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Viagra can treat pulmonary hypertension

BOSTON, July 27 viagra is being used to treat not only erectile dysfunction, but also pulmonary hypertension, according to a U.S. researcher.

The drug may have potential for treating several other conditions such as mountain sickness and Raynaud’s phenomenon, reports the August issue of Harvard Men’s Men’s health Watch.

viagra is now marketed under the name Revatio for pulmonary hypertension — an uncommon but serious disorder of high pressure in the blood vessels leading to the lungs, the newsletter said.

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VIAGRA USE ‘NO LONGER TABOO

The number of prescriptions being written out in Gloucestershire for men with impotence is on the rise.GPs dished out more than 18,300 prescriptions last year, up from 16,500 in 2005/06.

With eight tablets of viagra costing as much as £46.99, the bill to the NHS is running into hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The figures were released this week by the Prescription Pricing Authority, which bills all 150 primary care trusts in England.

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Viagra has been associated with minor visual impairment before but now it is not so minor any longer. In 2005, reports of blindness among men using the drug have been probed by federal health officials. They however cautioned that the vision loss can be linked to the same illnesses that are direct to impotence.

Developed by Pfizer, Sildenafil Citrate or commonly known as Viagra is a drug used for the treatment of erectile dysfunction or also known as impotence and pulmonary arterial hypertension or PAH. Its primary competitors on the market are tadalafil (Cialis), and vardenafil (Levitra). It is now primarily taken for medication to allow adequate sexual stimulation, relaxes the blood vessels of the penis and helps erection.

ROCKVILLE, Md., Oct. 22 — The FDA has approved label revisions for PDE5 inhibitors to reflect an association with a small number of patients developing a sudden hearing loss, both with and without vestibular symptoms.

The FDA said it found 29 reports of sudden hearing loss, sometimes temporary, associated with the erectile dysfunction agents after scouring the Adverse Event Reporting System. The search was triggered by a case report in the April 2007 issue of the Journal of Laryngology & Otology that discussed the hearing loss of a man taking (more…)

In the year 1998 Pfizer first launched Viagra, this drug was then the only known treatment for Erectile Dysfunction. With Viagra Pfizer set foot on the uncharted territory of medicines on Sexual disorders. But in the past decade the world of medicine has seen a lot of advancement and now there are a lot of pharmaceutical companies that have researched new medicines. These companies are vying for a share of the market over which previously Pfizer had complete monopoly.

The name Sildenafil Citrate has comes across as a savior for couples regretting a happy and satisfactory conjugal life. Sildenafil Citrate, which was introduced to treat patients suffering from certain cardio vascular ailments, actually proved to be a blessing for men who are troubled with problems like erectile dysfunctions and premature ejaculation. Even though this disease can be treated with ease, many people suffering from the disease refrain from-1) either admitting it, and 2) seeking suitable medical help that deals with problems like these. This sense of secrecy regarding among those affected by it has become a common event in societies all over. People suffering from this disease are driven by a sense of insecurity caused by the fear of public humiliation after the revelation of their impotency. All these things heavily affect the life of these individuals as they often go through phases of depression causing them to lead their lives in isolation.

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Erectile Dysfunction is a problem that has been major source of concern among the doctors for a very long time. Since time immemorial the loss of virility has been a matter of huge concern for males. Men affected with Erectile dysfunction usually have problem having a penile erection, and if they have one it does not last long enough for a normal intercourse. Generally when a man gets sexually aroused the brain sends certain signals via the parasympathetic nervous systems which cause the arteries supplying blood to the penis to dilate, this results in the lowering of blood pressure, which causes an enormous amount of blood to flow into the penis. The blood entering the penis gets trapped there and finally due to this process a man achieves an erection. As a person gradually becomes old his arteries become less elastic, so vasodilation occurs to a lesser degree this may lead to the inability to have an erection even if he is sexually aroused.

MADISON, Wisc., Aug. 23, 2007-Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison report this month that sildenafil increases the amount of oxytocin released by stimulation of the posterior pituitary gland, a small structure directly underneath the brain that regulates hormone levels in response to neural signals. The finding is the first indication of a chemical mechanism through which erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra may have physical effects besides increasing blood flow to sexual organs, says study author Meyer Jackson, a physiology professor at the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. Sometimes called the “love hormone” or “cuddle chemical,” oxytocin plays several important roles in social interactions and reproduction, including triggering uterine contractions and lactation. It is also released during orgasm and has been linked to sexual arousal. Oxytocin release is regulated by an enzyme that acts like a braking system, limiting hormone release by dampening neural excitation of the cells. This same enzyme, phosphodiesterase type 5, also limits blood flow by contracting the muscles around blood vessels. In both places, sildenafil works by blocking this enzyme, essentially releasing the brakes, explains Jackson. In blood vessels, relaxing smooth muscle increases blood flow, which corrects erectile dysfunction, and in the posterior pituitary, the cells become more responsive. “The same stimulation will produce more [oxytocin] release.” He says, “I think this is a missing link in terms of trying to sort out the issues around whether there are additional effects of phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors,” which include Viagra, Levitra and Cialis. The new report was published online Aug. 9 and appears in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Physiology. In the study, the scientists measured oxytocin released from rat pituitaries in response to neural stimulation. When the pituitaries were treated with sildenafil, they responded to the stimulation by releasing three times as much oxytocin as they did without the drug. Importantly, the drug had little if any effect on hormone release in the absence of stimulation, Jackson says. “Erectile dysfunction drugs do not induce erections spontaneously, they enhance the response to sexual stimulation,” he says. “The same thing is happening in the posterior pituitary - Viagra will not induce the release of oxytocin on its own, but it will enhance the amount of release you get in response to electrical stimulation.” Though he doesn’t think his findings raise any significant safety issues related to Viagra use, he does think it provides strong rationale for studies of additional effects and new potential uses. “A big question raised by our study is, will sildenafil do the same thing to the nerve terminals that release oxytocin [in the brain]”" he says. The cells that supply oxytocin to the pituitary come from a brain structure called the hypothalamus, which also sends hormones throughout the brain. Though sildenafil’s effects on these pathways are still unknown, work by other researchers has shown that oxytocin-sensitive cells in the brain play a role in the neural control of erectile responses, suggesting that Viagra and its kin may work through multiple channels. The famous blue pills could have other uses as well. Oxytocin has been linked to the ability to make strong social bonds, while sildenafil was recently shown to improve hamsters’ abilities to adjust the timing of their internal clocks to overcome simulated jet lag. “This is one piece in a puzzle in which many pieces are still not available,” Jackson says. “But it raises the possibility that erectile dysfunction drugs could be doing more than just affecting erectile dysfunction.” ### The study was co-authored by Zhenjie Zhang and Vitaly Klyachko. Funding for the research came from the National Institutes of Health. — Jill Sakai, (608) 262-9772, jasakai@wisc.edu
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