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May 26, 2005 — Rising use and abuse of the impotence drug Viagra among men who have sex with men may dramatically increase their risk of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV infection.

A new study shows that men who have sex with men and who use Viagra engage in unprotected sex up to six times more often than nonusers of the drug.

In addition, researchers found that Viagra is increasingly being used as a recreational drug and mixed with drugs such as methamphetamine.

Viagra is approved as a prescription drug to treat erectile dysfunction, but researchers say most of the men studied had no medical need for Viagra and obtained the drug without a doctor’s prescription from a friend or off the Internet.

Viagra Abuse Raises Risks

In the study, which appears in the current issue of the American Journal of Medicine, researchers analyzed 14 recent studies of Viagra among men who have sex with men.

Overall, the studies showed that more than 10% of men who have sex with men use Viagra. More than 40% of HIV-positive men reported using the drug.

Compared with nonusers of the drug, researchers show men who have sex with men and who use Viagra are from two to nearly six times more likely to have unprotected anal sex with a male partner of unknown HIV status.

Other findings include:

• HIV-positive men were nearly twice as likely to be diagnosed with another sexually transmitted disease if they used Viagra compared with nonusers.
• Men recently diagnosed with HIV were 2.5 times more likely to use Viagra than other men who have sex with men.
• 54% of users mixed Viagra with other drugs to enhance the sexual experience, such as methamphetamines, ecstasy, and ketamine.

New Warnings Needed for Viagra?

Based on these results, researchers say the labeling for Viagra and other recently approved drugs in its class, including Cialis and Levitra, should be changed to warn users of an increased risk of STDs, including HIV infection.

Although Viagra itself does not cause these infections, researchers say the increased duration of erection, increased blood flow to the penis, and subsequent sexual activity may increase the risk of acquiring these infections from an infected partner.

In an editorial that accompanies the study, Joseph Alpert, MD, of the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center in Tucson, says abuse and recreational use of Viagra and other similar erectile dysfunction drugs could become a major public health problem in the U.S.

He says more research is needed to determine if the risk of STDs and unsafe sex is higher in heterosexual men who use Viagra. Read the rest of this entry »

March 24, 2005 — Web sites touting herbal “Viagra” for erectile
dysfunction draw criticism in a new British study.

It’s easy and confidential to find such sites, say the researchers. But
“patients should be cautious as safety and
reliability of this approach is poor,” they write.

They’re particularly concerned that some sites may not provide all the facts
about the products or warn patients to get their heart checked out.

Erectile
dysfunction (ED) may be a sign of heart disease or blood vessel
problems.
These conditions could go undetected and untreated in
patients using herbal treatments, say the researchers. Without knowing the
ingredients or side effects of such treatments, patients could unwittingly put
their health at risk.

ED Affects Millions of Men

Erectile dysfunction (ED) affects nearly 30 million men in the U.S., say the
researchers. ED may stem from physical or psychological issues or a combination
of both factors. It doesn’t mean that men lack desire or sexual interest, and
it’s not a normal, occasional problem. Instead, ED is a man’s consistent
inability to maintain an erection to have satisfactory sex.

The risk of erectile dysfunction increases with age:

• About 40% of men in their 40s report at least occasional problems getting
  and maintaining erections.
• 52% of men between ages 40 and 70 report erection problems.
• About 70% of men in their 70s report erection problems.

Doctors can prescribe treatments to help, but many men don’t discuss ED with
their doctors. “It is estimated that close to 90% of ED sufferers are still
reluctant to visit their family doctors because of embarrassment,” says the
study.

With Internet access common, some men may go online to look for solutions.
But they may not always get what they bargained for, the study suggests.

Looking at 33 web sites selling herbal substitutes for Viagra, the
researchers spotted red flags including:

• No information from medically trained staff (79% of the sites)
• No statement that the site’s information doesn’t replace medical advice
  (76% of the sites)
• No warning about ED-associated heart disease (None of the sites posted this
  warning.)
• No information about contraindications (64% of the sites)
• No information on side effects (79% of the sites)
• Lack of referenced information (82% of the sites)
• Lack of disclaimers (67% of the sites)
• No information about ingredients (30% of the sites)
• No information on effectiveness of the herbs (18% of the sites)

“All sites fell short of the Health on the Net requirements,” says
the study.

The Health on the Net (HON) Foundation is a medical and health web site
accreditation organization supported by the World Health Organization. HON
provides standards that it recommends health information web sites adhere
to.

