Men who use Viagra may have a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease

According to a research, men who use erectile dysfunction medications like Viagra may lower their chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

The medication-taking group was 18% less likely to acquire the dementia-causing disease in a study involving almost 260,000 males.

To demonstrate that the medications are having the desired impact, however, further study is required.

There is great hope that two novel medications for Alzheimer’s disease can reduce the illness’s progression in its early stages.

They may alter the course of treatment for Alzheimer’s by targeting beta amyloid, a protein that accumulates in the brains of those who have the disease.

However, researchers are still searching for medications that are currently on the market that can stop or postpone the disease’s initial development.

Prescription documentation

Originally, angina and high blood pressure were the intended uses of medications like Viagra. They function by acting on a messenger that is connected to memory and is also involved in cell signaling.

They have been shown to influence brain cell activity and may have some protective effects on the brain based on studies conducted on animals.

Researchers from University College London compared the prescription histories of thousands of men with erectile dysfunction who received the medications to those who did not in a recent study published in Neurology.

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In the next five years, they discovered 9.7 cases of Alzheimer’s in the group not taking the medication and 8.1 cases per 10,000 person years in the group that was provided the medication.

The men with the highest number of erectile dysfunction prescriptions had the lowest risk of Alzheimer’s disease, indicating that consistent erectile dysfunction medication use may have a higher protective effect against the condition.

The study, according to the researchers, may open up new research directions but does not prove that the medications themselves were lowering people’s risk of Alzheimer’s.

“More study is needed to validate these findings, learn more about the possible advantages and mechanisms of these medications, and look into the ideal dose,” stated lead author Dr. Ruth Brauer.

In order to determine if the medication has any effect, the researchers also intend to conduct an experiment on females.

There are several potential causes of the illness. Some of these factors, such as age, underlying medical problems, other medications used, and smoking status, were taken into account when adjusting the study’s findings.

Prof. Tara Spires-Jones, president of the British Neuroscience Association and a professor at the University of Edinburgh, stated, “This study provides solid evidence that this sort of treatment is worth additional study in the future, but it does not clearly indicate that erectile dysfunction drugs lower Alzheimer’s risk.”

Although Dr. Francesco Tamagnini, a neurophysiologist at the University of Reading, called the research “a wonderful one,” more conclusive data regarding the drug’s effects on the brain was still required.

“If the medicine is able to pass the blood brain barrier, it may have a therapeutic impact directly altering neurons and/or by boosting blood flow, but both of these theories need to be validated,” the speaker stated.

Source:
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-68232649

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