Heart Disease Meds: Cheaper May Be Better
One of the oldest and least expensive heart medications may help reduce the likelihood of hospitalization and not increase the mortality rate for diastolic heart failure, according to a new study published in Circulation, a medical journal published by the American Heart Association.
Maybe the title of this report should be: "Ask Your Doctor about Digitalis - saving yourself money and reducing big pharma's profits could be beneficial for all."
Two Types of Heart Failure:
It is important to point out the two different types of heart failure - as they have only recently been distinguished as separate types. Systolic heart failure is when the heart is not strong enough to pump blood through the body. Diastolic heart failure is caused by the heart not fully relaxing - which limits the amount of blood accepted into the heart. It is estimated that approximately half of the United State's heart failure patients suffer from each of the two types. The study's findings apply to all diastolic heart failure patients and to systolic patients given other drug therapies.
Who Paid for the Study? Can We Believe it?
The study was lead by Dr. Ali Ahmed, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. It was conducted over a three-year period and examined data from 988 patients. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute funded the study in cooperation with the Department of Veterans Affairs' Cooperative Studies Program.
Half of the patients in the study were treated with Digitalis, a drug that has been on the market for years and is currently one of the least expensive drugs available, while half were given a placebo. Ahmed said the study illustrated that Digitalis proved to effectively reduce heart failure hospitalizations for patients with diastolic heart failure and for patients with systolic heart failure that received other simultaneous therapies - namely ACE inhibitors and diuretics.
Ahmed reported that heat failure is the leading cause for hospitalization for patients over the age of 65.
Conclusions - What to Do?
Aside from the normal "Ask your doctor" type of disclaimers, there is little you can do. Do talk to your doctor about this report and question if the older and cheaper medication would be beneficial to you. Don't expect any television commercials about the findings on saving you money and, as always, keep your heart health at the front of your agenda.
For more information, visit Circulation's website at http://circ.ahajournals.org/ http://circ.ahajournals.org/
