|
HowToPreventHeartDisease.com |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Can the New Polypill Reduce Heart Disease Risk?
Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide and some 80 percent of the heart disease cases appear to occur in developing countries. Many risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, overweight or obesity and stress could lead to development of heart disease. Doctors generally use different medications to treat each and every risk factor separately. For example, statins is used to lower bad cholesterol or LDL (low-density lipoprotein) while aspirin is employed as blood-thinner. Recently, a new so-called polypill is designed and is believed to have the potential to reduce heart disease by 60 percent and stroke by 50 percent. The new drug consists of 5 active ingredients: low doses of 3 medications against high blood pressure; simvastatin that lowers LDL and aspirin. The discovery of such a single pill that could reduce multiple cardiovascular risk factors had excited the researchers from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario and St. John's Medical College in Bangalore, India. They reported their findings in March 2009 at an American College of Cardiology conference and published online by The Lancet. The study, known as Indian Polycap Study (TIPS), was sponsored by Cadila Pharmaceuticals Limited and involved 2,053 patients, who were recruited from heart centers around India between March 2007 and August 2008.
During a period of 3 months, cardiologists compared the impact on blood pressure, cholesterol level and heart rate of polypill and the medications that make it up, taken individually or together. All participants were divided into groups. They were given the polypill or aspirin, simvastain (the cholesterol-lowering medication), or one of the 3 blood pressure medications on their own or in different combinations, or all 3 blood pressure medications with or without aspirin. The blood pressure of the participants in the polypill group was found to be lower as much as that in the group taking the 3 blood pressure medications together, with or without aspirin. According to the researchers, these blood pressure reductions could theoretically lead to risk reduction of about 24 percent in congestive heart disease and 33 percent in stroke in those with average blood pressure levels. The level of LDL cholesterol was reduced significantly more than that in all other groups except the group that was offered simvastain alone. Nevertheless, the LDL levels in the simvastatin group fell only slightly more than that in the polypill group. The heart rates in the polypill group and the group taking one of the blood-pressure medications, atenolol, were found to lower by 7 beats a minute, which was significantly more than in the other study groups. Side effects in participants taking the polypill were similar to those who took one or two medications. Currently, several different drugs are available generically and inexpensively to treat many of the cardiac risk factors. Therefore, combining all of them in a single pill could reduce heart disease by 80 percent. Obviously, the polypill would greatly help the medical world in the prevention of heart disease. Meanwhile, the researchers suggest designing larger and more definitive studies as well as further development of appropriate combinations of blood pressure lowering drugs with statins and aspirin.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright
2007-2012 © HowToPreventHeartDisease.com . All Rights Reserved.d....... |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
