Hello Sue, You can watch an excellent and revealing documentary on cholesterol on line but only from Canada. It is Dr. David Suzuki's The Nature of Things on Cholesterol. My husband who has had high cholesterol since his twenties and I watched it 3 times. Bottom line: scientists who have studied cholesterol in depth and are not affiliated or influenced by Big Pharma, state that the only people who need to be on statins for cholesterol are men in their forties who have had a heart attack. You certainly don't fall into that category. If you can watch it, here is the documentary: https://gem.cbc.ca/media/the-nature-of-things/season-54/episode-4/38e815a-00918890266
My 68 year old husband who walks an average of 8 - 10 kilometres per day and 15 - 20 km on weekends, eats plenty of vegetables and has excellent good cholesterol and triglycerides but very high bad cholesterol, refuses to go on statins. In the documentary it stated that statin use is particularly dangerous for seniors and does more harm than good. My husband's siblings are all on statins. Although they are normal weight, they are all now diabetic due to statin use. One sister wasted away losing all muscle mass. And who knows what damage was done to their livers. According to the statin makers themselves, statins cause memory loss.
So why do doctors continue to prescribe statins? According to many doctors who dare to be so outspoken, if they don't prescribe them to their patients and let's say one has a heart attack or blocked artery (which can happen to us all), that patient could sue the doctor, blaming the heart attack on the doctor's failure to prescribe statins. Not only are doctors afraid of litigation from patients but they are also afraid of Big Pharma that could ruin their careers. Doctors' hands are tied.
The new standard to measure heart health is no longer cholesterol but triglycerides which measure inflammation in the body.
You say that statins have been widely studied...by scientists paid by Big Pharma. There are plenty of independent studies that show how ineffective statins are and even harmful, especially in the elderly.

There are many articles showing research published by the world's leading site on medical research results called NCBI. But check WHO is doing the research. And then you have to google names of researchers to see if there is an association with the drug companies. In any case, it will show you the side effects of statins. Here is just one: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2849981/
Good luck!