Taking Viagra does more than improve the performance of men in bed – it can also help people with coronary artery disease to live longer and have a lower risk of suffering a new heart attack, according to a new study.
“Potency problems are common in older men and now our study also shows that PDE5 inhibitors can protect against heart attacks and prolong life,” said the study’s lead author, Martin Holzmann, associate professor of medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
Impotence, also known as erectile dysfunction, may be linked to decreased blood flow – and may be an early warning sign 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 suffered a heart attack or had undergone a procedure such as a bypass or angioplasty, and were diagnosed with what is known as “stable” coronary artery disease. .
“The risk of a new heart attack is greatest during the first six months (after such interventions), after which we consider coronary artery disease to be stable,” wrote Holzmann.
Participants started taking some form of erectile dysfunction medication at least six months after the heart attack or heart procedure. About 16,500 of the men took Viagra, Cialis or some other PDE5 drug, while the others took injectable alprostadil.
The researchers followed men’s health for an average of almost six years, during which about 2,800 of them died.
Those who took a PDE5 drug had a 12 percent lower risk of dying during follow-up than men who took alprostadil, the team reported in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Men who took a PDE5 drug also had a lower risk of a new heart attack, heart failure or need for an angioplasty or bypass procedure than those who received alprostadil, according to the report, which was not funded by the pharmaceutical industry. .
Protection was dose dependent, which means that the more often a man used a PDE5 inhibitor, the lower the risk.
Holzmann warned that the study was not designed to prove a cause and effect relationship, saying that other factors may be at play.
“It is possible that those who received PDE5 inhibitors were healthier than those taking alprostadil and therefore had a lower risk [of heart issues]”, He said as an example.
“To see if it is the drug that reduces the risk, we would need to randomly allocate patients into two groups, one that takes PDE5 and one that does not. The results we have now give us a very good reason to embark on this study, ”added Holzmann.
Two experts in the United States who were not connected to the study said the findings are intriguing, but emphasized that more studies are needed.
PDE5 drugs “are ‘vasoactive’, which means that they have an effect on blood vessels, making them less rigid and capable of vasodilating,” Dr. Guy Mintz, director of cardiovascular health at Sandra Atlas Bass Heart Hospital at Northwell Health in Manhasset, NY, said Health Day.
“These agents can also have anti-inflammatory effects,” he said, emphasizing
that “this is not a therapy for all patients with coronary artery disease – only for those who also have impotence”.
He added: “There is a need to do follow-up studies to see if PDE5 inhibitors are directly responsible for the beneficial effects, or if the benefit is due to having a partner (not being alone), an active sex life (exercise ), or a happier approach to life (a sense of well-being). “
Dr. Michael Goyfman, who directs clinical cardiology in Long Island Jewish Forest Hills, agreed that the Swedish findings are useful only for generating theories for the time being, not for changing medical practice.
He suggested that the best results for men who took a PDE5 were based on their underlying health – perhaps only the sickest received alprostadil – or income, because those better off could afford ED drugs.
“Although the study is interesting, it would not change the practice until randomized clinical trials were carried out,” said Goyfman.