multiple sclerosis (MS) may be used:
Controlling a relapseMedications can shorten a sudden relapse and help you recover Altering the course of MS using disease-modifying treatmentStrong evidence suggests that MS is caused by the Currently, interferon beta (Avonex and Rebif, and Betaseron), Currently, there is no effective disease-modifying treatment for Relieving symptomsTreating specific symptoms can be effective, even if it does not
MS can affect many parts of the nervous system and produce a wide Medication ChoicesSymptom managementMedications used to treat symptoms of an attack of multiple
Relapsing-remitting MSMedications used specifically for relapsing-remitting MS to
Pills MSMedications used to treat and possibly delay the progression of
Primary-progressive MSNo medicines have been clearly proven to help, and none have Medications being studiedA variety of Several medicines are currently being tested in What To Think AboutLong-term treatment with interferon beta and glatiramer acetate The National Multiple Sclerosis Society recommends that treatment Despite the recommendation, however, some people find it
If you decide not to try disease-modifying therapy at this time, Treating symptoms and relapsesThe need and desire for medication vary. If your symptoms are You may also want to consider:
Also keep in mind that it can be hard to tell whether Read source on Multiple Sclerosis (MS) - Medications |
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Multiple Sclerosis (MS) - Medications
November 13th, 2007 — Erectile Dysfunction Drugs, Erectile dysfunction pills, Generic Viagra, Sildenafil Citrate, Viagra
Who Should Cover the Cost of Contraception?
November 11th, 2007 — Erectile Dysfunction Drugs, Erectile dysfunction pills, Generic Viagra, Sildenafil Citrate, Viagra
| Read more on Who Should Cover the Cost of Contraception?
July 26, 2000 –Until last week, Jennifer Erickson was just an ordinary pharmacist, working at a drugstore in Seattle. Now, the 26-year-old married woman is the poster girl for women everywhere who have had to plunk down their own money to pay for birth control. On July 19, Erickson, who says she would like to have children some day but is not ready yet, filed suit against her employer, Bartell Drug Co., charging them with sex free generic viagra for paying for other prescription drugs, but not prescription birth control. Erickson is one of approximately 42 million women in this country who use birth control. Although she has a good job and can afford the more than $300 per year that her prescription birth control pills cost, she doesn’t think she and millions of others should have to pay for them. And neither do plenty of medical professionals and health policy experts. “Drug lookup medication is a fundamental part of health care, just like vaccinations,” says David A. Grimes, MD. “It’s good, pills, preventive health care.”
Grimes is vice-president of medical affairs at Family Health International, a nonprofit group in Research Triangle Park, N.C., that helps men and women get access to family-planning services and methods. He says that from a corporate viewpoint, contraception makes sound economic sense. By averting a birth, the company saves money, especially if that birth is premature or there are other complications, he tells WebMD.
Approximately half of all large group insurance plans will not pay for any form of prescription birth control. Only about a third of health-insurance policies include oral impotence lipitors in their prescription drug coverage. Most HMOs do cover the Pill, but only about 40% cover the other four FDA-approved contraceptive options: IUDs, diaphragms, Depo-Provera shots, and Norplant implants.
“As women, we’ve been excluded from so much,” says Karen Rashke, staff attorney for the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy. “We’ve just sort of taken it in stride. I don’t think a lot of us thought much about this until recently.” Although plenty of women have complained for years about being refused coverage for what many see as a basic health need, until the Erickson lawsuit was filed last week, no single person had ever stood up to an employer and demanded that they pay. Erickson’s lawsuit seeks birth control coverage for herself and all other non-union female employees of Bartell Drug Co., which has more than 45 pharmacies in the state of Washington. In a statement to the media, representatives of Bartell Drug Co. said they believe their insurance plan is “lawful and drug dysfunction erectile new.” They point out that they do not pay for Viagra, infertility drugs, drugs for weight reduction, immunization agents, drugs for cosmetic purposes, and various other items.
Roberta Riley of Planned Parenthood of Western Washington, who is the lead attorney in Erickson’s, case, says her client repeatedly asked her employer to change its policy and cover birth control. When they continued to refuse, she decided to sue.
