VIAGRA IS SAFE FOR SOME MEN WITH HEART DISEASE
Title: VIAGRA IS SAFE FOR SOME MEN WITH HEART DISEASE , Harvard Heart Letter, 10515313, May2002, Vol. 12, Issue 9
Section: Heartbeats
Now that the hype and giddy media attention have faded and Viagra has become an established treatment for erectile dysfunction, questions still linger about its safety for men with heart disease. Published guidelines say that Viagra ( Sildenafil ) could be hazardous for men with angina (chest pain) or other types of ischemic heart disease. Yet it is entirely possible that heart attacks, heart rhythm problems, and even sudden deaths among Viagra users with heart disease are caused by the stress and exertion of sexual activity, or to the combination of Viagra and nitroglycerin, and not to Viagra itself.
So Mayo Clinic researchers tested Viagra’s effects on the racing heart in a study that had men bicycling on their backs to simulate the effort of sexual activity. More than 100 men between the ages of 43 and 87, all of whom had heart disease, took Viagra or a placebo pill. An hour later, each man pedaled a “supine” cycle while his heart function was monitored continuously.
Compared with the placebo, Viagra lowered blood pressure a small amount, about 4 mm Hg. But it didn’t shorten the time the men could exercise without experiencing chest pain or becoming short of breath. Nor did it reduce blood flow through the heart’s arteries. (Journal of the American Medical Association 2002, Vol. 287, No. 6, pp. 719-25.)
This innovative study and others like it (see Harvard Heart Letter, August 2000) suggest that Viagra can be an option for some men with heart disease. If you can climb several flights of stairs or walk briskly (about 4 miles an hour) for 30 minutes or so without chest pain and without needing to take nitroglycerin or another nitrate, then using Viagra to engage in sexual activity shouldn’t pose a problem.
That said, there’s no way to be sure Viagra will be 100% safe for you. Some men are more sensitive to Viagra’s blood pressure-lowering effects. It may interact with other drugs in unexpected ways. And it’s never safe to use with nitroglycerin or any other nitrate, because this combination can lead to dangerous drops in blood pressure. If you’ve taken Viagra and start having chest pain or other symptoms of a heart attack, don’t be shy–tell the doctors who are treating you that you’ve taken the drug.
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Source: Harvard Heart Letter, May2002, Vol. 12 Issue 9, p7, 1p
