Reading further, there is some hope for statins after all. Spacedoc explains that low-dose statins have a beneficial effect on inflammation and thus reduce mortality on patients that already have heart disease. However, the way statins are 'sold' to us is different; they are supposed to lower cholesterol readings (which they do) but cholesterol is not the culprit after all. So what happens: docA sees patientB and finds cholesterol level too high (according to common wisdom) so B gets a prescription for statins, even if B has no pre-existing heart disease. In order to get the cholesterol reading to the published level, A prescribes heavier and heavier doses until B reaches the level required. In reality even a small dose will fight the inflammation and do good, an overdose will do good but brings side-effects as well, and these can be very nasty since cholesterol is fuel for the brain.
This is simplified a very plausible explanation as written by spacedoc in his book mentioned above.