In healthy adults, leftover cholesterol in the blood doesn’t seem to add extra heart disease risk once you already know someone’s LDL (‘bad’) cholesterol level.

High LDL cholesterol might not always lead to heart disease if a person is metabolically healthy — it could depend on whether they have insulin resistance or other metabolic issues.

Even if your heart looks healthy and you have no major risk factors, higher 'bad' cholesterol (LDL) — even when it's considered 'normal' — is linked to more hidden artery buildup. For every 10-point rise in LDL, the odds go up by about 15%.

Even if you're healthy and don't have typical heart disease risks, having higher 'bad' cholesterol (LDL) might still mean you're more likely to have early signs of artery buildup — and the higher the LDL, the greater the chance.

High LDL cholesterol doesn’t actually raise your chances of getting heart disease, according to some studies that question the long-standing belief about cholesterol and heart health.

A lot of people with heart problems don't actually have high LDL cholesterol — about half of them have normal or even low levels — so maybe LDL isn't the main cause of heart disease after all.