Statins are a liver toxin. My wife and I have several peers taking them All of them suffer significant side effects. In one case actual dementia until my wife persuaded him to cut back. While this man was suffering dementia, his daughter, a nurse, kept telling him "Dad you're doing great with those really low cholesterol numbers!"
The war on cholesterol has been a dismal failure at reducing heart disease and is a terrible mistake that has become entrenched. It doesn't help that the American heart Association is funded by pharmaceutical companies.
Avoiding junk carbs can do wonders to reduce triglycerides, and raise HDL. A real picture of heart health involves not a total cholesterol reading, but HDL, CRP, triglycerides and Hgb A1c. Diet and exercise works for me. If I was a heart attack survivor with multiple risk factors I might consider a statin, but otherwise no way in hell.
Don in Austin