Even if you're middle-aged and seem healthy with normal cholesterol and no heart disease risks, almost half of people like you might already have early signs of heart disease you can't feel.

Even if you're a middle-aged adult with normal cholesterol and no obvious heart disease risks, there's almost a 50% chance you already have early signs of heart disease, like buildup in your arteries.

If you're a middle-aged person with symptoms, having higher 'bad' cholesterol (LDL) means you're more likely to have heart problems over the next four years — but only if scans show you already have plaque in your heart arteries.

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%.

If a middle-aged person has heart symptoms but no calcium buildup in their arteries, things like diabetes, smoking, and low 'good' cholesterol are linked to future heart problems — but their 'bad' cholesterol level doesn’t seem to matter, which might mean other non-plaque-related issues are causing the heart trouble.

In healthy-looking middle-aged Americans with low heart disease risk, higher 'bad' cholesterol is linked to more buildup in heart arteries — and the more cholesterol, the more common these buildups are.