Taking stronger treatments to lower bad cholesterol seems to cut the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and other serious heart problems — even if your cholesterol isn’t that high to begin with.

If your 'bad' cholesterol is 100 or higher, lowering it more aggressively helps prevent heart-related deaths. But if it's already below 100, lowering it even more doesn't seem to help much — there might be a cutoff where treatment stops adding extra benefit.

If you have high 'bad' cholesterol, lowering it more aggressively can help you live longer, especially if your levels are really high to begin with. Doctors should decide how hard to treat based on how high your cholesterol is and your overall heart risk.

When people lower their 'bad' cholesterol to very low levels using strong medications, they have fewer heart attacks and strokes than those with higher cholesterol levels.

Lowering your 'bad' cholesterol by just a little bit—about 1 mmol/L—can cut your risk of serious heart problems like heart attacks or strokes by roughly 22%, and this has been seen again and again in big studies with hundreds of thousands of people.

People with higher levels of 'bad' cholesterol in their blood are more likely to have heart attacks or other heart problems.