Polypharmacy, often described as taking five or more medications, is a one of the major issues and cause of complications in senior citizens. It can be commonly viewed that the amount of necessary medications one takes as a indicator of the quality of health of said individual.

Published in October of 2021 in American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine by Loma Linda University, researchers conducted a study of 328 participants of 60 years old or greater. Researchers compared non-vegetarian diets (diets that contained meat), lacto-ovo vegetarians, pesco-vegetarians, and vegans. Non-vegetarians made up of the bulk of the participants at 57% while the amount of vegans were 10.8%.

They found that a vegan diet reduced the number of pills a person took by a whopping 58% compared to those who ate meat. Interestingly, the authors found that those who were on a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet were on similar number of pills as non-vegetarians.

Other factors that increased the pill-burden of participants included increasing age, increased BMI, and presence of medical conditions.

The problem of polypharmacy, especially in the elderly, lead to increased healthcare spending and debility. The study supports a further push for a healthy plant-based, vegan diet while eliminating harmful food ingredients of meat, dairy, and eggs.

H Dos Santos et al. The polypharma study: association between diet and amount of prescription drugs among seniors. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/15598276211048812