What’s in the Bottle?

Herbal treatments aren’t regulated by the government. The most common
ingredients cited in the study were yohimbe,ginseng, and ginkgo
biloba.

Yohimbe can cause headaches, sweating, and high blood pressure, making it
inappropriate for patients with heart and neurological disease, say the
researchers. Reports of diarrhea, vomiting, headaches, and allergic skin
reactions have been linked to gingko biloba, they say.

That’s not to say that those herbs might not have an effect on ED. But the
pros and cons of any treatment — herbal or not — should be made clear, the
study suggests.

Health experts recommend that patients tell their doctors about any
supplements they take (including herbal products and vitamins). That could help
avoid interactions between treatments.

Herbal or Not?

Two years ago, the FDA cracked down on a supposedly all-natural herbal
treatment marketed to men and women to enhance sexual experience. The FDA
learned that the product, called Vinarol,Vinarol, actually contained Viagra’s active
ingredient, says the study.

“It is unknown how many other treatments for ED marketed as
“herbal” supplements actually contain active and potentially dangerous
compounds,” write the researchers, who included Ramesh Thurairaja of the
urology department at England’s Bristol Royal Infirmary.

The study appears in the March/April issue of the International Journal
of Impotence Research. Read the rest of this entry »

March 9, 2004 — Men with mild to moderate forms of heart
failure may be able to safely use the drug Viagra to treat erectile
dysfunction, a new study shows.

Researchers found selected men with heart failure were able to
use the drug without dangerous side effects if they were not taking nitrates
(drugs commonly used to treat heart failure) and had no evidence of a lack of
blood flow and oxygen to the heart muscle — commonly caused by narrowed heart
arteries.

Previous reports have shown that Viagra could trigger
potentially dangerous drops in blood pressure in these men. But this study
showed that although the drug caused a slight reduction in blood pressure in
this group of 35 men, no one experienced a dangerous drop in blood pressure or
other significant side effects while taking Viagra.

However, Viagra can cause significant decreases in blood
pressure in people taking nitrates and should not be taken by this group.

According to researchers, erectile dysfunction affects more
than half of all men aged 40 to 70 and is common among men with heart failure,
both are conditions that are linked to vascular problems. Heart failure is a
condition in which the heart is unable to pump enough blood to meet the body’s
needs.

Despite the fact that ED is common among men with heart
failure, researchers say the effectiveness and safety of treatment of erectile
dysfunction has not been thoroughly studied.

Study Clears Some Viagra Fears

Researchers say initial reports of deaths associated with
Viagra use soon after the drug was released have caused physicians to hesitate
before prescribing the drug to patients with significant heart disease.

However, it is now known that the drug does not increase
heart-related deaths, say researcher Linda J. Webster, MScN, of the University
of Alberta, and colleagues.

In this study, researchers looked at the effects of treating ED
with Viagra in a carefully selected group of 35 men with mild to moderate heart
failure who did not use nitates. The men were randomly divided into two groups:
one took Viagra for six weeks and then switched to a placebo for six weeks, and
the other took a placebo for six weeks and then took Viagra for another six
weeks.

The results appear in the March 8 issue of the Archives of
Internal Medicine.

The study showed that Viagra caused an average drop in blood
pressure of about 6 mm Hg — an insignificant drop that did not lead to
symptoms.

Researchers found Viagra improved ED and quality of life among
this group, and also appeared to reduce symptoms of depression.

“This study provides new evidence that it is safe and
effective to treat men with ED and moderate heart failure with sildenafil,”
they write. Read the rest of this entry »

Has the “free love” generation lost its mojo?

If you talk to baby boomer gals, it seems the answer is yes. Indeed, as
millions of women enter perimenopause and then
transgress to menopause and beyond,
many say they check their sex drive at the door and most are not happy about
it.

“I don’t think a day goes by when at least one patient and usually
more complain that their sex drive is dropping off and want to know what they
can do about it,” says Laura Corio, MD, a gynecologist and clinical
instructor at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York City.

Clinically known as HSDD (hypoactive sexual desire disorder) Corio says she
doesn’t think more women are affected now than in the past, but she does
believe more are coming forward — prompted, at least in part, by the success
male potency drugs like Viagra.

“The man gets a prescription for Viagra and he’s ready to rock and roll
while she’s thinking ‘Hey, where’s my pill?’ If she’s not ready to jump in the
old van and join him for a ride, there can be real problems,” says
Corio.

