THE LATEST “POLYPILL” EPISODE IS WAY OVER THE TOP – SIMPLY WACKO

[Guest guest]

http://www.redflagsweekly.com/editorial/2003_nov19.html

 

 

MAINSTREAM MEDICINE IS GETTING VERY WEIRD. THE LATEST “POLYPILL” EPISODE IS WAY

OVER THE TOP – SIMPLY WACKO

 

By RFD Editor, Nicholas Regush

 

I blame it all on the British Medical Journal. It referred to a proposed

treatment known as the “polypill” as “a step of genius.” No, it isn't.

 

What is the “polypill?” It’s a pill that “could prevent 80% of heart attacks to

all over-55s.” That’s what the headline stated today in the Independent, a U.K.

newspaper.

 

It’s the brainchild of two researchers who think that a combination of six meds

taken once a day would greatly reduce heart disease and strokes.

 

This is madness, of course. One wonders how anyone who has given the complexity

and potential dangers (think of side-effects) of polypharmacy any degree of

thought would come up with something so inane as a one-pill-cure-all. Forget for

the moment any discussion of all the controversies surrounding the various risk

factors associated with heart disease. Let’s just stick to the idea of having

all these pills working together in some synergistic way to wipe out disease. Is

there any real evidence gathered that this would work? Absolutely not. It is

something that a person doing morning ablutions might think up out of boredom.

The BMJ should have held its histrionics at least until the toilet paper

flushed.

 

The first phase of this campaign (which is a big kick in the eye for medicine)

was to get a journal (the BMJ) to actually publish the idea. Bravo BMJ. This

immediately raised the question of whether the editor of the journal, the

extremely enthusiastic Richard Smith, should remain in charge. He thought the

idea was “perhaps the most important” the journal had published in 50 years.

Dear me.

 

Now, it seems the two researchers, Nick Wald and Malcolm Law, have taken their

case to the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Products Agency in the U.K. to

look into possible licensing dynamics. This is obviously still at the talking

stage. Some of the simplistic maunderings about the polypill no doubt will need

to be spelled out more cleanly.

 

We learn from The Independent that it appears that the regulators might insist

on a large trial. This presumably would compare the polypill (a thiazide

diuretic, beta blocker, Ace inhibitor, aspirin, statin and folic acid all

wrapped into one) with its individual constituents. I personally would love to

see the proposed methodology for this enterprise. But then again, these days

what passes for medical science truly amazes. Just read the medical journals,

including the BMJ.

 

Wald says he’s talking to commercial groups about making this devastating

concoction. How very appropriate.

 

***

 

You might wish to read a COMMENTARY by Dr. Peter H. Langsjoen on the polypill.

He wrote this for RFD soon after the grand idea of the polypill was unhatched.

 

Here is the article in THE INDEPENDENT.

 

The Original POLYPILL PROPOSAL

 

BMJ Editor, Richard Smith’s COMMENTARY ON THE POLYPILL

 

 

 

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