{"id":1466,"date":"2009-06-24T20:01:57","date_gmt":"2009-06-24T19:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/wordpress\/?p=1466"},"modified":"2011-05-26T11:47:44","modified_gmt":"2011-05-26T10:47:44","slug":"the-pill-pilot-trial-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/?p=1466","title":{"rendered":"The PILL pilot trial (5)"},"content":{"rendered":"

For 12 weeks now, I’ve been taking a “polypill” each day as part of an international pilot trial<\/a> for the treatment of people at raised risk of cardiovascular disease such as as heart attack or stroke. So this morning, I made my fifth and final visit to the International Centre for Circulatory Health<\/a> at St Mary’s Hospital at Paddington in London.<\/p>\n

For the last time, I had my blood pressure taken three times, a blood sample was taken, and I was weighed. Throughout the trial, I have not felt different at all. This either means that I have not experienced any side effects from the “polypill” or that I have been not taking the pill at all but a placebo. I won’t know till the results of the trial are published in Spring 2010.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, I’m currently reading “Bad Science”<\/a> by Ben Goldacre. He explains how the trials of medicines and treatments are conducted and the pilot trial in which I have participated has followed all the key principles, such as equal numbers of people being allocated on a random basis to take the pill or a placebo and ‘double-blinding’ where neither the person conducting the trial nor the person who is the subject of the trial knows whether the subject is taking the pill or the placebo.<\/p>\n

All medicines approved for use in this country have to undergo such rigorous testing and yet so-called alternative and complementary medicines can be sold with amazing claims without any scientific testing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"