Polypill – Research in a London Pub
18 Jun 2006
Why would I become depressed in a English pub? It happened during a recent trip to London to interview prominent researchers. Later I stole away to the English countryside and the relaxing atmosphere of quaint pubs. The last thing I wanted to do while enjoying the local ambience was to think about the dilemmas of medicine. But there in the newspaper was a large headline I couldn’t miss, "Polypill aims to cut heart disease by 80 percent". So I had to read on.
As people age they often take more pills, many of them to prevent heart disease. Now British researchers claim they have a way to solve swallowing one pill after another, the "Polypill".
Polypill strategy is the brainchild of Professor Nicholas Wald and Professor Malcolm Law of the University of London. They’re working on a new pill that has six components, Aspirin, a cholesterol-lowering drug, three blood pressure medications and folic acid, all in one tablet.
Wald and Law claim that the Polypill should be taken by everyone over 55 and by younger people if they have a history of cardiovascular disease.
They also remind us that half of all people will develop heart disease if they live long enough. All the more reason for the Polypill.
The new pill strategy is based on evidence from 750 clinical trials that the pill’s individual components can cut the risk of heart disease. Aspirin prevents blood clots, cholesterol-lowering drugs and folic acid decrease the risk of atherosclerosis. And blood pressure pills ease the strain on arteries. It follows that putting them all together would have the same effect as taken individually. Sir Charles George, medical director of the British Heart Foundation, described the Polypill as an enticing idea that should be explored.
Dr. Richard Smith, editor of the British Medical Journal, explained at a press conference that 16.6 million fatalities, or one-third of global deaths in 2001, were due to cardiovascular disease. And that evidence suggests that this idea would work..
He makes another point. In these days when drugs cost an arm and a leg, the Polypill’s components are, or are about to be, off patent, so it could be an extremely cheap and simple pill. And he ends by saying this proposal is a "step of genius."
At this point I’ve finished my pint of beer and feel somewhat salubrious. But I’m beginning to kick myself wondering why the devil I didn’t think of this idea.
After all, I’ve been taking Bayer Aspirin for years to oil my blood and also folic acid that lowers homocysteine to fight atherosclerosis. The other components are readily available. All I’d have to do was to mix them together and eureka!, the Polypill.
Damn it, I could have been a genius. By now I’m so upset at my own stupidity, I order another pint and wish I’d never picked up that damn newspaper.
Back in London, in another pub, I keep remembering Dr. Law’s remark that "Probably no other preventive method or treatment would have as great an impact on preventing heart disease in the western world as the Polypill".
Maybe Law is right. But there’s also another way. Fortunately, in this London pub I was sitting close to an open window. But deep in the depths of the pub you could cut the tobacco smoke with a knife. Very few Englishmen seem to have heard the message that smoking kills. Even when the research that smoking decreases life expectancy by 20 years comes from their own Oxford University!
Then looking at fellow drinkers another problem became crystal clear, the massive amount of obesity with all the related medical problems it causes. It’s the same self-defeating lifestyle that afflicts 50 per cent of the population on this side of the Atlantic.
So in retrospect, my Polypill would contain several brain clearing drugs. Ones that would stress the cardiovascular benefits of pills such as Bayer Aspirin and folic acid. But also ingredients to eliminate the frailties of smoking, excessive calories, driving the car to the corner store and, of course, too many pints in the English pub. I plan on returning to the pub for more research!
