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Fountain of Youth?

Aired June 26, 2003 - 13:12   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Could popping a single pill be the ticket to the fountain of youth? That may be an overstatement. But British researchers are saying they're promoting this pill that can dramatically reduce the risk of heart attacks and lower cholesterol.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta with more on this possible miracle medicine.

OK, Ponce de Leon, we want to believe in that.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, the Fountain of Youth.

PHILLIPS: What's the deal with the pill?

GUPTA: I'll tell you, this is sort of an interesting concept. And first of all, it's purely theoretical. It doesn't exist. I think that's important to point out. We're talking about a prevention pill. This isn't to treat illnesses. People usually think of medications to treat things. This would be to try to prevent thinks. And what they're proposing, something pretty radical, a pill for everybody when they turn 55, not because you're sick, but because you want to stay healthy. It's called the polypill.

The premise is this, that heart disease and stroke lead to so many deaths in both men and women, more deaths from heart disease and stroke than all the other things combined -- cancer, trauma -- all the other things combined.

So if you can somehow control that with the pill, you might be able to somehow also decrease the risks of these deaths.

Take look at what this pill is actually made of. This pill is actually made of several different substances, six to be clear, a cholesterol-lowering medication, a blood pressure medication, as well. Three of them, actually, at half dose, folic acid and aspirin. They've studied this. They've studied in several trials around the world, 750. They've looked at 400,000 patients. Not the actual pill itself, because it doesn't exist, but a combination of these ingredients.

This is what they found, a significant decrease in heart disease, a significant decrease, over 80 percent, as well as stroke, a decrease of 80 percent as well.

The authors of the paper, obviously talking a lot about this. What they believe, and they have this quote -- we actually talked to them yesterday. They had this quote about the actual pill. They think that one-third of the people taking this pill from age 55 would benefit, and get this, gaining on average 11 years of life, free from an ischemic event to a stroke. That's a very significant thing.

Here, again, Kyra, this study, done in Britain. We wanted to get the American Heart Association to weigh-in on this as well. We talked to them. This is what they had to say:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. RICHARD STEIN, AMERICAN HEART ASSN.: 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: And it does seem logical, but there are side effects. That's what everyone asks, first of all, given a cholesterol-lowering medication, a blood pressure medication, Aspirin, to people who aren't sick and who don't necessarily need these medications could have some side effect. They want to lower the risk factor for heart disease. Take a look at what they are one final time, lowering the bad cholesterol, that's the LDL, reducing blood pressure, reducing serum homocystine. You don't remember that name, but that's another risk factor for heart disease and reducing platelet function. This pill's supposed to do all that stuff, possibly decreasing the risk of heart disease by 80 percent, again, in healthy people.

PHILLIPS: Obviously, not working for everybody.

GUPTA: Well, you know, that's sort of the tradeoff here, because the British journalists think -- maybe the British researchers, I should say, think that maybe this would be something for everybody. You turn 55, you start taking this pill once a day. But the American Heart Association sort of says more what you're saying, let's focus on the high-risk people, people who have had a history of heart disease, had a history of stroke, even had these themselves in the past should maybe try this pill, but they're not thinking it's ready for primetime, ready for everybody quite yet.

PHILLIPS: When could it be available?

GUPTA: It's probably still years away. The pharmacologists say it would probably be pretty easy to put all these ingredients together, but then you have to make sure it's safe. And that could sometimes take a few years before it's available in this country.

PHILLIPS: Dr. Gupta, thank you.

GUPTA: Good to see you.

PHILLIPS: All right, good to see you, too.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





Aired June 26, 2003 - 13:12   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Could popping a single pill be the ticket to the fountain of youth? That may be an overstatement. But British researchers are saying they're promoting this pill that can dramatically reduce the risk of heart attacks and lower cholesterol.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta with more on this possible miracle medicine.

OK, Ponce de Leon, we want to believe in that.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, the Fountain of Youth.

PHILLIPS: What's the deal with the pill?

GUPTA: I'll tell you, this is sort of an interesting concept. And first of all, it's purely theoretical. It doesn't exist. I think that's important to point out. We're talking about a prevention pill. This isn't to treat illnesses. People usually think of medications to treat things. This would be to try to prevent thinks. And what they're proposing, something pretty radical, a pill for everybody when they turn 55, not because you're sick, but because you want to stay healthy. It's called the polypill.

The premise is this, that heart disease and stroke lead to so many deaths in both men and women, more deaths from heart disease and stroke than all the other things combined -- cancer, trauma -- all the other things combined.

So if you can somehow control that with the pill, you might be able to somehow also decrease the risks of these deaths.

Take look at what this pill is actually made of. This pill is actually made of several different substances, six to be clear, a cholesterol-lowering medication, a blood pressure medication, as well. Three of them, actually, at half dose, folic acid and aspirin. They've studied this. They've studied in several trials around the world, 750. They've looked at 400,000 patients. Not the actual pill itself, because it doesn't exist, but a combination of these ingredients.

This is what they found, a significant decrease in heart disease, a significant decrease, over 80 percent, as well as stroke, a decrease of 80 percent as well.

The authors of the paper, obviously talking a lot about this. What they believe, and they have this quote -- we actually talked to them yesterday. They had this quote about the actual pill. They think that one-third of the people taking this pill from age 55 would benefit, and get this, gaining on average 11 years of life, free from an ischemic event to a stroke. That's a very significant thing.

Here, again, Kyra, this study, done in Britain. We wanted to get the American Heart Association to weigh-in on this as well. We talked to them. This is what they had to say:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. RICHARD STEIN, AMERICAN HEART ASSN.: 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: And it does seem logical, but there are side effects. That's what everyone asks, first of all, given a cholesterol-lowering medication, a blood pressure medication, Aspirin, to people who aren't sick and who don't necessarily need these medications could have some side effect. They want to lower the risk factor for heart disease. Take a look at what they are one final time, lowering the bad cholesterol, that's the LDL, reducing blood pressure, reducing serum homocystine. You don't remember that name, but that's another risk factor for heart disease and reducing platelet function. This pill's supposed to do all that stuff, possibly decreasing the risk of heart disease by 80 percent, again, in healthy people.

PHILLIPS: Obviously, not working for everybody.

GUPTA: Well, you know, that's sort of the tradeoff here, because the British journalists think -- maybe the British researchers, I should say, think that maybe this would be something for everybody. You turn 55, you start taking this pill once a day. But the American Heart Association sort of says more what you're saying, let's focus on the high-risk people, people who have had a history of heart disease, had a history of stroke, even had these themselves in the past should maybe try this pill, but they're not thinking it's ready for primetime, ready for everybody quite yet.

PHILLIPS: When could it be available?

GUPTA: It's probably still years away. The pharmacologists say it would probably be pretty easy to put all these ingredients together, but then you have to make sure it's safe. And that could sometimes take a few years before it's available in this country.

PHILLIPS: Dr. Gupta, thank you.

GUPTA: Good to see you.

PHILLIPS: All right, good to see you, too.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com