“I think it was only a matter of time before something like this happened,” says Cynthia Dailard, senior public policy associate at the Alan Guttmacher Institute in Washington, D.C. “If the lawsuit is successful, it will put many employers on notice that they could face similar lawsuits if they do not cover contraceptives, and that it is a matter of gender discrimination.”
Both Planned Parenthood of Western Washington and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which is also representing Erickson, say birth control prevents unintended pregnancies and reduces the need for abortion.The group cites 1998 statistics showing that nearly half of all pregnancies in the U.S. are unintended, and many of these pregnancies end in abortion.
Experts who spoke to WebMD agree that one thing that has increased women’s anger over this lack of coverage is the advent of Viagra.
“Viagra is covered by many [insurance] programs and was scooted onto the market so quickly, while women have been struggling for decades to get coverage of contraception,” Grimes says. He believes the discrepancy amounts to nothing less than discrimination against women, many of whom cannot afford $20-$30 per month for birth control pills.
It is estimated that women of childbearing age pay about 68% more out of their own pockets for medical expenses than men. And now, even the Viagra pills — at $10 apiece — are often covered, while birth control is not. According to estimates, paying for birth control would cost insurers only about $1.43 per month for each female employee. That would provide them with all available FDA-approved forms of contraception; the cost would be even less if the employer only provided coverage for some methods.
Some in Congress are trying to force change by passing a law that would require all employers and insurance companies to pay for birth control. Progress has been slow, but individual states have passed such laws on their own. States that require companies who pay for other prescription drugs to pay for prescription birth control include Maryland, Georgia, Vermont, Maine, Nevada, Connecticut, North Carolina, Hawaii, New Hampshire, California, Iowa, Delaware, and Rhode Island. But nine of the 13 states have provisions that let employers, enrollees, or insurers who object to such coverage on “religious grounds” off the hook.
Most experts say individual states will probably continue to pass laws, and people will keep a close eye on the progress of Jennifer Erickson’s lawsuit. But what can a woman who is paying for her own birth control do in the meantime?
“Employees have the ability and the right to speak to their benefits manager,” attorney Rashke says. “There’s no reason an employee can’t go to the benefits manager and say, ‘I notice in my prescription coverage there’s an exclusion for contraception.’ That’s the first step.” If you don’t want to do it on your own, Rashke advises talking to other women you work with to see if they will take the concerns to the benefits manager as a group.
“One person can do a lot by raising the issue at cocktail parties, writing a letter to the editor … just point out this lack of coverage that so many of us haven’t even thought about,” she says.
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Rx Drug Abuse: Common and Dangerous
November 11th, 2007 — Erectile Dysfunction Drugs, Erectile dysfunction pills, Generic Viagra, Sildenafil Citrate, Viagra
In the 1970s, parents worried that their longhaired, bell-bottomed teenagers were getting drunk or smoking marijuana. Today, dangers also come in the form of prescription medicines — from opioid pain relievers such as OxyContin to ADHD drugs such as Ritalin.
Prescription drug abuse appears to be on the rise in this country. Wilson Compton, MD, director of the division of epidemiology services and prevention research at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), says the reasons aren’t clear.
But he suspects that increasing numbers of free generic viagra written for certain drugs, such as ADHD medications, afford greater opportunity. “A certain portion of those will be diverted for abuse purposes,” he says.
Compton also says that in the current environment it seems almost normal to pop pills. “All of the advertising for pills may play a role in our woman impotence to try them.”
Roughly 6.3 million Americans report that they’re currently using prescription drugs for nonmedical reasons, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Prescription drug abuse knows no age. The elderly are vulnerable because they’re more likely to take many medications, often long term. Also, women may be as much as 55% more likely as men to be prescribed drugs that can be abused, such as narcotics and tranquilizers; therefore, their risk is greater, according to the NIDA.
Teens and Prescription Drug Abuse
Abuse is most common among young people, Compton says. “Prescription drug abuse — like most drug abuse — tends to peak in the teens and 20s,” he tells WebMD.
Almost one in five teens — roughly 4.5 million — has tried getting high with prescription drugs (typically with pain relievers such as Vicodin or OxyContin, or stimulants, such as Ritalin and Adderall). That’s according to a recent national study on teen abuse of prescription and drug dysfunction erectile new drugs by the nonprofit Partnership for a Drug-Free America.
