Is There Anything It Can't Do?

Andrea Widburg:  Viagra — is there anything it can't do?

Viagra (AKA Sildenafil, its chemical name) was a 1989 Pfizer invention intended to treat heart-related chest pain.  By 1998, both the United States and the European Union approved it for medical use.  But nobody thinks of chest pain when he thinks of Viagra.  What people think of is the fact that it is a miracle drug for men suffering from erectile dysfunction.

That's not all that Viagra does, though.  Because it works on the arterial system, it can also affect pulmonary arterial hypertension, Raynaud's phenomenon (a potentially dangerous circulatory problem), altitude sickness, and other types of heart disease.  Some athletes also take it off-label, claiming that, because it expands their blood vessels, it adds to their aerobic capacity.  There are also some indications that it helps women who experience sexual dysfunction.

In addition to those useful functions, there are now indications that the little blue pill can help treat COVID.  This makes sense, given that COVID has proven to attack the pulmonary arterial system.  In England, Viagra may well have saved the life of an asthmatic nurse:

A nurse who spent 28 days in a Covid coma fighting for her life has been saved after medics gave her Viagra as part of an experimental treatment regime...

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