Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Wonder drug to save 10,000 extra lives.
After wasting our lives away sitting on our fat behinds, in smoke filled bar rooms, drinking ale and spirits, before marching home with a pizza, curry, or kebab for company, the despondent and negative might feel that bad news follows more bad news as they contemplate a pint without a fag! However, good news has arrived today in the form of a recommendation from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), the body which advises the National Health Service on the best treatments and sets the directions for future clinical trends.
How often has your GP told you that your blood pressure is too high, your cholesterol is too high, you drink too much, smoke too much, and you weigh too much? That's right...... you are a Wayne or a Waynetta!!
Disconsolate at the news that you are a full-fat, lazy, alcoholic, nicotine addicted, blubbering wreck of a being, you head for the nearest gym where some physical adonis offers to show you round and the receptionist beams an inviting smile as she tells you the latest going rate for an annual subscription. You've probably had enough of the shock therapy by now, so you head off to find your favourite stool at your favourite watering hole where you wonder whether or not to have salad with the kebab.
This is the life that so many of you knew so well, you wore it like a glove, or a comfortable pair of old slippers. Until the hospital appointment with the cardiologist arrived on your doormat, you quite naturally assured yourselves "that it will never happen to me."
Cardio vascular disease killed 238,000 people in this country in 2002, 79,000 of these people died prematurely, some were outlived by their parents. It's worth thinking about, even just for these few minutes.
So now, the good news, at last. A small family of drugs called statins have proved to be very effective in reducing and controlling cholesterol, lipids, and tri-glycerines, so much so that NICE is now recommending that GPs prescribe them free to all those considered as having a 20% chance of a heart attack in the next ten years. This action could save an additional 10,000 lives a year over and above the 7,000 which statins are thought to have saved in recent years.
Taken daily, these tablets will help you change your lifestyle, and will likely prevent a first life threatening heart attack or stroke. Although the initial costs of this recommendation may be around 82 million pounds, the final cost is estimated to be around 9 million pounds when the savings on future heart treatment is taken into account.
Perhaps this is also an indication of how far this government is prepared to go in order to prevent heart disease, with a view to treating fewer cases. Taken in unison with the proposed smoking ban, and threats to "not treat" overweight patients, this move if fully backed by GPs will see the NHS freeing up beds in intensive care units in years to come. It will also see a few more pensioners (happily).
So what are you waiting for? Stub out that cigarette, take a two mile walk to your doctor, get some statins and CHEW A CARROT!
Link
The Times Online
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