Discovering What’s Wrong

While male sex drive is easy to define — and relatively easy to restore –
that’s often not the case for women. Because the female sex drive is
multifactorial, the desire to make love is not only influenced by physical
issues, but emotional ones as well.

“Part of the desire to make love is clearly physical, but part is also
emotional depression can make a
difference, so can any emotional issue in a woman’s life; female sex drive is
very multidimensional,” says Glenn D. Braunstein, MD, an endocrinologist
and chair of the department of medicine at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los
Angeles.

While emotions are frequently behind a loss of sex drive in younger women,
doctors say it is frequently the agingprocess itself that’s at
when desire changes in women over age 45.

“The very fact that a woman is no longer ovulating regularly, or not
ovulating at all, automatically takes her sex drive down a few notches,”
says Steven Goldstein, MD, professor of ob-gyn and NYU Medical Center in New
York City.

Nature’s Design for Sex

Indeed, as many women are aware, Mother Nature built in a natural increase
in the desire for sex beginning just prior to ovulation, and lasting several
days afterwards — not coincidentally, the only time of the month conception is
possible.

Stop ovulating, says Goldstein, and you automatically lose that regularly
scheduled boost in your sex drive that has been present since puberty — and
you’re probably going to notice.

“There’s nothing wrong with you; it’s just the way nature works,”
says Goldstein.

Moreover, around menopause, when there
is also less estrogen circulating in your body, that too can bring your sex
drive down for the count.

“Estrogen is a mood elevator, it works in the brain to maintain interest
in sex, but it also works at the level of the genitals, helping to increase
sensation and just making sex more pleasurable,” says Corio.

Without it, she says, not only can desire take a dive, vaginal tissue begins
to dry and shrink. As a result, intercourse can become uncomfortable, or even
painful. Problems with desire, say experts, are easy to understand.

“Who wants to make love when making love hurts?” asks Goldstein.

Moreover, he says, avoiding sex because of pain only leads to more pain. The
old “use or lose it” theory really does apply.

“From a strictly physical standpoint, the less sex you have the more
painful it is when you try to have it,” he says. Read the rest of this entry »

The TV commercials make it all seem so simple: He can’t get an erection so
he pops a pill. The next thing you know, his partner is cooing about how her
guy is back to his old wild and romantic self.

What the commercials don’t show you: The painful distress a woman can
experience when her man suffers with erectile dysfunction (ED).

“Women internalize things — they tend to blame themselves first,
thinking it’s because they have done something wrong, or that they are no
longer attractive to their partner. In fact, the first thing a woman thinks
when a man can’t get an erection is that it’s her fault, and nothing could be
further from the truth,” says Andrew McCullough, MD, director of sexual
health and male infertility at NYU Medical Center in New York City.

ED, or erectile dysfunction, is medically defined as the inability to
achieve or sustain an erection long enough for sexual intercourse. Virtually
all men experience some erection failures at certain points in their lives. It
can be the result of stress, depression, or sometimes even for no reason at
all. For some, the problem becomes chronic. When it does, a diagnosis of ED is
made. According to the American Foundation for Urologic Disease, it’s a problem
that affects about 18 million men in the U.S. alone.

Although many women — and men as well — continue to view ED as a sexual
issue, in truth, the most common causes are undiagnosed physical conditions
such as diabetes, high cholesterol, or even the earliest stages of heart
disease. Even more often, it can be the result of certain medications used to
treat these conditions, particularly some high blood pressure drugs.

Unfortunately, experts say a lack of education about the causes of ED are
frequently behind a woman’s self-blame, as well as her increasing anxiety, and
sometimes, even feelings of hurt and anger when the problem occurs.

“Most women usually start with a line of questioning that often has some
anxiety or hurt to it. She may suspect her partner is having an affair, or that
he just doesn’t find her desirable anymore, so she begins to hint around at
these possibilities,” says Sallie Foley, MSW, a professor at the graduate
school of social work at the University of Michigan and co-author of Sex
Matters For Women.

Often, says Foley, a man suffering with ED will interpret her questions –
and her hurtful attitude — as an attack on him, so he pulls back.

“She then experiences this pulling back as a confirmation that she
has done something wrong, and so she retreats even further,” says
Foley. As she does, increasing levels of anxiety or depression can set in,
along with suspicions about what’s going on with him, as well as a continued
belief that there is something wrong with her.

