The more Viagra-type drugs men take, the lower their sexual confidence —Scientists

Scientists have warned that the more Viagra-type drugs men take, the lower their sexual confidence becomes.

This warning was contained in a discussion explaining how Viagra was discovered by accident.

Scientists at the pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, reportedly discovered the powers of Viagra (sildenafil citrate) by accident in the early 1990s during trials of a potential new angina drug named UK-92480.

Angina is a condition in which the vessels that supply the heart with blood constrict, triggering chest pain and breathlessness.

The drug, UK-92480, was found to do little to relieve pain, and Pfizer was on the verge of abandoning it when reports began to show a distinctive pattern: many male trial volunteers were experiencing an unusual side-effect — erections.

It turned out that rather than dilating their coronary blood vessels as hoped, the blood vessels of their penises became dilated instead.

Senior Pfizer scientist, Chris Wayman, investigated what was happening by testing the drug on penile tissue samples from impotent men. The effect was dramatic.

U.S. regulator, the Food and Drug Administration, approved Viagra in 1998. Before this, there was no oral treatment for erectile dysfunction; the only options were an injection or a prosthetic implant.

Viagra is thought to be effective for up to six hours, and while it does not stimulate desire, it does help a man to establish and maintain an erection if he feels aroused.

Viagra’s subsequent success is the stuff of pharmaceutical legend. Pfizer continues to make Viagra at its plant in a small village called Ringaskiddy in County Cork — dubbed ‘Viagra Falls’ by locals, who also claim to enjoy amazing sex lives because of the Viagra ‘in the air.’

In its first 10 years alone, nearly 30 million men worldwide were prescribed Viagra with sales of more than £1bn. In Britain, prescriptions for Viagra (and other erectile dysfunction drugs) have nearly tripled in the past decade.

However, doctors are concerned that men are buying Viagra-type drugs online, putting themselves in peril from counterfeit chemicals.

The chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, Prof. Helen Stokes-Lampard, says buying Viagra and similar drugs online exposes men to a “powerful drug that could have potentially unpleasant side-effects, and serious interactions with other medication.”

Analysis of these pills has found them to contain everything from gypsum (used to make plaster of Paris) to printer ink, brick dust and even arsenic. They are often manufactured by criminal gangs who see the potential of increased demand.

Doctors say there is a growing trend for younger men using Viagra and similar drugs.
They may want to improve sexual performance or take it to counter the use of other recreational drugs and alcohol which make it harder to get an erection.

Seth Rankin, an NHS GP and chief executive of the London Doctors Clinic, a private chain of GP surgeries, says many 20-something-year-olds take Viagra-type drugs because they watch a lot of pornography and feel pressure to perform.

However, young men who use Viagra as a lifestyle drug can harm their potency, because they begin to doubt their virility without it, and develop a psychological dependency on it.