It turns out that Viagra is good for more than just keeping the fun going at the end of date night. In fact, a new study says that it could lower the risk of Alzheimer’s by almost 70 percent.
According to a new study, patients who took sildenafil, most commonly known as the drug Viagra, were less likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. The study was published in Nature in early December. For the most part, Viagra is utilized as a drug to help treat erectile dysfunction. However, if proof can be found that it provides other benefits, it could become more popular than it already is.
One benefit of Viagra might be a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease
That’s the big question, isn’t it? Can taking medicine like Viagra actually reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s? Well, these results are a bit tricky.
See, the researchers used health insurance data from over 7.2 million people to create the analysis. From there, they found that claimants who took Viagra, or some other form of sildenafil, were less likely to develop the disease over the next six years. Especially when comparing it to a control group of patients who didn’t use the medicine.
Feixiong Cheng, a senior author on the study, says that the use of sildenafil helped reduce the likelihood of Alzheimer’s in individuals with coronary artery disease, hypertension, and type 2 `diabetes. These are all diseases that can contribute to an increased risk of the disease. It also showed promise in a reduction for individuals without those medical conditions. (via ScienceAlert)
What’s important about these results, though, is they don’t take other medicines into account. As such, there’s no exact proof of causative effect. That’s because they can’t prove with 100 percent certainty that these results are just from people taking Viagra. That doesn’t discount the benefits of Viagra, though. While they can’t 100 percent prove the viability of Viagra as a drug to combat Alzheimer’s disease, they do show that it is promising. That can lead to other studies, which could bring more definitive information in the future.
Sildenafil has other uses, too
This isn’t the first time the benefits of Viagra have expanded beyond its standard treatments, either. Previous studies have shown promise in fighting diseases like cancer. We’ve also seen context around the drug in malaria research. Of course, we’ve also seen a lot of abuse around the benefits of Viagra by the industry. These instances include the FDA busting “male supplement” companies who were re-packaging the drug and selling it as a health supplement aren’t uncommon.