The end result: The couple can stop communicating altogether — not only in
the bedroom, but in all aspects of their relationship. And that, say experts,
can only make problems worse for both partners.

“The one thing a woman should never do is withdraw because that is a
formula for relationship disaster,” says McCullough. When one partner pulls
away, he says, the other withdraws as well, and “this kind of dance goes on
where you stop touching each other, then you stop talking, and before you know
it you are not communicating at all.” Read the rest of this entry »

To treat erectile dysfunction (ED), you have to lower your blood pressure
first. Some people are able to do that through lifestyle changes alone. Others
need help from prescribed blood pressure medication.

A problem for many men, however, is that some types of blood pressure
medicines can actually cause erectile dysfunction. That may make it
difficult to stay on your medication, especially if your high blood pressure
never caused any symptoms before. An estimated 70% of men who have side effects
from blood pressure medicine stop taking it.

Many drugs used to treat high blood pressure have been linked to erectile
dysfunction. But some are much less likely than others to cause problems.
Certain of the blood pressures drugs may even improve erectile
dysfunction for some men.

It’s known that diuretics (or water pills, like hydrochlorothiazide) and
beta-blockers (like Atenolol) can cause erection problems. These are also the
first drugs that a doctor is likely to prescribe if you are not able to lower
your blood pressure through diet and exercise.

If you’re taking a diuretic, you should stay on your medicine until your
blood pressure is under control. If your erection problem persists, or your
blood pressure goes back up, then your doctor might switch you to a drug that’s
less likely to cause erectile dysfunction. Or, a combination of medications
might work better to control your blood pressure and reduce the risk of
erectile dysfunction.

If you take a beta blocker you may also want to ask your doctor if it might
cause erectile dysfunction. You might be better off on a medication less likely
to cause a problem.

Erection-Friendly High Blood Pressure Drugs

Some families of high blood pressure drugs rarely cause erectile dysfunction
as a side effect:

• ACE inhibitors
• Alpha-blockers
• Calcium channel blockers
• ARBs

ACE (angiotensin converting enzyme) inhibitors — such as Lotensin, Capoten,
Zestril, Prinivil, etc. — widen blood vessels and increase blood flow.
Erectile dysfunction is rarely a side effect, occurring in less than 1% of
patients. There are several different medications in the category. This seems
to be true of all of them.

There are also medications known as calcium channel blockers, such as
Diltiazem, Verapamil, or Amlodipine. As a group, they rarely cause erectile
dysfunction. But erection problems may be less common with some individual
drugs within that group than with others. Your doctor can tell you which.

In general, alpha-blockers do not often cause erection problems either. In
one study published in the journal Hypertension in 1997, a small
number of men actually had a 100% improvement in their erectile dysfunction
after two years on the alpha-blocker Cardura.

Drugs known as ARBs (angiotensin II receptor blockers, like Losarten) are
not only unlikely to cause erection problems, but they may actually
improve sexual function in men with high blood pressure.

A 2001 study published in the American Journal of the Medical
Sciences looked at the drug Cozaar, an ARB. At first, just 7% of men and
women in the study said they felt sexually satisfied overall. After 12 weeks of
Cozaar, about 58% said they were sexually satisfied. The percentage of men who
reported having erectile dysfunction dropped from 75% to 12%.

Another study compared the drug Diovan, an ARB, with Coreg, a beta-blocker.
The study, published in the American Journal of Hypertension in 2001,
compared the effect of the two drugs on blood pressure and frequency of sexual
intercourse.

The drugs controlled blood pressure equally well. But people who took the
ARB reported having sex more often during the 16 weeks of treatment. They said
they had sex about eight times a month before, and 10 times a month after.
People taking the beta-blocker had sex much less often: eight times a month
before, and four times a month after.

Steps to Take If Your Medicine Causes Erection Problems

Tell your doctor if you think your blood pressure medicine may be causing
problems with your erections.

If it is your medication, and not just your high blood pressure,
switching to another prescription may solve the problem. Never stop taking your
medicine without your doctor’s OK.

But high blood pressure itself still could be to blame for your erectile
dysfunction. In that case, ask about trying an erectile dysfunction drug like
Viagra, Cialis, or Levitra.

You should only take these drugs once your blood pressure is under control.
They are not safe for men with untreated high blood pressure. They are also not
safe for men taking alpha-blockers, or men taking nitrate drugs for heart
disease. Read the rest of this entry »

May 1, 2000 (Atlanta) — Move over guys. Another “men only” sign is coming down. Studies reported here at the world’s major urology conference suggest that the revolutionary male impotence drug Viagra may work for the other half of the population, too.

