What is Viagra?
Viagra is a trade name for a drug named Sildenafil. Viagra is used primarily to treat Erectile Dysfunction (ED). It received approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1998, and became extremely popular in a short period of time. It has since been used by tens of millions of people around the world. It is known informally with names such as “vitamin V”, “blue diamond” or “the blue pill”.
Viagra has a wide range of additional uses in many diverse fields. These include treating multiple sclerosis, making flowers stand up straight and saving the lives of babies born prematurely!
History
Sildenafil was originally created in 1991 in Sandwich, Kent, England at a Pfizer research facility by scientists who were trying to create a medicine for hypertension (high blood pressure) and angina pectoris (a symptom of ischemic heart disease). Scientists working on the Phase I Clinical Trial discovered that while the medication was not ideally suited to treating chest pain participants were experiencing, it had a very noticeable effect on their sex lives!
Sildenafil, then known as Viagra, was patented in 1996, and it received approval from the FDA in 1998 as the first oral medication that was approved to treat ED in the United States.
Viagra received a rapturous reception from millions of men suffering from erectile dysfunction. The “Viagra revolution” in the late 1990s and early 2000s was a profound cultural shift. Celebrities as varied as the legendary soccer star Pelé and US Senator Bob Dole came forward to endorse Viagra on television. This substantial cultural shift reflected the fact that, for the first time, men seeking relief from ED had a medical treatment available that was safe, effective and non-invasive. Viagra’s extraordinary popularity has seen very high levels of sales. To date, the highest level of sales in one year is $1.9 Billion, which was attained in 2008.
Viagra is no longer the only ED drug that really works. Levitra and Cialis both work in a similar way to Viagra to encourage blood flow to the penis, and were both introduced in 2003.
The wonder ED drug that really works
If a man is sexually stimulated, an erection may occur following the release of nitric oxide, which causes blood vessels in the penis to dilate through the accumulation of a chemical known as cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP). PDE5 is an enzyme that breaks down cGMP. Viagra is the wonder ED drug that really works by inhibiting the production of PDE5. This removes the obstacle to obtaining an erection.
Viagra and similar FDA-approved drugs (Cialis and Levitra) do not cause an erection if the man in question is not sexually aroused, since their mechanism of action is to remove the most typical obstacle to erections rather than to make men taking the drug sexually aroused.
Viagra – the ED drug that really works is effective for about 83% of men, which is slightly more than Cialis (81%) and Levitra (80%).
Who is it for?
ED is most common among older men. It affects approximately 30 million men in the US, including 17% of men between 60 and 70 years old and almost half of men aged over 75.
Men can find themselves in need of medical treatment for ED for many reasons. ED can often cause feelings of inadequacy, strain within intimate relationships, health risks as a result of reduced exercise and the sense of a loss of identity.
Viagra is effective for a high proportion of people who take it, so it is often the first port of call for men with ED. Given the serious emotional repercussions that can affect men who have ED, drugs such as Viagra make an extraordinary difference to the lives of many sufferers.
Although there are some studies that suggest Viagra may increase sexual stimulation in women, these are far from conclusive.
Should anyone avoid Viagra?
There are a limited set of circumstances where taking Viagra is strongly discouraged and never prescribed by medical professionals. These include:
If you have had a recent stroke or heart attack, attempting sexual intercourse is not normally a safe course of action, so Viagra should not normally be taken.
If you have a heart condition, Viagra’s dilation of blood vessels may cause problems. In most such cases Viagra should not be taken.
There are also some health conditions where people who have them and take Viagra are at greater risk. It is sometimes possible for people in those circumstances to take Viagra, but they should always consult their doctor before doing so.
If you have low blood pressure, Viagra’s effect of dilating blood vessels may further lower your blood pressure.
If you do have decreased liver function, your liver will be less effective in removing Viagra from your blood, leading to accumulation that could prove unsafe.
If you are taking organic nitrites or nitrates (vasodilators), which include amyl nitrate (sometimes abused as ‘poppers’) it is not safe to take Viagra concurrently. It may be possible to take Viagra provided that care is taken that the medications will never be in the body at the same time.
