Patients taking Viagra are less likely to suffer a heart attack, new research claims.
Men
taking the imp4otence drug were found to have a lower risk of having a
heart attack or dying from heart failure than those not on the
medication.
Experts from the Centre for
Cardiac Research at the University of Manchester studied 6,000 diabetic
patients in Cheshire who had been given Viagra - which works by
increasing blood flow - to treat erectile dysfunction.
Despite
diabetics being prone to heart problems, the study participants did not
suffer as many incidents as similar patients not on the drug.
Professor
Andrew Trafford and his team, funded by the British Heart Foundation,
are hoping to show the medication can also help prevent arrhythmias -
abnormal heart rhythms.
He told the Daily Express the findings are 'incredibly exciting'.
He
added: 'Heart failure is a devastating condition which means your heart
is not pumping blood around your body as well as it used to.
'It
can really impact a person's quality of life and currently the outlook
for patients with heart failure is grim - worse than that of some
cancers.
'Our studies have shown that
drugs normally used for the treatment of erectile dysfunction, such as
Viagra, actually have a very pronounced effect in slowing the
progression of heart failure as well as reducing the likelihood of fatal
arrhythmias.
He added: 'We have
recently established that patients who receive Viagra or similar drugs
for erectile dysfunction are also far less likely to then go on and die
from a heart attack.'
Daily Mail
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