Men with stable coronary artery disease who also take Viagra may live longer and also have a lower risk of having a new heart attack compared to those who suffer from the disease, but do not take the erectile dysfunction drug, according to the findings of one new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden compared the effects of different ED drugs in men with stable coronary artery disease. All participants had a heart attack, underwent balloon dilation (a cardiac catheterization procedure) or underwent revascularization surgery in the six months prior to starting ED treatment.
Collecting data from patient records, medications and causes of death, the researchers analyzed 16,500 men who were treated with PDE5 inhibitors, such as Viagra or Cialis, while just under 2,000 of the participants received alprostadil, an injectable drug used to treat ED.
In the end, the researchers found that men treated with PDE5 inhibitors lived longer and had a lower risk of new heart attack, heart failure, balloon dilation and bypass surgery than those who received alprostadil.
URINALS CAN SPREAD CORONAVIRUS, STUDY FINDINGS
“Protection was dose-dependent, so the more frequent the dose of the PDE5 inhibitor, the lower the risk,” notes a press release about the findings.
“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 Dr. Martin Holzmann, associate professor in the Department of Medicine at the Karolinska Institute who led the study in a statement.
PENIS MICROBES MAY HAVE ROLE IN THE COMMON VAGINAL INFECTION, STUDY FINDINGS
The researchers hypothesized that the results may be because some drugs for erectile dysfunction, such as Viagra, lower blood pressure, since hypertension is a risk factor for heart disease. That said, Holzmann noted that the study was observational and that more research is needed on the subject.
“This suggests that there is a causal relationship, but a registry study cannot answer that question,” said Holzmann in a statement. “It is possible that those who received PDE5 inhibitors were healthier than those taking alprostadil and therefore had a lower risk. To see if it is the drug that reduces the risk, we would need to randomly assign patients to two groups, one who takes PDE5 and one who doesn’t. The results we have now give us a very good reason to embark on this study. “