by Rose Broyles

In this economy, cheap is better. When it comes to prescriptions, cheap quality medicine is the answer. An experimental polypill, that is “THE “heart pill containing 5 separate medicines in one easy to swallow pill is making headlines. This pill combines aspirin, cholesterol medicine, and blood pressure drugs. Critics have suggested that combining the drugs may give more side effects to those taking it. That makes sense, but apparently they are wrong.

Study Shows promise

A major study conducted by  Dr. Salim Yusuf of Mc Master University in Ontario and Dr. Prem Pais of St. John’s Medical College in Bangalore found that the drug is as effective as all of the medicines taken alone and with few side effects. The study involved about 2000 people across India around their mid-50s.  Each of these candidates had one risk factor for heart disease. 400 people were placed on the combo pill with others split into smaller groups taking the individual versions of these pills. (1 blood pressure pill, 1 diabetes pill, etc). This lasted for a couple of months.

Results showed the cholesterol levels had dropped significantly for the group taking the polypill compared to the other groups that were taking individual pills missing some of the components. Researchers were surprised to find that the side effects were relatively few considering the amount of drugs ingested.  Overall the study revealed that the risk of heart disease was cut by around 60% and the risk of stroke close to 50%.

Putting Polypill to the Test

The drug is still not FDA approved  and some think that it might be complicated.  Some doctors  in the U.S. are cautioning people from getting too excited over the pill. Former American Heart Association president, Dr. Raymond Gibbons cautioned that healthy diets and exercise give better protection than pills. Also it’s hard to determine who needs the pill and who doesn’t. People who already have heart disease may not benefit for the modest amounts of medicine in this pill, while others may have too much.

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