If you have severe renal dysfunction, your kidneys may not filter Viagra from your blood as normal kidneys would, leading to accumulation that could prove unsafe.
Although there are some specific conditions where taking Viagra is discouraged, we should emphasize that Viagra is an FDA- approved drug that has been used by tens of millions of people around the world for nearly two decades, so it is known to be safe for use for most people.
Interesting facts
Viagra for women?
An equivalent to Viagra designed for women known as Addyi received FDA approval in August 2015. Some feminist groups hailed the arrival of Addyi, saying it was a step toward greater equality given that safe and effective oral medications to treat sexual dysfunction in men had been available since Viagra received FDA approval in 1998.
However, clinical trials have shown that Addyi only increases the average number of times recipients had sex by about once a month more than a placebo. Unlike Viagra, Addyi has to be taken daily. Addyi is much more expensive than Viagra, costing about $780 per month. The drug also has significant side effects, such as dizziness, nausea, fatigue and sleeplessness, that occur more frequently than Viagra’s side effects. For all of these reasons, Addyi has had far less enthusiastic uptake so far among women with sexual dysfunction than Viagra has had among men with ED.
Viagra for premature babies
Viagra is a lifesaver for many premature babies. There are nearly half a million babies that are born prematurely in the US each year. One of the most common health problems premature babies have is pulmonary hypertension. This is a condition where blood pressure in the lungs is too high for blood to be pumped through them easily. Strangely enough, Viagra is a very effective treatment for babies in this position. It decreases blood pressure in the lungs so that premature babies receive the oxygen they need. It is a lifesaving drug for thousands of premature babies each year.
Athletes and Viagra
Although experts are divided as to whether Viagra actually has a positive effect, many athletes believe that taking Viagra boosts their performance. The theory is that, just as in premature babies, taking Viagra increases the amount of oxygen that can be absorbed in the lungs by widening blood vessels. This form of performance boosting could be useful for athletes engaged in aerobic sports such as runners and cyclists.
There are some preliminary studies that have shown large improvements in performance, particularly at higher altitudes. Since there is no scientific consensus yet, anti-doping authorities haven’t banned Viagra. Some athletes are already taking advantage of this ambiguity. A number of athletes in the NFL and at the most recent London Olympics swore by the positive effects Viagra was having on their performance. However, some experts have claimed that Viagra does not have the same beneficial effect in adults as in premature babies because the adult body is less sensitive to it.
Saving endangered species
Did you know that Viagra is helping to save endangered species? Here’s how: in traditional Chinese medicine, it is believed that men can increase their potency by ingesting analogous animal parts, including tiger penis, seal penis, antler velvet or ground rhino horn. The demand for these rare animal parts has historically been very high, and this is one of the reasons that tigers and rhinos are both seriously endangered. However, since Viagra was introduced in 1998, more and more Chinese men are trying Viagra rather than traditional remedies, and the demand for these products has been falling.
The CIA’s secret weapon
You read that right. Viagra has been one of the most effective inducements available to the CIA when trying to win over tribal leaders in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Since tribal leaders tend to be older, they are more likely than the average person to suffer from ED. In addition, many have four wives, the maximum allowed by the Koran, making it all the more important for them to perform sexually.
Giving gifts of money can put CIA informants at risk of retaliation from people who suspect where it came from, and it also makes them less likely to learn useful intelligence in future. Viagra is much more difficult for outsiders to detect- and if tribal leaders enjoy its effects, they need an ongoing supply. This perfect gift has delighted many tribal leaders, and helped the CIA’s efforts immeasurably on the ground.
Prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is incredibly common in older men. A large study of autopsies across multiple countries found that a full 80% of men who died of other causes in their 70s had prostate cancer. Although prostate cancer is less dangerous than many forms of cancer, it often requires surgery. Yet astonishing research has recently found that Viagra – in combination with the drug doxorubicin – can be very helpful in the treatment of Prostate Cancer.
