If you're under 40 and have high 'bad' cholesterol or high blood pressure, you're more likely to have buildup in the neck arteries that supply your brain — a sign that heart disease might be starting...

About 4 out of every 10 young adults with early signs of artery clogging don't have high cholesterol or high blood pressure—so our usual heart risk checks might be missing a lot of people who already have early heart disease.

If healthy adults have higher 'bad' cholesterol levels, they’re more likely to show early signs of artery hardening, like thicker artery walls or plaque buildup in the neck arteries.

People with plaque in their neck arteries are much more likely to have heart disease — about 8.6 times more likely — even after accounting for age and gender.

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 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.