The Incredible Little Known Health Benefits Of Viagra

Ian Griffiths of Herbal Viagra World

With the recent revelation that Viagra and presumably all products that dilate blood vessels in the body, was used to treat Covid patients that were struggling to get enough oxygen into their lungs, we thought we'd look at some of it's other medical uses.

Treatment For Alzheimer's
Viagra could be used to treat Alzheimer’s disease, study finds
US scientists say users of sildenafil – the generic name for Viagra – are 69% less likely to develop the form of dementia than non-users

Viagra could be used to treat Alzheimer’s disease, study finds
US scientists say users of sildenafil – the generic name for Viagra – are 69% less likely to develop the form of dementia than non-users

Researchers cautioned that the study did not necessarily demonstrate a causal relationship between use of Viagra and lower chance of developing Alzheimer’s.
Andrew Gregory Health editor
@andrewgregory
Mon 6 Dec 2021 19.32 GMT
Viagra could be a useful treatment against Alzheimer’s disease, according to a US study.

Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of age-related dementia, affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Despite mounting numbers of cases, however, there is currently no effective treatment.

Using a large gene-mapping network, researchers at the Cleveland Clinic integrated genetic and other data to determine which of more than 1,600 Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs could be an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. They gave higher scores to drugs that target both amyloid and tau – two hallmarks of Alzheimer’s – compared with drugs that targeted just one or the other.

“Sildenafil, which has been shown to significantly improve cognition and memory in preclinical models, presented as the best drug candidate,” said Dr Feixiong Cheng, the study lead. Viagra is the brand name of sildenafil.

Researchers then used a database of claims from more than 7 million people in the US to examine the relationship between sildenafil and Alzheimer’s disease outcomes by comparing sildenafil users to non-users.

They found sildenafil users were 69% less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than non-sildenafil users after six years of follow-up. To further explore the drug’s potential effect on Alzheimer’s disease, researchers developed a lab model that showed that sildenafil increased brain cell growth and targeted tau proteins, offering insights into how it might influence disease-related brain changes. The findings were published in Nature Aging.

Cheng cautioned that the study does not demonstrate a causal relationship between sildenafil and Alzhemer’s disease. Randomised clinical trials involving both sexes with a placebo control were needed to determine sildenafil’s efficacy, he said.

Dr Ivan Koychev, a senior clinical researcher at the University of Oxford, who was not involved in the study, said it was “an exciting development” because “it points to a specific drug which may offer a new approach to treating the condition”.

Prof Tara Spires-Jones, deputy director of the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, said there were several important limitations to consider. “While these data are interesting scientifically, based on this study, I would not rush out to start taking sildenafil as a prevention for Alzheimer’s disease.”

Dr Susan Kohlhaas, director of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “Being able to repurpose a drug already licensed for other health conditions could help speed up the drug discovery process and bring about life-changing dementia treatments sooner.

“Importantly, this research doesn’t prove that sildenafil is responsible for reducing dementia risk, or that it slows or stops the disease. The only way to test this would be in a large-scale clinical trial measuring sildenafil effect against the usual standard of care.”
The Guardian

Pulmonary Hypertension

Viagra is now marketed under the name Revatio for this uncommon but serious disorder of high pressure in the blood vessels leading to the lungs.

Raynaud’s Phenomenon

In affected individuals, exposure to the cold triggers spasm of the small arteries that supply blood to the fingers, toes, or both, which become pale, cold, and painful. Both Viagra and Levitra have been helpful in clinical trials.

Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH)
PAH is a pretty serious condition that occurs where the tiny arteries that go from the heart to the lungs, experience high blood pressure. Normally, the pulmonary artery supplies oxygen-filled blood from the lungs to the heart — but with this condition, the arteries are blocked, narrowed, or may be destroyed.

Where this happens, blood pressure in the lungs increases. The heart has to work harder to get blood through those tiny arteries, a process which can eventually tire it out, or even cause the heart to fail. Viagra can help to reduce blood pressure in the lungs by repeating its role as a vasodilator.

This is because PDE-5 — the same enzyme that prevents the flow of blood to the penile smooth muscles — is also spread throughout the lungs. Viagra uses its ability to bind to this enzyme to cause the arteries in the lungs to relax and widen. This reduces blood pressure to the lungs and helps to ease the effort of the heart in pumping blood away from the lungs.

In a study comparing the effects of sildenafil (generic Viagra) and bosentan — a popular drug for managing PAH, sildenafil was found to be just as effective in managing the condition. It was shown to improve heart function and the exercise capacity of patients.

Sildenafil is so effective at managing PAH, that it's marketed under the name Revatio, as one of nine FDA-approved treatment methods for the condition.

Mountain Sickness

Viagra can reduce pulmonary artery pressure at high altitude and improve the ability to exercise in low oxygen conditions.

Raynaud’s Phenomenon

In affected individuals, exposure to the cold triggers spasm of the small arteries that supply blood to the fingers, toes, or both, which become pale, cold, and painful. Both Viagra and Levitra have been helpful in clinical trials.

Heart Disease

Studies suggest Viagra might help patients with congestive heart failure or diastolic dysfunction.

Further details are published in the August 2007 issue of Harvard Men’s Health Watch.

Older men like Playboy’s Hugh Hefner and actor Michael Douglas have sung the praises of Viagra, but now scientists say the erectile dysfunction pill is not only good for your sex life — it’s good for your heart.

In the bedroom, Viagra allows greater blood flow to the penis. But in the heart, the “little blue pill” can prevent heart muscle thickening and early-stage heart failure, according to research published today in the open access journal BMC Medicine.

"Large clinical trials are now urgently needed to build on these encouraging findings,” said lead author Dr. Andrea M. Isidori, associate professor of endocrinology at Sapienza University of Rome.
NBC News

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