If you know your Viagra history, you know that the drug sildenafil was originally developed as a medication to treat heart conditions and high blood pressure. At the time, it was considered a flop at that, but more than made up for it with its spectacular sexual side effects. Viagra's monumental property of countering erectile dysfunction all but eclipsed any other medical applications. There has been some continued research, and sildenafil has proven effective in treating pulmonary hypertension as well as a few other less common conditions.
Now it seems researchers were perhaps a little too hasty in tossing in the towel on using Viagra for cardiac treatments. Some 15 years later, a recently published study shows that sildenafil may have dramatic benefits for patients suffering from diastolic heart failure, working within minutes. This has big implications. "Of all the patients aged over 60 who are in hospital because of a weak heart, half suffer from diastolic heart failure" explains Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Linke, author of the study.
The article indicates the initial experiments were done with dogs having diastolic heart failure. Perhaps that's what was ailing Ingrid the pitbull, who we met in our last post. She was rescued from death's door step by a quick-thinking vet who prescribed Viagra. Maybe the doc was ahead of the curve and had already read the medical literature.
Paradoxically, the drug helps by relaxing heart tissue that has become too stiff. Not what comes to mind when you think Viagra, but the enzyme that the drug inhibits acts differently in different organs of the body.
Just goes to show, the little blue pill truly is a wonder drug: it softens hard hearts and hardens soft...
