Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Biotech / Medical : PFE (Pfizer) How high will it go? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: zurdo who wrote (4032)	7/8/1998 1:54:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9523

Viagra - the new aspirin for impotence? Wednesday July 8 1:37 PM EDT By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One of the doctors who helped make Viagra -- and impotence -- a household word says he thinks he can find an even bigger market for the blockbuster drug. Dr. Irwin Goldstein of Boston University thinks the drug can be used to prevent impotence in some high-risk groups. "You've heard of the expression 'If you don't use it, you will lose it'?" Goldstein asked in a telephone interview. "It's like the widower syndrome. Your wife dies and you are not dating and you are depressed, but you say three years later 'It's time' and you start dating and it doesn't work." Viagra, Goldstein thinks, could keep blood flowing to the genitals, keeping them healthy and ready for sexual activity. The drug, known generically as sildenafil, works by increasing blood flow. Originally tested as a heart drug, Pfizer found it sometimes caused the penis to become engorged with blood. Goldstein said erections are necessary, and not just for sex. "We have spent much research studying the effects of Viagra on ischemia (blocked blood flow)," Goldstein, who led one of the studies that showed Viagra can work safely against sexual dysfunction, told Reuters. "The penis is interesting because in the flaccid state ... it has lower levels of oxygen virtually than any other organ." The same is probably true for the female sexual organs, Goldstein said. "As a rule unless you have sexual stimulation, the vagina and clitoris and penis are not getting that much blood flow during a 24-hour period." Impotence, Goldstein said, is caused by that lack of blood flow. Some of the causes of impotence, such as blood pressure drugs and diabetes, cause decreased blood flow. Doctors know this. "In men who are (physiologically) impotent, a very common observation is one of the things they also lose is they don't wake up in the morning with erections," Goldstein said. He believes that getting an erection during sleep is the body's way of making sure the genitals get the oxygen they need. So why not give Viagra to men at risk of sexual dysfunction to make sure their genitals stay healthy? "People take aspirin to prevent heart attacks. Is Viagra the aspirin of the penis? We think it is." Goldstein says men may not be the only sex to benefit. "There is another gender that might have vascular problems to their genitals," he said. "There's a form of female sexual dysfunction called vaginal arousal disorder. It is found specifically in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women and women who have had hysterectomies, women who smoke, women with high cholesterol and so on." Again, blood flow is the issue, said Goldstein, who is conducting clinical trials of Viagra on women. He is a definite fan of Viagra. "I have such happy people on this stuff," he said. "The partners of men are extremely happy." Well, maybe not all. "In some ways I can assure you that in some relationships it is of benefit to the woman that the man is impotent," Goldstein said. "There's no doubt about that." "In some of the conversations with the women there is no question that the men overreact in the relationship with gifts and sensitivity issues and 'let's do this and let's do that' in the context that 'I can't do anything else,"' he said. "So some women are not that happy they are having sexual activity again." dailynews.yahoo.com