The study also found that teens’ abuse of prescription and over-the-counter medicines is equal to or higher than abuse of drugs such as cocaine and crack, Ecstasy, methamphetamine, and heroin.
Some teens say that prescription medicines are much safer to abuse than illegal drugs. But just because prescription drugs aren’t cooked up in someone’s garage doesn’t mean that they’re safe. According to Compton, the main risk for many drugs is addiction.
“As people try these substances, some of them will find that they really like them,” he says. “They take more of them and they continue to take them, even when they no longer want to. And that’s the hallmark of addiction. It creeps up on people in very subtle and unexpected ways. No one starts out taking a drug, saying, ‘I want to be an addict.’”
Besides addiction, prescription drug abuse can bring on a host of health problems, such as irregular heartbeats, seizures, hostility, and paranoia — even infections with HIV or other agents if someone dissolves and injects pills to get a quick high. Overdoses can be fatal. To combat the potential for abuse, some drug companies have marketed newer, drug lookup medication versions that are harder to misuse.
It’s important to remember that most people can reap benefits from prescription drugs without problems. But a minority will run into trouble. “Using these substances outside of a doctor’s prescription is already a red flag and a warning,” Compton says.
Which drugs are commonly abused? Who’s most susceptible? How could they be endangering their health? Here’s the rundown.
Original article ‘Rx Drug Abuse: Common and Dangerous‘
Viagra Safe for Most Men With Heart Disease
November 8th, 2007 — Erectile Dysfunction Drugs, Erectile dysfunction pills, Generic Viagra, Sildenafil Citrate, Viagra
March 19, 2001 (Orlando, Fla.) — OK, to recap: When Viagra was introduced, there were reports that the free generic viagra drug could be dangerous if taken by men with heart disease, particularly those who were on nitrate drugs. Those fears seem to be fading as recent research counters the early findings.
In fact, two new studies presented here Monday at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) suggest that Viagra could help the heart and blood vessels work more clinic dysfunction erectile that treat during times of physical demand, such as sexual intercourse. What’s more, a third study makes the case that the drug may never have been as bad for the ticker as initially thought.
What this amounts to “is further evidence that Viagra is a very safe drug to use for most people,” says a member of the ACC panel that issued recommendations in 1999 on the use of Viagra in patients with heart disease.
“We used to think that it wasn’t a good idea to give it to men who were taking multiple [drugs to treat high blood pressure], but now after our experience with millions of patients, the only absolute contraindication is in men who are on nitrates,” says Adolph M. Hutter Jr., MD, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a specialist in cardiovascular medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, both in Boston.
“Men should not use Viagra for 24 hours before or 24 hours after taking nitrates,” Hutter tells WebMD.
In the first study presented at the ACC conference, Charalambos Vlachopoulos, MD, and colleagues from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, randomly assigned 27 men in their late 60s and 70s to receive either Viagra or an identical but inactive placebo. The researchers then looked at the stiffness of the men’s arteries — the stiffer the artery, the harder the heart has to work to pump blood out of its chambers.
They found the drug made the arteries significantly more flexible and lowered blood pressure both when the heart was at work and at rest. This led them to conclude that the drug “may contribute to improved exercise capacity of the patient [during] intercourse.”
In a separate study out of Brazil, researchers looked at 18 patients with erectile dysfunction and moderate congestive heart failure who were randomly assigned to receive Viagra or placebo. Within 60-90 minutes of taking the pill, the subjects were asked to walk for six minutes on a treadmill and then, after resting, to perform a standard stress test while being monitored for signs of problems.
The researchers found that in addition to being effective for treating erectile dysfunction in patients with congestive heart failure, Viagra also appears to increase exercise capacity. Despite concerns that it would cause dangerously low blood pressure by dilating blood vessels, they found that the men who took Viagra actually had the same blood pressures during physical exercise as the ones who didn’t.
“The study on congestive heart failure patients was very reassuring, because they had borderline low blood pressure, and that’s the group we were concerned about,” Hutter says. “It’s only a small number of people, but it’s very reassuring that not only can many of those patients use [Viagra] safely, but they actually benefit in terms of erectile checker drug interaction medication [and] exercise capacity.”
The third study looked at about 5,600 British men for up to six months after they started taking Viagra.