For people who have their prostates removed or partially removed as a result of prostate cancer, the surgery frequently causes or seriously exacerbates ED. Yet studies have found that Viagra has a dramatic positive effect on the sexual function of men who have had the surgery. The results suggest that Viagra not only improves sexual experience at any given point but also helps repair nerves damaged in the surgery.
Treating jet lag
A study conducted on hamsters found that injections of Viagra helped them recover up to 50% faster from jet lag when undergoing forward shifts in their daily time cycles (which is the equivalent of flying eastbound). Curiously, Viagra didn’t have the same positive effect for backward shifts in their daily time cycles (equivalent to flying westbound). This hasn’t been proven as a use for humans yet, but it is certainly very interesting.
Memory and learning
A large number of studies evaluating the effect of Viagra on mice have found that it causes a substantial increase in their memory and their ability to navigate obstacles. Some preliminary studies have been conducted in humans, but as yet these are not fully credible.
Helping pandas get frisky
Giant Pandas are some of the most extraordinary animals in the world, beloved by millions. Yet they are also highly endangered. There are just 1,600 left in the wild, and approximately 300 in captivity. Conservationists and zookeepers trying to increase the Panda population have an uphill struggle. Female Pandas are in heat for only 24 to 72 hours each year, and they can only become pregnant for a 12 to 24 hour window in that time. Worse still, male and female pandas sometimes show limited interest in sex even in that limited time.
In recent years, scientists trying to increase the Panda population thought outside the box, and tried giving them Viagra (along with showing them ‘Panda Porn’, videos of other Pandas mating) with impressive results. For the first time, large numbers of Panda cubs have been bred in captivity.
Making flowers beautiful
In a strange echo of Viagra’s effect on humans, Canadian and Israeli scientists have found that adding small amounts of Viagra to a vase of water can double the lifespan of flowers that have been cut and placed in the vase, allowing them to stand up for up to a week longer than their natural lifespan. This discovery is expected to have a large impact on the food and flower industries.
Treating multiple sclerosis
A series of studies conducted on animals in the past few years have yielded tantalizing results about the promise of Viagra as a drug to treat MS in humans. In a study conducted on mice, researchers found that Viagra was able to effect a practically complete recovery in half of the animals affected by the disease after just eight days of treatment. In the test subjects, Viagra prevented infiltration of inflammatory cells into the spinal cord, thus reducing damage and facilitating repair. Since Viagra is known from nearly two decades and tens of millions of patients to be a relatively safe drug, scientists are confident that clinical trials of Viagra for humans with MS will take place in the near future.
Myths
One of the most persistent myths about Viagra is that it increases your sex drive. It’s easy to understand why this myth is so widely believed, since Viagra helps people to sustain erections, yet as a matter of fact, Viagra does not cause any change in sex drive. If the person taking Viagra is sexually aroused, Viagra makes it easier to obtain and retain an erection. But it does not cause unwanted erections if the person is not interested in sex.
An additional persistent myth claims that you need to have sex immediately after taking Viagra. This is far from the truth. In fact, Viagra takes about 30 minutes to have effect, and can be delayed if you eat.
Alternatives to Viagra
After Viagra’s immense popularity became clear, additional oral medications were developed for the Erectile Dysfunction market. Like Viagra, the ED drugs that really work and that are FDA-approved all work broadly in the same way – they are so-called PDE5 inhibitors that work by relaxing muscles in the penis to encourage blood flow.
Levitra, or Vardenafil, has been available in the United States since 2003. It is very similar to Viagra in its effects. It is effective for almost exactly the same proportion of people, lasts for 4-5 hours and takes approximately as much time to take effect as Viagra.
Cialis was first introduced in 2003. While Viagra and Levitra last for approximately four hours at a time, Cialis lasts for about 36 hours. It is also available in a version that can be taken daily.
What are some of the possible side effects of Viagra?
Some of the more common side effects of Viagra, all of which are temporary, include flushing or redness of the skin, indigestion, nasal congestion and blurred vision. A small proportion of users of Viagra have claimed that they see everything tinted blue while the drug is in their bloodstream.
Get help today! Order free Viagra pills & get it delivered by mail in just 7 days!