Erectile dysfunction is usually treated with the medication Viagra. Before taking the pills, many people are aware of the consequences of Viagra, but does it affect the heart and blood pressure of a person?
The initial Viagra scientific study was intended to cure heart diseases. But researchers stumbled into noticing that the pill causes a rigid erection.
The discovery was so unintentional it was actually so funny. So when the researches were testing out sildenafil, which is the active drug inside Viagra, they gave free samples to participants.
After a few weeks, when they were going to take back the remaining samples, because by this time they were done with the study, participants were hesitant to return the little blue pills.
The researchers were confounded, and after a small ‘investigation’, they realized the elderly participants didn’t want to return the pills because of a particular unintended ‘side effect’.
Yes, that ‘side effect’ was their ability to crazily maintain an erection, which for the most part they had lost!
A clinical update was done on the effects of sildenafil in 2002 and the paper was published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. The paper found that up until recently, there have been no significant changes in the mechanisms or side effects of sildenafil. The little blue pills are just as good as ever.
The secondary finding of the test is now the reason behind its huge success – erectile dysfunction correction. And this is the origin story of how sildenafil ended up becoming Viagra.
A little magical blue pill that has transformed the lives of many millions of men all around the world.
The drug is a phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) inhibitor. PDE5 enzymes cause tensioning of the smooth muscle tissues.
What sildenafil citrate ? a key Viagra ingredient – does is to block the PDE5, thus resulting in relaxed and dilated muscle tissues.
The higher the dilation, the more the blood flows through the vessels, with relatively less pressure.
As a result of this mechanism, blood is able to reach the penis after being pumped from the heart.
Because of this, the effects of Viagra can extend beyond just the improvement of a man’s erectile dysfunction. In fact, there have been several studies that tried to see how the use of Viagra can affect other common physical diseases like angina, pulmonary hypertension, and some others within the same scope.
As we know by now, ED is typically caused by the lack of blood supply to the penis and this is usually caused by the blood vessels being too constricted so that not enough blood gets received by the penis.
Viagra removes this obstacle by affecting blood pressure.
Basically, the narrower your blood vessels the more blood gets jammed. Hope that makes sense.
Blood cannot travel smoothly so it gets stuck somewhere and there is not enough that reaches your penis. Without blood supply, the penis can’t maintain an erection.
A study to determine the efficacy of Viagra on men suffering from high blood pressure was conducted between January 2004 to May 2014.
And what it found was a breakthrough in the fight against high blood pressure vengeance.
The inhibitor use resulted in the following beneficial conditions:
Reduced ventricle hypertrophy: When the pressure is high, the left ventricle tends to harden and narrow, further increasing the pressure in the cardiac vessels.
But patients treated with Viagra exhibited softer and malleable ventricle, allowing for smoother blood flow.
With this, when a man finally receives sexual stimulation and is aroused, the brain sends a signal to send blood towards the penis and there is nothing that gets in the way of the blood trying to reach the penis.
As a result of that, a decent erection happens.
Viagra delivers good effects for some 4 to 6 hours, in some cases 8. During this time frame, the effects of the medication persist and bloods vessels remain open and flexible.
Be that as it may, this medication alone doesn’t fix the high blood pressure problem. This is why Viagra is only a temporary fix and is not intended to be used for a long time.
The decline in cardiac events: Further, there was a marked reduction in the enlargement of the heart chambers – an indication that the heart is operating under duress.
An enlarged chamber is one of the symptoms of cardiovascular failures that ultimately lead to heart attacks.
This finding is one of the main reasons that continued studies on sildenafil’s possibility as a solid treatment for heart diseases are still underway.
Small studies have proven that this sex drug can help ease the risks of lethal heart failure.
However, the dosage must be right for sildenafil to be establish as a solid drug for cardiovascular diseases, which is the reason studies are still ongoing. The current form of Viagra is not suitable for that just yet.
The improved heart pumps efficiency: More than expected, the magic pills also improved the pumping intensity of the heart chamber while also providing better relaxation between the beats.
This is done because sildenafil has the ability to reduce pulmonary artery pressure without even increasing cardiac sympathetic activity. This finding was established in 2009 and published in the International Journal of Impotence. As such, the use of Viagra can also reduce the risks of heart failure in men who suffer from pulmonary hypertension.
As you know, you need a strong pump from the heart to be able to achieve an erection. Sildenafil allows this to happen easily.
Reduced side effects: The dosage for the cardiac treatment is less than that for erectile dysfunction; thus the apparent side effects are remarkably lower.
This factor makes Viagra a proven safe medicine for treating high blood pressure.
Few doctors prescribe it to cure blood pressure symptoms.
But even with its success in turning around weak erections, researchers are still calling for a large sampling to undertake comprehensive blood pressure tests.
And now you know that Viagra—or rather, sildenafil itself—is still undergoing its initial research for the purpose of treating heart diseases. After all, it was originally intended to be one such medication.
We don’t really know what it is about sildenafil that is still making researchers unsure if this drug can be a patented drug for the treatment of heart disease.
What we do know is that sildenafil that is used for the purpose of treating heart diseases is marketed under a different name and there are various other regulations pertaining to the drug’s mode of administration and dosage, as well as the frequency of administration.
At any rate, we can clearly see that Viagra as a medication for ED is relatively safe for patients with heart complications.
The only time Viagra is truly dangerous is when a patient is already taking medications that contain nitrates.
Nitrates are usually used as a blood pressure regulator in other heart-related ailments.
As such, Viagra does not match this drug as they both can cause a sudden and extreme drop in blood pressure which can be life-threatening.
At any rate, the usage of Viagra as a treatment for ailments relating to high blood pressure–including ED itself–is still considered to be a temporary solution.
This is all due to the fact that this medication also offers quite a few nasty side effects when used for too long.
A complete change in lifestyle seems to be the suggested solution for the long term.
Conclusion
Thanks for reading “What Does Viagra Do To Blood Pressure?”
Taking Viagra has a slight effect on your blood pressure with tests showing that the tablets lower your blood pressure.
It attains this through blocking a PDE3 enzyme – responsible for tensing muscles. Thus action dilates the veins leading to the penis.
Once relaxed, a firm erection is possible. Viagra reduces muscle hypertrophy, reduces cardiac potential, and improves heart efficiency.
But Viagra could have drastic cardio effects on men taking BP pills with nitrate components.
