Viagra may help men to live longer and reduce their risk of heart disease, study finds
Taking Viagra isn't just good for your sex life — it may be linked to a longer lifespan in men.
A new study found that men who took the little blue pill after a heart attack lived for years after, without suffering further heart complications.
Viagra is used to treat erectile dysfunction (ED) or high blood pressure in the lungs by relaxing muscles and arteries so blood can flow better. For ED, that better blood flow in the penis helps men to have an erection.
In the study, researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden sought to study how Viagra affected men with coronary artery disease, and compared the results to men taking another ED pill, alprostadil.
According to the study, published in the journal of the American College of Cardiology, Viagra worked better than alprostadil at extending lifespan and lowering the risk of another heart attack.
It was particularly effective when administered frequently.
The study had some limitations
The researchers gathered data from 16,548 Swedish men who had experienced both ED and a heart condition in the last six months. Of those, under 2,000 received alprostadil and the rest received Viagra.
The study was observational, meaning researchers did not control the experiment but rather gleaned trends from data.
A limitation to the comparison was that the majority of the men studied took Viagra.
If you have erectile dysfunction and coronary heart disease, talk to your doctor
ED, which affects a third of all men, can be an early sign of cardiovascular disease. The risk factors go hand in hand: physical inactivity, obesity, hypertension, and metabolic syndrome.
For both, the Mayo Clinic recommends avoiding tobacco and getting 30 to 60 minutes of daily physical activity.
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