ISLAMABAD ( Web News )
Prof. Reza proposed a fixed-dose combination therapy – polypill strategy – as an approach to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease, especially in low-income and middle-income countries. It is a low cost early and sustainable intervention needed to prevent cardiovascular disease burden, he said while addressing COMSTECH webinar on “Polypill and life style of primary prevention of cardiovascular disease” online. Prof. Dr. Reza Malekzadeh is a Professor of medicine, Director digestive disease research institute, Tehran university of medical sciences, Iran.
He said cardiovascular diseases are major causes of mortality worldwide. Over 60% of the global burden of coronary heart diseases is in low and middle income countries. He said that people from disadvantaged background are at greater risk of heart attack and stroke than people with more affluent backgrounds.
Prof. Reza suggested to change your lifestyle by stopping smoking, increasing physical activity, decreasing weight and eating healthier foods to prevent cardiovascular disease.
He said that high blood pressure, dietary habits, high LDL cholesterol, high body mass index, tobacco, high fasting glucose, kidney dysfunction, alcohol, low physical activity, air pollution, non-optimal temperature and other environmental risks are the risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
To give the remedy he suggested to the governments of low and middle income countries, to screen everyone at age 35-40 for risk factors at fixed intervals, treat risk factors when incidentally found and check everyone for risk factors at regular intervals. He said that stratify the population by age, clinical cardiovascular disease risk score, heart calcium risk score and provide intervention accordingly.
He said a fixed-dose combination therapy—the so-called polypill—was proposed more than 15 years ago as an acceptable and cost-saving approach to reduce cardiovascular disease risk. Since then, different formulations of polypill have been used in several studies worldwide, he mentioned.