Study Shows Daily "Polypill" Reduces Heart Disease And Stroke | Life

PARIS, August 23 – An inexpensive pill to be taken once a day, combining aspirin with drugs that lower blood pressure and cholesterol, reduces the risk of heart failure and stroke by one-third , today announced researchers.

In clinical trials, "polypill" was particularly effective in people with no history of cardiovascular disease, reducing the number of serious events by 40%, he said. The lancet, a medical journal.

In patients with a history of heart problems and stroke, the drug was only half as effective as the control group, which had been counseled on a healthy life but not medication.

The concept of polypill was first proposed more than 20 years ago as a simpler and more cost-effective approach to the treatment of cardiovascular disease, which often requires multiple medications.

Until now, patients were generally prescribed one or more drugs to lower blood pressure, as well as a statin, which retains lipids such as fatty acids. Aspirin, an analgesic, has anticoagulant properties.

"The more tablets have to be taken, the less they respect the long-term rules," said Kausik Ray, a professor of public health and Imperial College London not involved in the study.

"For chronic diseases, it's a challenge because you ask people to take multiple medications every day for 30 or 40 years."

According to previous research, about a third of patients stop taking their medication 90 days after a heart attack.

But despite its obvious potential, the polypill had not yet been tested on a large number of people over a long period.

Scientists led by Reza Malekzadeh of the Tehran University of Medical Sciences recruited nearly 7,000 men and women, aged 50 to 75, living in rural Golestan, Iran.

Take your medicine

About one in ten had had a heart attack, stroke, or other cardiovascular episode.

The participants were divided into two groups of about the same size. One received a "lifestyle advice", while the other also received a daily polypill from 2011 to 2013.

The doctors monitored the observance of drug treatment and then calculated the number of stroke and heart attacks in each cohort over the next five years.

Crucially, compliance was significantly higher with the all-in-one pill.

"The drugs do not work if they are not taken," noted Amitava Banerjee, consultant cardiologist at University College London.

Compared to the lifestyle group, the polypill cohort had 34 percent fewer adverse events. The results were similar for men and women.

Blood pressure did not differ much, but "bad" cholesterol (LDL) levels were lower in the group taking medication.

"We now know that a fixed-dose polypill can have clinically beneficial effects," Malekzadeh said in a statement.

"But polypill is not an alternative to a healthy lifestyle and must be associated with physical activity, healthy eating and smoking cessation."

Other researchers not involved in the study said the results could change the game, especially in developing countries.

"Given the affordability of Polypill, there is considerable potential to improve cardiovascular health and prevent the leading cause of death worldwide," said co-author Nizal Sarrafzadegan, a researcher at the University of Science. Isfahan Medical Center.

"More than three quarters of the 18 million people who die from cardiovascular disease live in low- and middle-income countries." – AFP