Viagra improves brain blood flow and could help to prevent dementia

It is being used off label all over the place for heart conditions. That’s why i take it. The on label use is actually pretty annoying for the first few months.

I vaguely recall an anecdote about athletes using it for performance improvement, and getting a slightly different stat buff

We don't know how many medications actually function. We put them inside of increasingly complex animals and study the results to see what they do (and hope they don't die). Botox was intended to treat muscle spasms. Powerful anti-depressants are regularly prescribed for pain from nerve damage in people with no mental health issues. And MDMA isn't prescribed for anything because the powers that be prematurely decided to ban it based on completely fabricated claims, which I assume is part of a massive hundred-year conspiracy to make sure people... keep dying from alcohol? Not totally sure about that last one, but it's hard to deny the facts.

I know a former executive of the company that was developing this drug for cardiovascular problems. He told me that they sold it because it had this "side-effect" that they couldn't get rid of. ;-)

Marketing is the key to business success. (Talking to you, tech people)

That is true that it was originally for cardiovascular issues.

However, it seems that there was at least theoretical consideration that it could be used to treat ED

A nice overview is here:

https://www.nature.com/articles/nrd2030

many drugs are found by accident

Yep. Originally developed for high blood pressure and angina, but in clinical trials was found to be more effective in treating ED than heart issues.

this is the case with almost all drugs. for example almost every antidepressants was the result of a weight loss or something like that.

drug research is worse than training an LLM. you feed it to random people and then compare effects with initial conditions and of something looks good you try with more control.

Viagra doesn't "make" you hard, you still need sexual stimulus. I've taken it and then the sexual opportunity fell through, so I went back to coding or whatever, and I didn't notice anything different.

Maybe, but maybe not. If I told you I'm either giving you actual viagra or a placebo, you might get more aroused even if given placebo. Because psychologically you'll be thinking "There's at least a chance I took viagra right now"

Viagra doesn't work for everyone; it's not like you take it an get automatically erect, even with sexual stimulus. There are many reasons for ED, some of them in the brain, some of them in hormones. Viagra only helps with cardiovascular ones.

Maybe these studies are particularly hard

Who knows what to believe.

This may be a sincere statement, but I'm not sure it's a helpful one. What data do we have? A 2:1 advantage in published studies that it does help. Since there is no such thing in science as absolute proof of anything, these are pretty good odds. Certainly more work will be done in the future to try to replicate the results and figure out the one negative outcome. But until then, we cannot say that the evidence is in any way "equal" on both sides.

Could be different for different folks

I’ve always been taught that “a wank a day keeps the doctor away” so I believe it.

That second study didn’t use as robust of methods as the first, and they each used observational data that benefit from advanced methods (propensity score analysis).

With an RCT, the evidence is substantially increased.

I’d conclude sildenafil reduces risk of age-associated cognitive decline

All I know for certain is there's no dementia in my pants.

Who knows what to believe.

Honest question: do we need to believe one or the other ?

Or can we get away with "it depends" or "it works on some subjects and not on others"

Maybe they forgot what they said before?

This is like the supposed health benefits of drinking red wine. I don’t know if it’s true or not but it’s fun to find out.

You take it for this purpose or why?

Were you taking authentic or internet genetics from China/India?

Ive gone through a decent amount of generics over the years, from several sources, and even though the label is the same, they almost all act differently on me. Some give me a flushed red face. Some cause a dull headache. Some don't cause anything negative thank God. They all work though.

I think the Indian/Chinese ones are laced with garbage and what I feel depends on what else was in there.

Viagra is prn, you should not take it 3x/day. Cialis is a daily dose.

It sounds like you have at least a small allergy to something in the drug. The stuffy nose is something I get when I take trazodone.

Yeah I occasionally take it or tadalafil for BPH/prostatitis because they have less side effects than alpha blockers. I've got GERD and a hiatal hernia and, man, it really fires it up. Chewing gum sort of helps. I also only take half of a 25mg. I'll sometimes get the stuffy nose and rarely a headache but the stomach issues almost prevent me from using it. I've sort of grown used to tolerating extreme stomach pain though, so I still use it if I really need it.

Having tried it recreationally and also getting the stuffy nose, NSAIDs counter that effectively for me. Of course if you also get acute heartburn you want to be careful with combining it with something that can be tough on the stomach...

Talk to your doctor about whether you can combine with a proton pump inhibitor like Omeprazole. There's are downsides (in particular, sustained use can mask other things, including serious issues) but I've not had a single episode of heartburn since I was out on it.

Also, extremelly stuffy nose, to the point where basically I need to breath by the mouth. And the red eyes, eyes as red as if had just smoke the biggest and strongest joint ever.

Looks like an allergic reaction; it could be not so much in sildenafil itself, but what they use as filler for the pills.

Sildenafil is fairly short acting, so that’s probably the reason for 3x/day (but a better choice if you don’t need a whole day of effects because of its side effects like sinus congestion).

Tadalafil (Cialis) would probably be a better choice, and is used at daily (but reduced) dosing for prostrate issues.

This is America: we demand a low-effort, overpriced solution, preferably in pill form.

Cognitive Long COVID sufferer here. All the of those help indeed, but why not this, too? With a shot.

