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

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.

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

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

When you have too much 'bad' cholesterol (LDL) in your blood, it sticks to the walls of your arteries and builds up like gunk, making them narrow and stiff — which raises your chance of having a heart attack or stroke.

Lowering bad cholesterol really aggressively might not help people live longer because while it prevents heart attacks, it could also cause other problems that balance things out.