Al-Marsad Newspaper: Researchers have come up with a solution to the so-called polypill, which combines three medicines necessary to prevent cardiovascular problems.
In what appears to be the largest and longest-running controlled trial of this approach, patients who were prescribed a polypill within six months of a heart attack were more likely to continue taking their medication, and had significantly fewer cardiovascular events, compared to those receiving the combination The usual cereal.
Participants in the trial did not report deaths from cardiovascular disease, although the overall risk of death from all causes did not change significantly.
The study of more than 2,000 heart patients, who were followed for three years, was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, where the results were presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Barcelona.
Expert opinions
The study is the culmination of 15 years of work by researchers led by Dr. Valentin Foster, director of the Mount Sinai Heart Center at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, and director general of the National Center for Cardiovascular Research in Spain.
“It’s easier to take one pill versus several, and it’s easier to take it once a day than it is several times a day,” says Dr. Thomas Wang, chief of internal medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, who was not involved in the research, but wrote an editorial accompanying the study. ».
The availability of the Polypill also appears to prompt doctors to write prescriptions more in line with practice guidelines, Dr. Wang added, “Under normal circumstances, doctors often prescribe drugs that should be given too little.”
Polypill combines a blood pressure medication, a cholesterol-lowering drug, and aspirin, which helps prevent blood clots.
The idea was first floated two decades ago in a more radical form, and advocates of this approach have suggested giving the daily multi-pill to everyone once they reach 55, saying it would reduce cardiovascular events globally by 80%.