Over-the-Counter
Erectile Drugs Come With Health Risks
July 18, 2006
Dr. Andrew Kramer recently looked over the
medical history of one of his patients who had
been in the emergency department complaining
of chest pains.
Kramer was surprised by what he read: The patient
had been taking three to four dietary supplements
for erectile dysfunction - every day.
"I would have never given him Viagra,"
said Kramer, a urologist at the University of
Maryland Medical Center. "He was on the
cardiac transplant list."
Heart patients are potentially at risk for
a heart attack and an early death when they
combine erectile dysfunction drugs, such as
Viagra, with heart medications that contain
nitrates, like nitroglycerine.
Both drugs lower blood pressure and together
can lower it to deadly levels.
Normally doctors won't prescribe Viagra or
Levitra to these men, but they can look elsewhere
- specifically, the Internet, where herbal supplements
of all sorts are available for sale.
While some of these supplements may contain
harmless ingredients, many are indeed as potent
as the real thing.
A recent Food and Drug Administration study
showed that some of these herbal remedies actually
contained the active compound in prescription
brands as Viagra, Levitra
and Cialis, making them potentially deadly compounds.
The FDA issued a health advisory last week
against these supplements.
"These products are promoted and sold
on Web sites as 'dietary supplements' for treating
erectile dysfunction and enhancing sexual performance,
but they are in fact illegal drugs that contain
potentially harmful undeclared ingredients."
"These companies are promoting medications
that we would never give to men with heart disease,"
said Dr. Dragan Djordjevic, an internist specializing
in male sexual health at Rush University Medical
Center in Chicago.
The FDA specifically targeted the herbal supplements
Zimaxx, Libidus, Neophase, Nasutra, Vigor -25,
Actra-Rx and 4EVERON, all of which do not list
the prescription ingredients on their labels.
For this reason, a patient may not realize
the risks.
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=2206036&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312
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