Taking Viagra does more than improve men’s performance in bed; it can also help people with coronary heart disease live longer and have a lower risk of having a new heart attack, according to a new study.
“Power problems are common in older men and now our study also shows that PDE5 inhibitors can protect against heart attacks and prolong life,” said study lead author Martin Holzmann, an adjunct professor of Medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
Impotence, also known as erectile dysfunction, may be related to impaired blood flow, and may be a sign of early warning of heart disease in healthy men, the authors noted.
ED can be treated locally with the injected drug alprostadil, which dilates blood vessels, or with drugs known as PDE5 inhibitors, which include small blue pills and Cialis, according to Health Day.
Holzmann’s team compared the effect of alprostadil and PDE5 inhibitors among 18,500 men who had already had a heart attack or undergone a procedure such as a bypass or angioplasty and were diagnosed. what is known as “stable” coronary artery disease.
“The risk of a new heart attack is higher during the first six months (after these interventions), after which we consider coronary artery disease to be stable,” Holzmann wrote.
Subjects began taking some type of erectile dysfunction medication at least six months after their heart attack or heart procedure. Approximately 16,500 of the men took Viagra, Cialis or some other PDE5 drug, while the others were injected with alprostadil.
The researchers tracked the health of the men for an average of nearly six years, during which about 2,800 died.
Those taking a PDE5 drug had a 12% lower risk of dying during this follow-up than men taking alprostadil, the team reported in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Men taking a PDE5 drug also had a lower risk of heart attack, heart failure or the need for an angioplasty or bypass procedure than those who received alprostadil, according to the report, which had no funding. of the pharmaceutical industry.
Protection was dose-dependent, meaning that the more frequently a man uses a PDE5 inhibitor, the lower his risk.
Holzmann warned that the study was not designed to demonstrate a cause-and-effect relationship, saying other factors could be involved.
“It is possible that those who received PDE5 inhibitors were healthier than those on alprostadil and therefore had a lower risk. [of heart issues]”, He said as an example.
“To determine if the drug is the one that reduces the risk, we should randomly assign patients to two groups, one taking PDE5 and one not. The results we have now give us very good reasons to undertake this study, “Holzmann added.
Two experts in the United States who were not connected to the study said the findings are intriguing, but stressed that more study is needed.
PDE5 drugs “are” vasoactive, “meaning they have an effect on blood vessels that make them less rigid and able to vasodilate,” Dr. he said on Health Day.
“These agents can also have anti-inflammatory effects,” he said, stressing
that “it is not a therapy for all patients with coronary artery disease, but only for those who have impotence.”
He added: “Follow-up studies need to be done to see if PDE5 inhibitors are directly responsible for the beneficial effects or is it the benefit of having a partner (not being alone), an active sex life (exercise), or a more focused approach. happy life (feeling of well-being) “.
Dr. Michael Goyfman, who runs clinical cardiology at Long Island Jewish Forest Hills, agreed that the Swedish findings are only useful for generating theories for now, not for changing medical practice.
He suggested that the best outcomes for men taking a PDE5 were based on their underlying health (perhaps only the sickest were getting alprostadil) or income, because those who were better could afford ED medications.
“While the study is interesting, it would not change practice until randomized controlled trials were conducted,” Goyfman said.