Experts warn that the studies, while interesting, offer no proof whatsoever that Viagra actually helps women. Such proof can be obtained only from larger studies. But two provocative studies of women with female sexual dysfunction show that by several measures, sexual satisfaction improves in some women who take the drug.

Are physicians already offering Viagra prescriptions to women? “They certainly can, and they do, and they are now,” the co-author of one of the studies, Jennifer R. Berman, MD, tells WebMD. “There [are] a number of prescriptions that have been written for women — I don’t have the number, but it is not small,” she says.

Mariann Caprina, spokeswoman for Pfizer, the manufacturer of Viagra, says that more information on women and Viagra may be reported at a medical conference later this month. “Right now, it isn’t indicated [for women], and we’re certainly not going to recommend it until we have some data,” she tells WebMD.

Irwin Goldstein, MD, who co-authored the study with Berman, warns that it doesn’t prove anything. He points to a study in Europe in which seven out of 10 women with sexual dysfunction said a pill improved their sex lives. What the women didn’t know was that it was a sugar pill and had no effective ingredients. Goldstein says, “women who have sexual dysfunction in the year 2000 must have a full clinical and psychological evaluation. … By 2005 or 2006 we should understand much more. But we don’t know this yet and to discuss [Viagra] is premature.”

Laura A. Berman, PhD, Jennifer Berman’s sister and collaborator at Boston University Medical Center, notes that the hysterectomy — surgical removal of uterus, or womb — appears to be a risk factor for sexual dysfunction. She says surgeons might cut through as-yet unidentified nerves and/or blood vessels that could be important for sexual arousal. The Bermans, Goldstein, and their colleagues enrolled 35 women, on average about 50 years old, who had hysterectomies at least two years previously. After the operation, these women found they lost much of their ability to feel sexual sensations.

After taking Viagra, these symptoms dramatically improved. Before taking Viagra, all the women reported low sexual sensation and no orgasms. After taking Viagra, 27 of the 35 women had improved sensation and 29 had orgasms. Sexual desire, pain or discomfort during sex, and lubrication of the vagina also improved in more than half the women who took Viagra.

A second, very small study tested Viagra in 16 women with sexual dysfunction. University of Maryland researcher Toby C. Chai, MD, and colleagues used a sophisticated noninvasive device to measure blood flow in the genital area. They then gave the women two identical bottles of three pills — one containing 100 mg Viagra and one containing identical sugar pills — and told them to take one pill at least an hour prior to sex.

The results were dramatic for every measure of sexual function. Viagra improved sexual experience, sensation, and lubrication in 10 of the 16 women, and it increased the ability to achieve orgasm in nine of them. Only one woman said the sugar pills had the same effects. “[Some] women with sexual dysfunction will respond to Viagra,” Chai tells WebMD. “However, the drug doesn’t seem as effective for women as it does for men.”

Even more important than the Viagra studies — if less dramatic — were several conference reports of studies about what sexual dysfunction in women actually is. Jennifer Berman notes that between 30% and 60% of U.S. women report some form of sexual problem. But whether this represents true dysfunction or just dissatisfaction remains unknown.

“There is a school of thought that says the standards of sexuality in the U.S. are unrealistic, in much the same way that we have an unrealistic standard for body image,” Laura Berman tells WebMD. “That is not to say that there are not many women out there with real problems.” Only now, notes Jennifer Berman, have women felt able to discuss their sexuality with their physicians.

Goldstein notes that scientific study of sexual dysfunction in women began only recently. “We’ve been doing this for two years — a short time,” he says.

A large proportion of sexual dysfunction in men is caused by problems with blood vessels, which inhibit erection. Goldstein notes they don’t see as many of these problems in women. Most female sexual dysfunction is hormonal or caused by problems with the nervous system. Having children can play a role as well, he says. “Postdelivery the vagina recovers from this 10-pound item coming through it, but all functions are not always restored.” Read the rest of this entry »

Nov. 14, 2001 — Viagra has helped thousands of impotent men restore their sex lives. But for men with chronic heart failure and impotence, the “little blue pill” may not be an option. Many of these men take nitrates for heart failure, which can prove deadly if combined with Viagra. But there may be an alternative. Researchers have found that a regimen of regular bike riding can improve overall health, as well as sexual function, in men with chronic heart failure.