“We didn’t find any evidence of increased [death from heart attack] in men who took Viagra in England,” says Saad A.W. Shakir, MD, a drug lookup medication at the University of Southampton, U.K.
The finding that Viagra may have a role in moderating the effects of exercise on heart disease actually is not so surprising, because the drug was originally developed for the treatment of chest pains due to angina pectoris, a condition caused by narrowing of the blood vessels that supply the heart.
Viagra causes smooth muscle in blood vessel walls to relax, theoretically allowing the vessels to expand and thereby carry a greater volume of blood. Although early clinical studies indicated that the drug was a bust for treating heart disease, many of the men who took part in the study were reportedly reluctant to return the pills, apparently because they worked wonders for another part of the anatomy.
Type 1 Diabetes: Living With Complications - Home Treatment
November 7th, 2007 — Erectile Dysfunction Drugs, Erectile dysfunction pills, Generic Viagra, Sildenafil Citrate, Viagra
type 1 diabetes are:
For more information, see the Home Treatment section of the topic Other measures to care for and protect yourself depend on which Heart and large blood vessel diseaseEven if you don’t have heart and blood vessel problems, you are
Eye disease (diabetic retinopathy)Call your eye specialist if you notice any changes in your If you have severe vision loss from diabetic retinopathy, For more information, see the topic Kidney disease (diabetic nephropathy)
For more information, see the topic Foot problemsDaily care of your feet is very important. Because For more information, see
Nerve damage (diabetic neuropathy)If it affects your ability to feel (peripheral
If it affects your body’s internal functioning (autonomic neuropathy):
If it affects one nerve (focal
For more information, see the topic Original article Type 1 Diabetes: Living With Complications - Home Treatment |
Competition for Viagra?
October 30th, 2007 — Erectile Dysfunction Drugs, Erectile dysfunction pills, Generic Viagra, Sildenafil Citrate, Viagra
Jan. 2, 2001 — There’s no doubt about it: Viagra is one of the most popular and best-selling drugs ever to hit the pharmacy. Since it first appeared on the market in 1998, more than 20 million prescriptions have been written for it. But while countless men have bade farewell to impotence or erectile dysfunction, others have found that Viagra does not work well for them. For these men, good news may be on the way, as researchers have discovered yet another promising treatment for sexual dysfunction.
“Many different types of treatments exist for men with erectile difficulties,” says Craig Niederberger, MD, FACS, who explains that much of Viagra’s popularity is credited to the fact that it can be taken as a pill.
Other treatments, he adds, are less convenient and may involve injection of medication directly into the penis. Niederberger, who was not involved in the recent research, is chief of the division of andrology at the University of Illinois, in Chicago.
“Traditionally, treatments for erectile dysfunction have focused on the processes that turn on smooth muscle relaxation and produce erection, rather than by blocking the contraction of smooth muscle,” says study author Christopher J. Wingard, MS, PhD. In their study, which appears in the January issue of Nature Medicine, Wingard and his colleagues looked at the latter process.
When men are sexually aroused, blood flow into the penis increases, filling up spongy cylinders called corpora cavernosa. When the cylinders fill with blood, the penis hardens and becomes erect. Acting like flood gates, muscular blood vessels called arterioles control the flow of blood into the penis. A chemical called nitric oxide is a signal for the gates to open, and Viagra works by increasing the amount of nitric oxide, signaling the gates to open and increasing the blood flow.
Researchers from the Medical College of Georgia, in Augusta decided to explore a different approach. They found that an enzyme called Rho-kinase is present in the spongy cylinders. Elsewhere, this enzyme enhances the activity of muscle, like the muscle in those flood gate muscular vessels. The researchers reasoned that if they inhibited the activity of this enzyme, the muscle would relax, opening the flood gates.
Sure enough, it worked. They injected a drug called Y-27632, a known inhibitor of Rho-kinase, into the spongy cylinders of rats, causing penile erections. In further testing, they showed that the Rho-kinase inhibition worked completely independently of the way Viagra works.
It’s estimated that about half of all American men between the ages of 40 and 70 are affected with impotence to some degree, and the underlying causes vary. Sometimes, psychological reasons or lifestyle factors, such as excessive alcohol consumption, can lead to impotence. However, a persistent problem is usually due to a chronic illness or a side effect of certain drugs.
