks & mentions
Listen to the full episode and explore every guest, topic, and moment on PodLume.