This 4 in 1 pill can prevent heart problems



[ad_1]

London: An extensive study found that a cheap daily pill combining four drugs reduced the risk of heart attack, stroke, and heart failure, which could be a good way to prevent heart problems, especially in poor countries.

The pills contained two drugs for hypertension, a cholesterol medication and aspirin. Many people can not afford or stop taking so many drugs separately, so doctors think polypill might help. A previous study in India of one of these studies found a decrease in cholesterol and blood pressure. The new study is much broader and provides stronger evidence because it tracks heart attacks, strokes and other problems – not just risk factors.

It involved about 6,800 people in Iran, aged 50 to 75, some with previous heart problems and some without them. All received advice on healthy lifestyles and half also received polypills. After five years, 6% of people in the pill group had a heart attack, stroke, or heart failure, compared to 9% of others. This reduced the risk of polypill by 34% and the risk by 22% after the researchers took into account the other heart medications the participants were taking.

People who took polypill most faithfully, at least 70% of the time, had an even greater reduction in heart risk.

The advantage seems to come mainly from the reduction of cholesterol; blood pressure has not changed significantly. Side effects were similar in both groups. Some who were coughing on the polypill were replaced by another version that replaced one of the four drugs. All drugs are cheap generic drugs now.

The results were published Thursday in the British magazine Lancet. The study was funded by Tehran University of Medical Sciences, a foundation, and by Alborz Darou, the company that makes the polypills.

"This is an important step in the right direction," said Dr. Salim Yusuf of McMaster University in Canada, who is leading another study on polypill that is expected to be completed next summer. "It could be used in all the sensitive countries where we want to save lives."

The study's director, Dr. Tom Marshall of the British University of Birmingham, said the results show that polypill is a "viable strategy" for preventing heart disease in developing countries.

"It's much easier to give people a drug that manages two risk factors at the same time," he said.

Marshall, however, said the benefits would be minimal for people who already have access to good health care.

"But if you're in a system where people do not have a lot of access, that's a significant benefit," he said.

Dr. Amit Khera, director of preventive cardiology at Southwestern Medical School in Texas, who had no role in the study, said he hoped polypills would be used more widely in the coming years if they had to work in other groups. in addition to people of Central Asian descent tested in the Lancet study.

"The biology is different according to the populations, so before applying it to the whole of India or North Africa, we must know that these polypills are really without danger for these populations", he declares.

[ad_2]

Source link