“Viagra has proven effective in 60-70% of the general population and only about 40% effective in specific groups like diabetics who have some form of erectile dysfunction,” says Wingard. “Thus, it appears that we have a new angle on developing a therapeutic treatment of erectile dysfunction that does not rely on the action of the nitric oxide pathway.”
“The type of drug studied in this article uses an entirely new pathway to cause erections in animals, and opens the door to many new possible drugs,” says Niederberger. “If the studied drug is used in the future, it may add to the list of drugs used in direct injection.”
So, while the need exists for a wider range of therapies, and the news of this research is encouraging, it is still too early to tell whether Y-27632 will sit beside Viagra on the shelves of the local pharmacy.
While this work examined an injectable form of Y-27632, says Wingard, current research efforts have been focusing on using it in a topical form. If this method proves a viable means of administering the compound, he says, “It could lead the way for the development of a new drug treatment of erectile dysfunction.”
The study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association, and the American Health Assistance Foundation.
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Employer’s Health Plan Must Include Birth Control for Women
October 28th, 2007 — Erectile Dysfunction Drugs, Erectile dysfunction pills, Generic Viagra, Sildenafil Citrate, Viagra
June 12, 2001 — A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Bartell
Drug Co. must include contraceptives for women in its employee health insurance
plan.
The decision marks nearly a year of litigation, sparked when
Jennifer Erickson, a 27-year-old pharmacist, filed suit last summer because the
firm would not pay for prescription contraceptives. She contended that the
policy violated the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act and sued for sexual
discrimination.
“Although the plan covers almost all drugs and devices used
by men,” wrote U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik, “the exclusion of
prescription contraceptives creates a gaping hole in the coverage offered to
female employees, leaving a fundamental and immediate healthcare need
uncovered.”
The widely watched lawsuit against Bartell became the first
federal challenge to employers who don’t cover birth control.
“We have to determine, does this policy single out women
and put them at a disadvantage because of their potential for pregnancy, and
clearly it does,” Erickson’s lead attorney, Roberta Riley, told Lasnik at a
hearing last month.
However, Bartell lawyer James Dickens told the judge that is
the wrong interpretation of the pregnancy law. Thousands of pages of the
Congressional Record show no mention of birth control, he said.
“The state of not being pregnant was not covered by that
law,” he said. Besides, Dickens said, Bartell’s plans exclude a broad range
of family planning services.
Still, Bartell on Tuesday said it would comply with the ruling.
In April, the company added birth control to its health plans for union-covered
employees and now will “take prompt action” to add the benefit for
nonunion employees, such as Erickson, said Jean Bartell Barber. She is the
company’s chief financial officer and granddaughter of its founder.
“It was never our intention to discriminate, and we had
planned to offer contraceptive coverage well before this judgment,” she
said.
Nationally, women’s groups have been trying for years to force
employers to cover contraceptives in health insurance. While Erickson herself
would be able to afford to pay out-of-pocket for her prescription, she didn’t
think she and millions of others should have to do so. At the time she filed
her suit, health experts told WebMD they agreed with her.
“Contraception is a fundamental part of healthcare,”
noted David A. Grimes, MD. “It’s good, cost-effective, preventive
healthcare.” He is vice president of biomedical affairs at Family Health
International, a nonprofit group in Research Triangle Park, N.C.
At the time Erickson filed suit, about half of all the large
group insurance plans were not paying for any form of prescription birth
control. Only about a third of health insurance plans included oral
contraceptives in their prescription drug coverage. Most HMOs were covering the
pill when the suit was filed.
The debate became particularly charged, however, after the
introduction of Viagra, the male pill for erectile dysfunction, which some
insurers cover.
In December, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
declared that two employers violated the pregnancy discrimination law by
failing to cover contraceptives — but including other preventive treatments –
in health insurance plans.
The EEOC said the 1978 law protects women against
discrimination because they have the ability to become pregnant, not just
because they are already pregnant.
Congress in 1998 required that health plans for federal
employees cover prescription contraceptives.
Erickson has said she became frustrated when she had to
constantly tell customers that they would have to pay for their birth control
pills — because many other health plans, like her company’s, don’t cover
contraceptives — though many do cover abortions and vasectomies.
Bartell, founded in 1890, had 48 stores in the Seattle area as
of last year and is the oldest family-owned drugstore chain in the nation.
