Even if you feel fine, your arteries might start building up plaque when your 'bad' cholesterol (LDL) hits around 50 to 60 mg/dL, and the more LDL you have, the more plaque builds up — steadily and...

The longer your body is exposed to LDL cholesterol — even at pretty low levels like 60 — the higher your risk for heart disease, because plaque can start building up in your arteries without you knowing it.

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.

When people with clogged arteries have lower bad cholesterol in their blood, the immune cells inside the plaque stop multiplying as much, which helps shrink the plaque.

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.