Could male sexual performance-enhancing medicines help men avoid Alzheimer’s risk?
According to a study, there may be a decreased risk of memory-robbing sickness if erectile dysfunction medications such as Cialis, Levitra, and Viagra are taken. The British researchers at University College London stressed that the study was not intended to show causation and effect. Ruth Brauer, a pharmacoepidemiology and medication safety lecturer at the university and co-author of the study, stated that “more research is needed to confirm these findings, learn more about the potential benefits and mechanisms of these drugs and look into the optimal dosage.”
Furthermore, she thinks that “it is warranted to conduct a randomized, controlled trial with both male and female participants to determine whether these findings would also apply to women.” The results were released in the journal Neurology on February 7.
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Alzheimer’s Risk
The mechanism of action of erectile dysfunction drugs is blood vessel dilation and increased blood flow. Nearly 270,000 males with an average age of 59 who had all recently received an erectile dysfunction (ED) diagnosis participated in the new study. A bit over half of them had an ED medication prescription. When the guys joined the study, none of them had any memory problems or cognitive impairments. During a follow-up period of five years, 1,119 males received an Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis.
Alzheimer’s Risk
Bauer’s team reported that men who were taking an ED drug had 18% lower odds of developing Alzheimer’s compared to those who weren’t. That finding held even after the researchers had adjusted for other risk factors, such as age, smoking status and alcohol consumption.
Alzheimer’s Risk
The jury is still out on whether the ED medications directly caused the drop in Alzheimer’s risk, and more study is needed. But Bauer believes the research points in interesting directions. “Although we’re making progress with the new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease that work to clear amyloid plaques in the brain for people with early stages of the disease, we desperately need treatments that can prevent or delay the development of Alzheimer’s disease,” she said in a journal news release. “These results are encouraging and warrant further research.”
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