Source: Employer’s Health Plan Must Include Birth Control for Women
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Viagra Rival Levitra Approved
October 27th, 2007 — Erectile Dysfunction Drugs, Erectile dysfunction pills, Generic Viagra, Sildenafil Citrate, Viagra
Aug. 20, 2003 — Levitra has just won FDA approval — a move toward challenging the groundbreaking erectile dysfunction drug Viagra. But what does Levitra have to offer that the little blue pill doesn’t?
The news will hopefully bring more men to their doctors, opening up more conversations about this still-secret subject, says Natan Bar-Chama, MD, urologist and director of male reproductive surgery at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York City.
“We’ll hopefully encourage more patients, and also physicians, to be more proactive in addressing this problem,” he tells WebMD. Bar-Chama, who was not associated with the studies, agreed to comment on the announcement.
The Drugs
Viagra, the first pill for erectile dysfunction, was developed by Pfizer, Inc. and put on the market in 1998.
Levitra, co-developed by Bayer Pharmaceuticals and GlaxoSmithKline, takes effect a bit quicker than Viagra — in less than 20 minutes for some men. Also, it keeps acting for about five hours, compared with Viagra’s four hours, the company says. GlaxoSmithKline is a WebMD sponsor. Bayer and Glaxo say Levitra will be available in September.
Cialis, another erectile dysfunction drug in the pipeline, is expected to get FDA approval later this year. Cialis takes effect quickly (in 30 minutes or less), and its effects last about 36 hours. Also, its effectiveness is not affected by food, which has been a problem with Viagra, says Cialis maker Eli Lilly and Company, a WebMD sponsor.
The Mechanics
Levitra has been studied in more than 50 clinical trials involving 5,700 men. In Europe, it has been available since March 2003, and has shown to be effective and safe in treating erectile dysfunction.
Like Viagra, Levitra acts by relaxing muscles and blood vessels in the penis, allowing increased blood flow into the penis, which produces an erection.
With Levitra, onset of action occurs within 16 minutes for some men, between 30 to 60 minutes for others. Viagra starts acting 45 to 90 minutes after taking the pill. “On a practical level, it doesn’t make a big difference. Both time-frames are adequate to engage in satisfactory relations,” says Bar-Chama.
Also, Levitra works well when taken either before or after a low-fat meal, Bar-Chama tells WebMD, but a high-fat meal will decrease its aborption, making it less effective. High-fat meals also hinder Viagra.
For difficult-to-treat men who have diabetes and or have had prostate surgery, both Levitra and Viagra work equally well in solving erectile dysfunction, he adds. However, like Viagra, Levitra is not advised for men taking nitrate drugs (such as nitroglycerin tablets or patches) or alpha-blockers (drugs used to treat benign prostate hyperplasia and/or high blood pressure).
Cialis takes effect in 16 to 30 minutes, and stays active in the body for about 36 hours. Also, absorption of Cialis is not affected by either high-fat or low-fat meals, according to Carole Copeland, a Lilly spokeswoman.
Wide-Scale Problem
More than 50% of men over age 40 will experience erectile dysfunction at some time,” says Bar-Chama.
“And yet, nine out of 10 are currently not being treated. This is a medical problem that significantly affects quality of life, and yet, for the vast majority, there is still a barrier to discussing and getting effective medical therapy. Hopefully, this news will awaken more men, get them to talk to their doctors.”
SOURCE: FDA Talk Paper. Natan Bar-Chama, MD, urologist; director of male reproductive surgery, Mt. Sinai Medical Center, New York City. Bayer Pharmaceuticals Corp. GlaxoSmithKline. Carole Copeland, spokeswoman, Eli Lilly and Company.
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Blood Pressure Medications and ED
October 26th, 2007 — Erectile Dysfunction Drugs, Erectile dysfunction pills, Generic Viagra, Sildenafil Citrate, Viagra
To treat erectile dysfunction (ED), you have to lower your blood pressure
first. Some people are able to do that through lifestyle changes alone. Others
need help from prescribed blood pressure medication.
A problem for many men, however, is that some types of blood pressure
medicines can actually cause erectile dysfunction. That may make it
difficult to stay on your medication, especially if your high blood pressure
never caused any symptoms before. An estimated 70% of men who have side effects
from blood pressure medicine stop taking it.
