Can Miracle Drug Stop Stroke, Heart Disease?
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Heart disease and stroke are the biggest killers in America today. Could one pill a day change all of that? Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta has the facts on the polypill.</s>SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On average most people in their 60s and 70s take five to seven pills every day. They take them to lower cholesterol, improve blood pressure, and generally promote good health. (on camera): But what if there was just one pill, a polypill? Instead of waiting until you got sick to start taking it, you took it every day starting at age 55 as a preventative? Even if you were completely healthy.</s>DR. NICHOLAS WALD, WOLFSON INST. OF PREVENTIVE MEDICINE: In people who start taking the polypill at age 55, about one third would expect to benefit, and each of those individuals would, on average, gain about 12 years of extra life. Now, that is enormous.</s>GUPTA (voice-over): Researchers say that it can reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke, the biggest killers of men and women, by 80 percent or more. The pill would contain cholesterol-lowering statins, blood pressure drugs, folic acid and aspirin. The ingredients would work together to combat the four major markers of heart disease, including cholesterol and hypertension. Sound too good to be true? Well, the American Heart Association says that in theory the polypill should work, but probably only for some people, the high-risk ones.</s>DR. RICHARD STEIN, AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION: I think it would work in terms of providing some core medications that would clearly lower risk of second heart events in people who have had heart disease or stroke, and for selected patients who have elevated risk factors for heart disease. The combination is logical.</s>GUPTA: A logical combination that might have risks in an estimated 8 to 12 percent of people, such as risks to the liver, stomach irritation, or just general fatigue. And the polypill is likely years away. Pharmacologists need to develop it, and researchers need to make sure it's safe. But it may prove the old adage true, an ounce of prevention really is worth a pound of cure. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.