Tag Archives: Viagra
Adding Testosterone to Viagra May Not Help Erectile Dysfunction
For men with low testosterone, taking testosterone along with Viagra may not help their erections more than if they only took Viagra, a new study shows.
“There were lots of reasons to think that it would work,” Boston University researcher Matthew Spitzer, MD, says of the common practice of combining the two treatments. “It was surprising to me that it didn’t.”
The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, was a good one and the largest of its kind, “but will it change practice? In my opinion, no,” says urologist Jason Hedges, MD, PhD, of Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. He was not involved in the study.
“While low testosterone and [erectile dysfunction] ED can be related, they are separate issues, and I treat them as such,” says Michael Eisenberg, MD, who also was not involved in the study. “I don’t expect that treating low testosterone will improve ED, but it will likely improve libido and interest in sex,” says Eisenberg, an assistant professor of urology at Stanford University School of Medicine.
“There is no benefit to adding testosterone to [Viagra],” Spitzer says. He notes, though, that every case is different. “Treatment is a highly individual situation, and this study does not represent all men. If you benefit from both, you should be comfortable continuing this combined therapy.”
Testosterone and Viagra
Spitzer’s team studied 140 men with low testosterone for 14 weeks. All of the men took Viagra. Some also received testosterone gel, while others got a placebo.
During the study, the men reported how often they had sex and rated their sexual satisfaction, sexual desire and orgasms, and their ability to achieve and maintain an erection.
In every category, both groups had similar scores. On average, the men’s erectile function improved, with or without testosterone.
Treatment for the men in the study was “not a complete cure, but the improvements were substantial,” Spitzer says.
The study, Spitzer says, also reminds us that we don’t yet know all the ways in which drugs like Viagra work. One surprising discovery, he says, is that Viagra (sildenafil) appears to increase testosterone levels somewhat.
“Prior to this investigation, I had not thought of sildenafil as a drug that would raise testosterone,” says Spitzer. “This raises a lot of questions. It’s difficult to say why this happened, and I’m going to look into it in the future.”
When a patient has ED, Hedges says he always tests for low testosterone. If it proves to be low and the patient has other symptoms of low testosterone, the first thing he often prescribes is testosterone replacement therapy.
“Testosterone seems to raise or turn on signaling pathways that are important for erections,” says Hedges. “What’s common is to try testosterone and then add [Viagra or another ED drug] if you need it. Most of the time, testosterone won’t fix everything.”
Hedges and Spitzer report no disclosures related to the study. Eisenberg discloses receiving a drug company grant to study the association between testosterone and health.
Viagra May Help Children With Rare Blood Pressure Disorder
TUESDAY Oct. 25, 2011 — New research suggests that the active ingredient in the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra, which was initially developed as a treatment for heart disease, could help children with a rare condition called pulmonary arterial hypertension.
The drug, which is expensive to take regularly and has side effects, is already approved to treat the condition in adults. And some pediatricians use it to treat children, said Dr. Thomas Kulik, senior associate in cardiology at Children’s Hospital Boston. But it has not yet received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for that purpose.
Pulmonary arterial hypertension, a rare condition, causes abnormally high blood pressure in the arteries that lead to the lungs. It can be inherited, accompany some forms of heart disease or occur for no known reason, Kulik said. The disease can limit the ability to exercise and lead to heart failure or even death.
In adults, research has shown that sildenafil — best known by the brand name Viagra — can help improve oxygen delivery and exercise tolerance, but it’s not clear if it improves lifespan, said Kulik, who is also an associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School in Boston.
In the new study, researchers gave a placebo or low, medium or high doses of sildenafil to children aged 1 to 17 years for 16 weeks. After that time, they tested 105 of the children.
Previously, study author Dr. Robyn Barst of Columbia University in New York City led research that found that the active ingredient in another erectile drug, Cialis (tadalafil), seemed to effectively treat pulmonary hypertension in adults.
In the new study, researchers found that that children who took the drug and could exercise at the end of the study had more improvement in lung function than those who took the placebo. The researchers, including two from Pfizer, manufacturer of Viagra, also found that the children could exercise more and with greater ease.
Kulik, who is familiar with the findings but was not involved with the study, said the effect was modest at best. Still, he said, “sildenafil probably somewhat increases the ability of pediatric patients to exercise.”
In adults, he said, the drug can cause vision problems, and in kids it can cause a condition called priapism, in which the penis remains erect. Lowering the dose can eliminate the problem, he said.
Overall, a medium dose appears safest and most effective, the researchers said, but still more research is needed. Kulik said it will take some time to determine if it improves lifespan for children with the condition.
The drug can cost several thousand dollars a year, he said.
The study was scheduled to be released Tuesday at the American College of Chest Physicians annual meeting, in Honolulu.
Research presented at meetings is considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.
More information
To learn more about pulmonary arterial hypertension, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Posted: October 2011
New British Brew Contains Viagra
in a tizzy because Four Loko has caffeine and ban it. Meanwhile, the UK is putting pharmaceutical drugs in their beers. Yeah, our “freedom” seems a lot cooler than their “socialist society.” Good work, team USA. Let’s celebrate with a Caffeine
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Medical Marijuana Hard On The Heels Of Viagra Sales
?It’s no secret that medical marijuana has become a big business in the United States. Medicinal cannabis sales this year are projected to reach $ 1.7 billion, according to an “investment-grade report on the business of medical marijuana” released this week.What that means is that marijuana is hard on the heels of Viagra, another of America’s favorite medications. Viagra, the anti-impotence drug, has sales of $ 1.9 billion a year.The $ 1.7 billion figure represents estimated sales of marijuana through dispensaries in states with medical marijuana laws.The Sea Change Strategy LLC report, “The State of the Medical Marijuana Markets 2011,” adds new levels of meaning to the term “Green Rush.” It predicts that the number of states where medical marijuana is sold will double in the next five years.The demand for cannabis in states which already have medical marijuana will also grow, according to the report.
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Medicare ‘Part D’ Pays $3.1M For Viagra
2011 It is against the law for Medicare to pay for prescriptions to Viagra and other erectile dysfunction drugs, but the government health program paid claims worth $ 3.1 million for those drugs, the HHS Office of Inspector General has found. The claims
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