Health

These Medications For Erectile Dysfunction May Help Lower Risk Of Early Death From Heart Disease

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Viagra and Cialis are medications that are used for people suffering from erectile dysfunction (ED). However, a new study has found that patients that take this drug are experiencing an additional health benefit that goes beyond just helping with sexual capabilities.

Published in the January 13 copy of The Journal of Sexual Medicine, a large sized observational investigationfound that men who took a particular type of erectile dysfunction medication regularly had a ’25 percent lower chance of dying prematurely than men with ED who did not take these pills.’

How Erectile Dysfunction Medicine is Linked with Multiple Heart Benefits

The research group looked at the health records of over 70,000 men with ED. According to the study, what they found was that those who were prescribed Viagra (sildenafil), Cialis (tadalafil), Levitra (vardenafil) and other similar drugs that are considered phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE-5) inhibitors were also found to have the following:

  • 39 percent lower death rate due to heart disease
  • 22 percent lower death rate due to unstable angina(where the heart doesn’t get enough blood flow and oxygen)
  • 17 percent lower rate of heart failure
  • 15 percent lower rate in the need for revascularization procedures such as angioplasty(a procedure to open up blocked arteries), stenting, and bypass surgery
  • 13 percent lower rate of major adverse cardiovascular eventssuch as stroke and heart attack

Lead researcher and director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at Huntington Medical Research Institutes in Pasadena, California, Robert Kloner, MD, PhD, said, “Across all of these endpoints, those men with ED who were exposed to the PDE-5 inhibitors showed significant associations with lower rates of many of these adverse events or trends in the right direction, suggesting a possible protective effect.” Dr. Kloner also happens to be a professor of medicine at the cardiovascular division at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

Although the research shows that there is an association between cardiac benefits and PDE-5 inhibitors, the study authors also share that the results do not necessarily prove that these drugs do cause an improvement in heart health. More often than not, large-scale clinical trials are required to establish these “cause-and-effect” types of relationships.

New Study Looked At More Information Than Earlier Research

There is earlier research that suggests how PDE-5 inhibitors help improve heart health. However, Dr. Kloner explains that some of these past studies also looked at subsets of patients, like those that had prior diagnoses of heart attacks and diabetes.

In the new study, it was focused on the way it looked at a large amount of data from a general population of men in the United States living with ED. The study looked at the cardiovascular crises, which included death from such causes as heart failure, stroke, angina, heart attack, and the need for coronary revascularization, and any other deaths due to any other cause.

Contrary to the former studies, the new study discovered that the subjects that were on the highest doses of ED medication showed significantly lower rates of cardiovascular crises as compared to those that were on the lowest doses.

They also found that the average age of the men in the study was 52, and each one had been diagnosed with ED between the years of 2006 to 2020.

Improved Heart Health Could Be Due to ED Meds Improving Dilation of Blood Vessels

Dr. Kloner shared that PDE-5 inhibitors have also been seen to improve the ability of how blood vessels dilate. As a result, they improve the function of the inner lining of blood vessels.

Referring to buildup of plaque in the arteries, Dr. Kloner shares, “The small fall in blood pressure associated with these drugs may have protective effects over time and take some of the workload off the heart and reduce the tendency to develop atherosclerosis. There are some studies suggesting that [the drugs] may have anti-platelet effects, which could help prevent blood clots.”

Dr. Kloner also says that there is also some research that suggests how these types of medications may possibly reduce inflammation or protect the heart cells from low coronary flow. However, since PDE-5 inhibitors are usually used to treat pulmonary hypertension for both men and women, he would also like for more research to be done to evaluate these particular medications in both women and men that don’t suffer from erectile dysfunction.