polypill

[Philip Blair]

FYI, don’t be mislead by the coverage or the science

Edited letter: Recently, an international group of researchers have published
the results from a five-year long polypill trial in Lancet. In addition to a
statin drug (atorvastatin) the polypill included aspirin and two
antihypertensive drugs (hydrochlorothiazide and either enalapril
or valsartan). According to the authors, using polypill was
effective in preventing major cardiovascular events. Medication
adherence was high, and rates of adverse events were low.
The trial and its results have been reported uncritically in the
media all over the world, None of them have mentioned anything about the serious
errors in the way the trial has been performed and presented.
In this experiment fewer died from cardiovascular
diseases in the polypill group, but more died from other causes. As the treatment
group included 3421 participants, it means that to save one life,
you have to treat 171 people with a polypill for five years.
Considering that more than 20% of statin-treated
”patients” suffer from serious side effects, and
that the other drugs included in the polypill have many side
effects as well, it is highly unlikely that “rates of
adverse events were low” and similar to the number among
the untreated control individuals.

Sun Sep 1, 2019 2:17 am (PDT) . Posted by:
"Uffe Ravnskov" ufferavnskov2000