Just to get the obvious out of the way: Viagra, the brand name for sildenafil, is generally used to treat erectile dysfunction in men.
It's proven to be effective and popular, and even shows similarly positive sexual side effects in women.
A study published in the journal Nature Aging found that Viagra could be useful in fighting Alzheimer's and dementia.
It's exciting news because, if approved for this usage, it could be an effective multi-purpose drug.
Viagra wasn't originally intended as an erectile dysfunction drug.
It was intended to treat heart ailments, because it widens blood vessels, boosting circulation and improving blood flow.
It was later found that improved blood flow could help in...other areas as well.
All of these problems are made worse by decreased blood flow.
In the case of dementia, reduced blood flow to the brain can cause serious cognitive side effects. Researchers found that high doses of Viagra help improve blood flow to the brain.
When it comes to dementia and Alzheimer's, many of the mechanisms and causes remain a mystery. This, combined with the fact that the research on Viagra as a treatment for dementia is still preliminary, means that more studies should help researchers better understand these connections.
Yeah, the jokes here write themselves. The researchers are too professional to comment on whether these big doses of Viagra caused more, uh, excitement in the test subjects.
Still, that isn't going to stop me from joking about it.
Older folks are more likely to experience both erectile dysfunction and dementia, so perhaps we'll someday reach a point where older men will pop a bunch of blue pills every morning along with their vitamins.
Honestly, the process of a study like this getting published to more studies getting published to clinical trials to FDA approval is a long and boring one.
Long story short: it'll probably be awhile before we see Viagra approved as a dementia drug, if we ever do at all.
Viagra isn't approved as a dementia drug, but it is approved as a sexual dysfunction drug. This means that if you've got a stash of blue pills somewhere that gets discovered, you can just cite this study to avoid embarrassment.
Jokes aside, it's pretty interesting to see a drug that was intended for heart ailments get turned into the world's most popular erectile dysfunction drug and then, decades later, get considered as a dementia drug.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section!
