Study finds Viagra linked to decreased risk of Alzheimer’s disease

In their decades-long quest for drugs which can battle Alzheimer’s disease, researchers seem to have found an unlikely candidate: Viagra, the erectile dysfunction pill.

While the study is not conclusive, the researchers discovered that men who were prescribed Viagra as well as similar medications were 18 per cent less likely to suffer from dementia in the later years of their life in comparison to those who were not administered similar drugs.

The effect of Viagra was the strongest in men who were prescribed the medicine a maximum number of times. The scientists found a 44 per cent lower risk of Alzheimer’s in those who were prescribed the erectile dysfunction pills from 21 to 50 times in the course of their study.

Although the findings are astonishing, the observational study was not able to determine if Viagra and similar pills were able to protect people from Alzheimer’s or if the men who were less prone to the condition were just more likely to use the tablets.

“We can’t say that the drugs are responsible, but this does give us food for thought on how we move into the future,” stated the lead author Dr Ruth Brauer at University College London.

“We now need a proper clinical trial to look at the effects of these drugs on Alzheimer’s in women as well as men," he added, The Guardian newspaper reported.

Study examined260,000 men who werediagnosed with erectile dysfunction

For the study, medical records of more than 260,000 men were analysed by Brauer and her colleagues who were diagnosed with erectile dysfunction, although they had no evidence of memory loss or were facing thinking problems.

More than half of them were consuming PDE5 inhibitor drugs, ranging from avanafil, vardenafil, tadalafil and sildenafil (sold as Viagra).

The researchers followed the men for an average of five years to record any new cases of Alzheimer’s.

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Around 55 million people have been suffering from dementia around the world, and most of them have Alzheimer's.

The new drugs which clear aberrant proteins from the brain have proved that they can slow down the disease, however, the effects of the medicines have been marginal.

Originally, Viagra was developed for treating angina and high blood pressure.

When Welsh miners participated in a trial in Merthyr Tydfil and spoke about its unexpected night-time side effects, the drug gained fame as a multibillion-dollar erectile dysfunction pill.

(With inputs from agencies)