Who would have guessed it? Viagra is beneficial to your heart! Aside from treating love life, it also powerfully inhibits irregular heart rhythms (arrhythmias), which can cause palpitations, shortness of breath, fainting, and, in rare cases, sudden death.
Initial trials in female sheep revealed that the medicine, also known as sildenafil, may stop an arrhythmia in 90 seconds.
It lowered the frequency of irregular cardiac beats caused by improper calcium handling in heart muscle cells.
Cardiac arrhythmias are common after a heart attack or as a result of heart disease. They are normally harmless, but they can be lethal. There are treatments available, including as beta blockers and implantable defibrillators, although they are not always effective.
The research team was able to explore calcium, a crucial driver of the heart’s pumping activity, and how calcium overload can be a root cause of arrhythmias by working on isolated sheep heart muscle cells known as myocytes.
Viagra was able to inhibit the cell mechanism that causes calcium overload, restoring the heart’s normal rhythm and dampening abnormalities.
Dr. David Hutchings, principal author of the report and a lecturer at the University of Manchester, stated:
“Not only has this study demonstrated that Viagra has a powerful antiarrhythmic effect on living heart tissue, our cell studies have also uncovered the mechanism by which this happens.
“Though we studied the effect in sheep, we believe that this discovery is likely to be relevant to humans: the human heart is a similar size to a sheep’s, as is its anatomy and associated electrical circuitry.
“So this discovery could one day unleash the potential for effective treatment on what can be a devastating problem.
“Clearly, anyone who has a cardiac arrhythmia should not self-medicate and should consult their GP for
advice on the current treatment options.”
Professor Andrew Trafford of the University of Manchester added:
“This exciting study builds on our previous work.
“In 2016, our study of patients with diabetes showed that incidental use of Viagra was linked with reduced heart attack risk and improved heart attack survival.
“In 2019, we found that Viagra can slow or even reverse the progression of heart failure in sheep, and this work dramatically extends those important findings providing another tool with which to beat heart disease.”
The British Heart Foundation’s Associate Medical Director, Professor Metin Avkiran, stated:
“More research is needed, however, before Viagra and similar drugs can be repurposed for treating abnormal heart rhythms in patients.”
And hopefully, this will happen in the near future.
Image Credit: Getty
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