Can someone be perfectly healthy even if their 'bad' cholesterol is super low—like 14 mg/dL?

Really low 'bad' cholesterol might actually be a sign your body is doing a great job cleaning it out — not something to worry about.

Having really low 'bad' cholesterol thanks to how your body naturally processes it doesn’t seem to cause health problems, even over many years.

Getting cholesterol extremely low doesn’t seem to make people more likely to get cancer, stroke, diabetes, liver problems, muscle issues, or cataracts — at least not in the time frame studied.

We can now lower bad cholesterol to super low levels with treatment — even lower than what babies or some animals have — but we're not sure if that's totally safe over the long term.

High cholesterol might not be the main reason for heart disease, and having too little cholesterol could actually be risky — so the old idea that cholesterol causes heart problems might not tell the whole story, especially for preventing heart issues in healthy people.