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!

And The Fire-Fighting Continues ...

Statins are considered a wonder-drug in the fight against high cholesterol. New research suggests they halve the risk of heart attack.

There are other possible benefits like protecting the kidneys, reducing dementia risk and improving bone conditions like arthritis and osteoporosis.

Pretty impressive stuff.

Of course we don't know much about the effect of taking statins for decades ... but they work and save lives. Enough said.

The numbers are considered high if total cholesterol is 240mg/dL (6.22mmol/L) or above, or "bad" LDL cholesterol is 130mg/dL (3.68mmol/L) or above.

Of course, before statins are prescribed, other risk factors are also taken into account. Family history, age, smoking, diabetes, stress ... the usual suspects.

If you are considered high risk for heart attack or stroke, it's a safe bet you'll be prescribed statins even if you haven't yet shown obvious signs of either disease. This is termed "primary prevention".

Once you actually have cardio-vascular disease the drug is prescribed as "secondary prevention".

Once you start on statins, you'll likely need to stay on them indefinitely. Stopping the protocol means cholesterol levels go right back up. So there's no going back! Ouch!

Now it has been proposed that the threshold for primary prevention be lowered so that more people become dependant for life. Of course I should muzzle my cynicism ... because lives will be saved.

In fact, it's estimated that one-in-four Britons over the age of forty will be statin-dependant within 5 years! And presumably less people will die of heart attack and stroke.

I'm sorry, I find the prospect of that statistic jarring! One in Four, over 40!

So statin prescriptions will increase at a rate of about 30% a year. An industry will boom, but lives will be saved.

And "healthy" people will be turned into dependant patients.

What if ... and I hesitate to even suggest it ... what if people were encouraged to stop smoking, stop drinking, manage their stress, change their eating habits and get more active?

Nah ... that will never happen. Keep going lads ... the doc's got you covered! This one's on the tax payer.