New Wonder Drug A Panacaea For The Middle-Aged?

If it wasn't so sad I would almost be laughing.

The concept of a "polypill", effectively a magic bullet to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke, is not new. In fact the idea of a miracle pill was first bandied around in the news as early as 2003. Now fresh talk has been triggered by the results of a major trial in India which reveals that for a mere 50p a day, hundreds of thousands of lives could be saved.

What had me shaking my head this morning was the lead-in by one news caster talking of "a new pill (which) could cut heart attacks and strokes in half in healthy people". Sorry ... in healthy people! If people are healthy, why on earth would they need to take a pill with aspirin, a statin (to reduce high cholesterol), three different blood pressure drugs and folic acid thrown in for good measure. It must be cheaper to treat people for diseases they don't even have because they're bound to get them anyway!

Sounds like an excellent way to change a healthy person into a patient!

In fact, this report pretty much exemplifies just how broken the health (and minds) of "developed" nations has become. In my humble opinion, "good health" should not mean an "absence of disease". It should mean "brimming with vitality, mental clarity and positive energy".

Health and Wellness Centres should be places where people can go to exercise and consume organic, whole natural foods ... instead of doctor's offices where tired people go to top-up medical prescriptions and find remedies for their constipation.

The idea of this miracle pill "for everyone over 55" was mooted 5 years ago. Does nobody see the correlation between this paradym for "health" and an increasing burden on the NHS?

Perhaps the most ironic twist to this whole story is that the magic pill will only cost 50p per head to manufacture ... and that's precisely why drug companies aren't tripping over themselves to get on the bandwagon. It's cheap and effective! Or so we're told. Not even any notable side effects. How about that?

A band aid that will delay the inevitable. If people don't stop living the way they do, the next step will be to make it mandatory for all adults to pop stroke prophylactics!

We are losing the plot!