My Canadian Pharmacy News (Part 108)

Since Viagra interaction with other medications may not be safe for your health, there are several different drugs to which you should pay attention, if you decide to treat erectile dysfunction with sildenafil. Before applying this drug, you should be aware of drugs not to be taken with sildenafil. [ithshop code=”genericviagra” tpl=”short” page_id=”188″ dummy=”txt”]

Before taking Viagra, contact your doctor for advice and necessary examination in order to exclude contraindications:

• previous myocardial infarction;
• previous myocardial arterial thrombosis;
• uncontrolled arterial hypertension (cardiac angina);
• uncontrolled hypotension;
• one of the drugs for blood pressure correction;
• ischemic heart disease;
• cardiac insufficiency;
• cerebral circulation violations;
• heart attack;
• blood stroke;
• leukemia;
• sickle-cell anemia;
• diabetes;
• anatomical penis deformities;
• hypersensitivity to sildenafil;
• the history of priapism;
• taking any medications that contain nitrates – either regularly or when needed. If you take Viagra with any medication containing nitrates, your blood pressure can suddenly drop to life-threatening level. You may feel dizzy, weak or even experience a heart attack or blood stroke. Nitrates are found in many prescription drugs used to treat cardiac angina (pain in sternum, associated with cardiovascular disease). These drugs are nitroglycerine (inhalants, ointments, skin patches or pastes or pills for oral administration, chewing or dissolving in the mouth); isosorbide mononitrate or isosorbide dinitrate (pills for oral use, chewing or dissolving in the mouth). Nitrates can also be contained in light «club» drugs such as amyl nitrate or nitrite («poppers»).
  If you are not sure whether a drug you take contains nitrates or you do not know which substances are nitrates, ask your doctor or pharmacist;
• men not having erectile dysfunction;
• newborns, children or women.

Men operating mechanisms (working with machines or driving vehicles) must be careful and perhaps avoid taking sildenafil before working with the “machine”. This drug may briefly change color vision (blue shades will prevail). Some airlines have already forbidden their pilots to take the drug one hour before flights.

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Results of Clinical Studies

In study of Viagra (Sildenafil) effects (data were taken for one year) 1 473 cases of negative effects of its application were analyzed. There were 522 deaths:

• 94 people have died from cardiac arrest;
• 200 people have died from myocardial infarction.

Most of the deaths occurred during first six hours after drug ingestion, that is, when the drug was present in the bloodstream.

FDA, despite these data, believes that clinical picture in all these cases is not sufficient, as doctors talking about taking Viagra, «forget» to mention that patients were suffering from heart diseases. In general, the situation is complicated. It turns out that if a patient with cardiovascular disease takes Viagra (Sildenafil) and dies, then Viagra, in any case, has nothing to do with it, as a patient anyway could have died of a heart attack without taking Viagra. But if you don’t suffer from such diseases…

However, the manufacturer has not yet lost a single lawsuit against it because of the death of patients taking the drug. Indeed it is difficult to prove that this outcome was caused by the drug and not by a major load, which is caused during sexual intercourse. Elderly man’s heart after prolonged abstinence as a result of impotence (erectile dysfunction) can also not endure it.

There are, however, studies results by Murray Mittelman from Beth Israel Medical Center, which claims that incidence of heart attacks and deaths, firstly, is the same in test group treated with Viagra and placebo, and secondly, this frequency is not larger than expected for this age category (experiment included about 7500 people).

Avoid Dangerous Interactions!

Since all drugs in one way or another affect metabolism, they are able to change Viagra concentration in blood, which may cause adverse reactions. Viagra (Sildenafil) drug contraindications include erythromycin (antibiotic), cinamet (antioxidant, used for tumors treatment, called «Tagamet»), itraconazole and ketoconazole (antifungal drugs).

Viagra does not interact with:

• aspirin doesn’t prevent it from blocking blood clots formation (often prescribed for elderly people with cardiac angina);
• alcohol: Viagra (Sildenafil) and alcohol taken at the same time reduce blood pressure; but alcohol because of its features can neutralize Viagra efforts to restore erection.