The researchers at University College London and the University of Oxford revealed that Viagra, a drug widely used for erectile dysfunction, could also reduce the risk of dementia.
If the majority of us enjoy anything, it’s the whole “buy one, get one free” gimmick. What if we told you that for the price of a single little miraculous blue pill, you could potentially improve your sex life and lower your risk of developing dementia, two health disorders that plague a significant portion of modern society? We present to you, gentlemen principally, the incredibly well-liked medication known as Viagra.
A brief history of the wonder drug
Unbelievably, US pharmaceutical behemoth Pfizer, which invented sildenafil citrate under the brand name Viagra, never intended for it to become the sex icon it is today. It was developed in the late 1980s for a more benign purpose: to treat hypertension and heart disease-related chest discomfort.
Though one can only imagine the confusion among the participants and researchers at the trial lab center that day, researchers conducting clinical trials for the drug quickly realized that this drug was much better at inducing erections than anything else they were trying to achieve with it at the time.
Pfizer, who received emergency validation from WHO for their COVID-19 vaccine first, realized very quickly that they could repackage this miracle drug to address the major issue of erectile dysfunction. When the 20th century came to an end, the FDA-approved Viagra was ready to be released.
Hugh Hefner, the promiscuous publisher of Playboy, even praised the drug for its great success. Whether they like to acknowledge it or not, a lot of individuals started using Viagra all across the world, and it even gained some traction in India.
Around that time, Pfizer’s patent on the medication expired in some countries, therefore counterfeit versions of the medication were being offered under different names for less than a tenth of the price of the genuine. Based on data from the All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists, the sales of Viagra in India increased by 40% between 2010 and 2018.
Although it is wonderful that Indian men no longer feel ashamed of having erectile dysfunction, physicians have differing opinions regarding the long-term use of the medication. Those with other comorbidities may see more pronounced negative effects from the medication, after all. But there’s also a strong possibility that many men have unintentionally decreased their risk of memory loss due to dementia and other neurological conditions.
Viagra use has been linked to reduced risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia in men
University College London researchers released their results earlier this year on over 270,000 males who were all 40 years of age or older and had received an erectile dysfunction diagnosis between 2000 and 2017.
They discovered that males who had been taken erectile dysfunction medications, such as tadalafil (Cialis) and sildenafil (Viagra), had an 18% lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease in later life than men who had not received the medication. This correlation was a stunning 44% lower among individuals who had been prescribed the most medications.
More recently, fresh research from the University of Oxford showed that sildenafil improved the function of brain blood vessels in people who were more likely to develop vascular dementia. It achieved this by increasing blood flow not only to the penis but also to the brain.
Because vascular dementia affects brain tissue and results in diminished blood flow to the brain, it can affect cognitive processes like memory, thinking, and judgment. Damage to brain cells is typically the result of blood vessel blockages in vascular dementia. This illness differs from Alzheimer’s, in which amyloid beta plaques obstruct neuronal connections, leading to cognitive impairment.
Dr. Alastair Webb, an associate professor at Oxford University’s Wolfson Centre for Prevention of Stroke and Dementia, claims that this is the first study to demonstrate that sildenafil enters the blood vessels in the brains of those suffering from this condition, enhancing blood flow and vascular responsiveness.
“This demonstrates the potential of this well-tolerated, widely-available drug to prevent dementia, which needs testing in larger trials,” he says.
Researchers concur that this is a promising field of inquiry. However, additional research is required to determine the ideal dosage and comprehend how the medications impact the brain. More significantly, researchers want to know if women can also benefit from this.
Last year, GreatGameIndia reported that a new study from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and the Department of Chemistry at Trinity College of Arts and Sciences found nanoplastics linked to Parkinson’s and dementia.
