Exercise reduces the risk of falls in women with polypharmacy: secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-88205-y
And a pop sci write up:
Quote:
"The lowest risk of fall was among women with polypharmacy who participated in the exercise intervention.
Their risk was 29% lower than that of the control group using zero to one medications and not participating in the intervention."
Quote:
“Previous studies have associated polypharmacy with an increased the risk of fall; however, in this study, polypharmacy did not affect the number of falls in the control group. Furthermore, no association was observed between the number of medications used and the number of fractures.”
OK, polypharmacy in an of itself is not a positive insofar as it’s a marker for morbidity. It stands to reason that generally older people who are on multiple medications tend to be sicker with many diseases than those who don’t need medications. I would expect poorer outcomes and longevity/healthspan for those.
That’s obviously rather different if we are talking about reasoned polypharmacy for longevity purposes. But even in those who take multiple medications for prevention of disease (say lipid and glucose control), who have elevated lipids and BG do better on drugs than matched cohort who don’t use the medications because their lipids and blood glucose don’t rise to the level where drug treatment is commonly recommended. According to Brian Kennedy’s research, the ones on polypharmacy do better on healthspan/longevity than their healthy peers who don’t use those drugs.
Obviously the devil is in the details.
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