Many drugs used to treat high blood pressure have been linked to erectile
dysfunction. But some are much less likely than others to cause problems.
Certain of the blood pressures drugs may even improve erectile
dysfunction for some men.
It’s known that diuretics (or water pills, like hydrochlorothiazide) and
beta-blockers (like Atenolol) can cause erection problems. These are also the
first drugs that a doctor is likely to prescribe if you are not able to lower
your blood pressure through diet and exercise.
If you’re taking a diuretic, you should stay on your medicine until your
blood pressure is under control. If your erection problem persists, or your
blood pressure goes back up, then your doctor might switch you to a drug that’s
less likely to cause erectile dysfunction. Or, a combination of medications
might work better to control your blood pressure and reduce the risk of
erectile dysfunction.
If you take a beta blocker you may also want to ask your doctor if it might
cause erectile dysfunction. You might be better off on a medication less likely
to cause a problem.
Erection-Friendly High Blood Pressure Drugs
Some families of high blood pressure drugs rarely cause erectile dysfunction
as a side effect:
- ACE inhibitors
- Alpha-blockers
- Calcium channel blockers
- ARBs
ACE (angiotensin converting enzyme) inhibitors — such as Lotensin, Capoten,
Zestril, Prinivil, etc. — widen blood vessels and increase blood flow.
Erectile dysfunction is rarely a side effect, occurring in less than 1% of
patients. There are several different medications in the category. This seems
to be true of all of them.
There are also medications known as calcium channel blockers, such as
Diltiazem, Verapamil, or Amlodipine. As a group, they rarely cause erectile
dysfunction. But erection problems may be less common with some individual
drugs within that group than with others. Your doctor can tell you which.
In general, alpha-blockers do not often cause erection problems either. In
one study published in the journal Hypertension in 1997, a small
number of men actually had a 100% improvement in their erectile dysfunction
after two years on the alpha-blocker Cardura.
Drugs known as ARBs (angiotensin II receptor blockers, like Losarten) are
not only unlikely to cause erection problems, but they may actually
improve sexual function in men with high blood pressure.
A 2001 study published in the American Journal of the Medical
Sciences looked at the drug Cozaar, an ARB. At first, just 7% of men and
women in the study said they felt sexually satisfied overall. After 12 weeks of
Cozaar, about 58% said they were sexually satisfied. The percentage of men who
reported having erectile dysfunction dropped from 75% to 12%.
Another study compared the drug Diovan, an ARB, with Coreg, a beta-blocker.
The study, published in the American Journal of Hypertension in 2001,
compared the effect of the two drugs on blood pressure and frequency of sexual
intercourse.
The drugs controlled blood pressure equally well. But people who took the
ARB reported having sex more often during the 16 weeks of treatment. They said
they had sex about eight times a month before, and 10 times a month after.
People taking the beta-blocker had sex much less often: eight times a month
before, and four times a month after.
Steps to Take If Your Medicine Causes Erection Problems
Tell your doctor if you think your blood pressure medicine may be causing
problems with your erections.
If it is your medication, and not just your high blood pressure,
switching to another prescription may solve the problem. Never stop taking your
medicine without your doctor’s OK.
But high blood pressure itself still could be to blame for your erectile
dysfunction. In that case, ask about trying an erectile dysfunction drug like
Viagra, Cialis, or Levitra.
You should only take these drugs once your blood pressure is under control.
They are not safe for men with untreated high blood pressure. They are also not
safe for men taking alpha-blockers, or men taking nitrate drugs for heart
disease. Continue reading →
Falling for ‘Niagara’
October 23rd, 2007 — Erectile Dysfunction Drugs, Erectile dysfunction pills, Generic Viagra, Sildenafil Citrate, Viagra
May 18, 2001 — What’s blue, comes in bottles, costs a hefty chunk of change per dose and is reputed to enhance sexual performance? If you said Viagra, you’re close but no cigar. The stuff in question is an herbal beverage called Niagara (nudge, nudge, wink, wink), made in Sweden and billed by its U.S. distributor as “Romance in a bottle.”