“We found that exercise can act as a medical therapy to improve both sexual function and overall quality of life in these patients,” says study leader Romualdo Belardinelli, MD, director of the Lancisi Heart Institute in Ancona, Italy, in a news release.

Belardinelli team looked at about 60 men, average age 57, with stable, chronic heart failure but no prostate problems. About half of them were taking nitrates. The researchers randomly split the men into two groups. One followed an eight-week regimen of supervised stationary bicycling three times per week; the other maintained their normal lifestyles. All the men continued on whatever drugs they’d been taking. They completed questionnaires on quality of life and sexual activity and underwent fitness and overall health testing before and after the study.

At the end of the study, tests revealed improvements in the cardiovascular systems and overall health of the exercise group but not the control group. Peak oxygen uptake had improved 18%, and blood vessels were responding more appropriately. What’s more, these objective improvements correlated with self-reported improvements in quality of life and sexual function.

“We found significant improvement … among patients who were cycling,” says Belardinelli. He suggests that the exercise may boost health by causing positive changes in the cells (called the endothelium) that line the blood vessel walls. These changes would mean more oxygen-rich blood is reaching all parts of the body, including the penis. Read the rest of this entry »

June 25, 2001 — It probably won’t be coming soon to a bar or
urology clinic near you, but a cocktail of crushed termites, mashed ants, chili
peppers, and fruits packs a Viagra-like wallop and could be a natural
alternative to Pfizer’s little blue pill as a treatment for erectile
dysfunction, says a Cornell University plant biologist who personally vouches
for the natural compound.

On a trip to Venezuela, Eloy Rodriguez, PhD, was given some of
the substance by his hosts to use as a spice for his food. “After I took a
lot of it they looked at me with total surprise and said, ‘You’re going to need
a doctor in the morning, because it’s going to make your penis get very hard,’
and they were absolutely correct. It was very powerful,” says
Rodriguez.

You don’t need a prescription for the “bio-Viagra,” but
you do have to travel to the Amazon region of Venezuela and ask the women of
the Yequana tribe to mix up a batch of it, he says.

“Every tribe in the Amazon has a substance, extract, or
mixture that they will specifically tell you is used to stimulate erection. If
you go to the Caribbean you’ll find the same thing. It’s been there since the
beginning of time. I think that in earlier times, [stimulants] must have been
very important, because being the king or the ruler in power you had to be
sexually quite potent and be able to maintain it.”

Back in their lab in the Finger Lakes region of New York,
Rodriguez and colleagues performed a chemical analysis on the mysterious potion
and found that it contains chemicals similar to those found in Viagra, as well
as a healthy dose of testosterone, both of which might account for the
compound’s impressive action. The researchers are currently exploring plant
derivatives from the Caribbean island of Dominica and from the Dominican
Republic that are said to have similar properties to the Yequana mixture.

“I think as one does more serious chemical research, we’re
going to uncover ‘natural’ Viagras that might even be more potent than the one
that has been made synthetically,” Rodriguez says. Read the rest of this entry »

Feb. 8, 2002 — Viagra, the drug best known for reviving men’s sex lives, may also revitalize the brain, according to new research. An animal study suggests that the anti-impotence drug can reduce the effects of stroke by helping the brain heal itself.

“What we found is that we can use certain drugs like Viagra to create new brain cells,” said study author Michael Chopp, PhD, scientific director of the Neuroscience Institute at Henry Ford Hospital, in a news release. “And these cells are created in both elderly as well as young subjects.”

Chopp presented his research today at the 27th International Stroke Conference in San Antonio, Texas. He says Viagra was selected for testing in stroke treatment because it is chemically similar to other compounds that have been shown to improve brain function in animals after stroke.

In the study, researchers gave rats Viagra for six days after inducing an ischemic stroke (the most common type of stroke caused by a blockage of an artery that supplies blood to the brain). After 28 days, they found the rats that received the drug grew significantly more new brain cells. The Viagra-treated rats also performed better on agility, sensory, and muscle function tests.

“When animals are treated with Viagra, the drug provides very significant … benefit [to the brain]. These animals do better on many different outcome measures,” said Chopp.

Researchers say additional studies have also shown that Viagra given one day after stroke reduced function problems in animals.

However, human clinical trials to test Viagra as a treatment after stroke are still a long way off. Additional testing is needed to determine the best time for treatment and screen for adverse effects in rats. Read the rest of this entry »