Given the opportunity, people will do anything else than have more than 2 children, which is the requirement to increase the population. There’s just better stuff to do than spend multiple years taking care of the baby. Any argument other than “for the greater good” won’t sound reasonable to educated population. Talking to my friends, especially women who already have a child, they keep mentioning the opportunity loss when you go through pregnancy and birth (career, vacations, personal growth and etc.). You can call it selfish, but it’s the reality and nobody wants to fall behind. Everything you mentioned is great, and I support it, but I doubt it’ll convince young people to sacrifice at the very minimum 6 years of their life (pregnancy + first year).

Less air pollution does increase productivity (air pollution is actually really bad for your mental performance, it's a surprisingly strong effect) and it seems to me "the ruling class" does consider it seeing as the Clean Air Act exists.

Btw, Japan has walkable cities of course but also has low inequality (but not so high wealth). Approximately nothing is known to increase birth rates except for being highly religious though; it seems they mostly collapse when people have anything else to do for fun besides have sex. So basically it's caused by being on your phone too much.

Are there lower rates of dementia in places that have those things?

Nah, man.

I'll take the Capitalism and the pills.

"walkable cities" is the solution to virtually everything these days, apparently.

I keep seeing this /r/antiwork crap in the most unexpected places around here.

It's possible to order it from Indian pharmacies or one can pick it up while on vacation in the third world.

Over the counter in Brazil.

In the UK you can get it over the counter since a couple years back afaik.

In the US, yeah, but arguably it shouldn't be. Probably the only good reason for controlling it is risk of priapism from people using it stupidly, which is an extremely bad "go to the ER now" condition.

ummmmmm... no offense if you have dementia and i have no easy way to ask about it, sorry this question is personal and you could easily just be asking for a friend

In the US, it does but the bar is laughably low. For example, you can get a prescription on blewchew.com which gets "reviewed" by their "consulting physicians" and have it in hand in a day or two.

Simple solutions to hard problems seem to be falling out of favor.

The OxHARP trial was a meticulously designed double-blind, placebo-controlled study involving 75 participants who had experienced a minor stroke and showed signs of mild to moderate small vessel disease.

I mean, I think if going for a walk were a magic bullet for stroke rehabilitation, someone would have noticed by now.

isn't, er, vigorous exercise part of what people expect when they take viagra?

Off-topic but related… I started Vyvanse about 3 months ago and the only negative side effect so far is tinnitus. It’s bloody loud :(

Nitric oxide bad for you? Pretty sure it is good for you ,otherwise super foods like beets and leafy greens would be bad for you.

Nitric oxide is a crucial part of the biology of life, especially animals. Viagra does not specifically impact the amount of nitric oxide in the body or the nitric oxide cycle mediated by arginine. It instead enhances the effect of NO in the smooth muscle. I would not worry about nitric oxide in general as it’s crucial for the basic functioning of your body.

1. "Bad stuff" meaning what?

2. There's no such thing as increasing "the effect" of such a nonspecific chemical as nitrogen oxide. There's tons of effects, and it increases some of them. Also, can the active ingredient get into mitochondria?

This is how i figured out NO would help my heart. Eating cereal colored with beet powder. If i understand the magic happens when it combines with saliva. So chewing beets might help.

looks at pants I see you've been beeting off

... Sorry

If nothing else, you're making me imagine some new scenes involving Dwight Schrute :)

Also arginine and/or citrulline.

you seem to be working hard today

Username checks out

I think it just causes vasodilation anywhere in the body?

Its all the same.

Different head

It is associated with increased risk of melanoma, but not known to cause it. The third variable is expected to be lifestyle / socioeconomic. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2338254

Men taking PDE5 inhibitors had a higher educational level and annual income, factors that were also significantly associated with melanoma risk.

Tadalafil (Cialis) can be useful for dealing with depressive symptoms. It's commonly used in nootropic circles.

With both viagra and tadalafil, they can negatively effect sleep. So it's hit or miss for a lot of people depending on depressive or anxiety symptoms.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7306377/

It's thought to improve neuronal density in the hippocampus and also (higher p) to increase bone density. A lot of bodybuilders and athletes use it for increased blood flow benefits, partly because it seems to have fewer side effects then sidenafil (which can cause mild retinal damage leading to a blue tint in the vision; probably why Pfizer used a blue tint in all their advertising). I have no personal experience with it but the theory seems sound.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7321982/

This isn't a survey; it's an RCT.

This is known as a confounding bias. A quality study should try to eliminate the obvious ones, but of course there may still he an infinite number of hidden confounding variables.

wait i read the whole headline now sorry

That’s a standard dose. 3X per day is because it has a short half life.

Is anyone aware of research that shows positive benefits to health at recreational doses?

Recreational doses? What does that mean? Excessive vasodilation isn’t going to be fun. You actually need some vasoconstriction to balance your blood pressure. Too much and you’re just going to get headaches and lightheaded. Excessive vasodilation would be expected to worsen cognition.

A typical dose of Viagra is 25,50 or 100 mg, so your 3-5 doses of 20 mg isn't even atypical. Also, there are plenty of warnings that come with Viagra usage. You may have not taken the time to read them.

One trial with 62 patients and then "Since we did not meet our sample size due to the loss of funding and could not confirm our primary hypothesis, larger studies of longer duration, likely multi-center, are needed to confirm the findings from this study. "

Me too! This small study suggests so: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT00598585

I bet you were at least sixty seconds late

I had my hopes up, but there is the kicker