The distributor, Lari Williams, who describes herself as “just a little girl from Arkansas trying to bring romance back to the bedroom” is doing it with the help of Nerve, a magazine that unabashedly peddles itself as “more graphic, forthright, and topical than ‘erotica,’ but less blockheadedly masculine than ‘pornography,’” according to the company’s mission statement. In other words, Nerve aims for a demographic somewhere between Reader’s Digest and Hustler.
Niagara is a fruit-flavored blue-dyed concoction containing carbonated water and sugar spiked with the alleged herbal aphrodisiac damiana (reputed to be a plant estrogen), plus ginseng (a root commonly used in Chinese medicine), guarana (a stimulant similar to caffeine), mat (another stimulant), schizandra (a Chinese medicinal said to have aphrodisiac and stimulant properties), plus as much caffeine as an eight ounce cup of coffee.
Williams tells WebMD that she discovered Niagara at a food and gifts trade show in Dallas last January. “I tried it one night and realized that it definitely had an effect on me, and I told my husband ‘I’m buying 3,000 bottles’ because it was close to Valentine’s Day, and he was going ‘Oh my gosh, no you’re not,’ and I went ‘Yes I am’ and he was just about to kill me. Well, we sold 15,000 bottles in two days. We had to make two trips to Dallas to go pick up more product.”
Williams, owner of a gourmet coffee and food shop in Little Rock, adds that “here in Arkansas we have what we call ‘Niagara Nights.’ People get their six-pack or two or three bottles and walk out the door high-fiving each other going ‘Ooh, we’re having a Niagara night tonight!’”
One of William’s customers, a 45-year-old saleswomen, told Arkansas Times in March that “I usually wear down … I was hanging in there. I was proud of myself … It lights your fire.” Another said, “It made me feel really warm, really sensual, … much more sensitive.”
Testimonials are one thing, but proof is another. Because the combination of ingredients in Niagara has never been subjected to scientific scrutiny, it’s difficult to know whether Niagara actually stimulates the female libido.
“The problem with a lot of these aphrodisiacs — and it’s a problem with the whole herbal industry — is the fact that there’s no validation of the product and it’s not under any kind of FDA control,” says Eloy Rodriguez, PhD, professor of plant biology at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.
Rodriguez tells WebMD that he previously investigated damiana (which Williams says is the main active ingredient in Niagara), but found no biochemical evidence that it had sexual stimulatory properties. In the book A Modern Herbal, published in 1931 and revised in 1971, Mrs. M. Grieve described damiana as “a mild purgative, diuretic, tonic, acting directly on the reproductive organs, stimulant … aphrodisiae.”
If the claims about Niagara’s effects are unproven, what’s certain is that a lot of people are excited about the product, including Williams, who saw sales skyrocket after her web site was featured on a segment of ABC’s Good Morning America. The Playboy mansion recently ordered more than 1,400 bottles of Niagara, and it’s being hawked on the Internet auction site eBay for $50 per bottle and up (it retails for $29.95 a six pack) says Alisa Volkman, a spokeswoman for Nerve.com. Niagara has popped up on NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s chatfest The View, and the Montel Williams show.
The folks at Nerve and its online incarnation are in ecstasy as well: after they “broke” the Niagara story on their Web site in March, they agreed to develop a Web site for Williams to push the product. They have also just nailed down a film development deal with Revolution Studios, which has acquired the rights to the story for a production company partly owned by Julia Roberts and Adam Sandler, with a script being developed for Sandler, says Volkman, who is also vice president for film development at Nerve.
The folks at Pfizer, manufacturer of Viagra, are pretty worked up about Niagara too. They took Williams to court for trademark infringement, but failed to get a temporary restraining order. In his decision the Arkansas judge was quoted as saying “if men can have Viagra then women should be able to have Niagara.”
For the moment at least, women have their Niagara. Williams assures WebMD that neither she nor anyone connected with the beverage makes medical claims for it, which would be a violation of FDA regulations. In 1989, the FDA issued a statement that there is no scientific proof that any over-the-counter aphrodisiacs work to treat sexual dysfunction, and the agency has issued recall requests of some products with aphrodisiac claims.
“I can only tell people that they must be smart and realize when somebody tells them ‘this is so-and-so,’ they have to rely on [the fact] that the person knows what they are talking about,” Rodriguez says. “Most of the time, they’re just carnival barkers that got fired.” Continue reading →