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Men on Viagra may reduce their Alzheimer's risk – study

bbc.co.uk

21–30 of 67 posts

Re: Men on Viagra may reduce their Alzheimer's risk – study

#21
post #18

Maybe the brain get's worse at clearing stuff out as your blood vessels age and viagra is opening them up? Cardio, weight lifting, HIIT, sauna, healthy balanced diet, yoga, inversions, beetroot juice, citrulline malate, etc. could all be worthy of investigation ;-)

also, sex. (more seriously, anything that improves your circulation will probably help with alzheimers, plus good sleep)

Yes, sex is just awesome in every sense. Regular sex lowers the level of stress in the body and increases the level of oxytocin. As a result, people feel more motivated to work and experience greater satisfaction from their work as soon as the stress level decreases. It also leads to increased life expectancy, so people have more time to work and more time to have sex - it's a complete cycle

Re: Men on Viagra may reduce their Alzheimer's risk – study

#22
post #21
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

also, sex. (more seriously, anything that improves your circulation will probably help with alzheimers, plus good sleep)

Yes, sex is just awesome in every sense. Regular sex lowers the level of stress in the body and increases the level of oxytocin. As a result, people feel more motivated to work and experience greater satisfaction from their work as soon as the stress level decreases. It also leads to increased life expectancy, so people have more time to work and more time to have sex - it's a complete cycle

> it’s a complete cycle

See also, the other point of sex.

Re: Men on Viagra may reduce their Alzheimer's risk – study

#23

The study is called "Phosphodiesterase Type 5 Inhibitors in Men With Erectile Dysfunction and the Risk of Alzheimer Disease" and published in "Neurology", for reference. It's open access, link: https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000209131

All in all, it's not too surprising. The paper mentions neuroprotective effects, but it has been known for a while that nearly all types of PDE inhibitor can boost cognitive function, which has led to some interest in them as nootropics: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25464010/ There has been some interest in PDE5 inhibitors, specifically, as treatments for Alzheimer's: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/…

Does the main Viagra side effect have anything to do with it? A little more action might be helping too.

Re: Men on Viagra may reduce their Alzheimer's risk – study

#24
post #3
post #2

Or these men simply lead more active lives with regular exercise. Hard to tell.

Wouldn't taking these kind of factors into account be quite basic part of the analysis? Of course, they cannot take everything into account.

The problem with a lot modern science is that you're dealing with a virtually infinite numbers of variables both environmentally, behaviourally and genetically.

Short of having a thousand identical twins locked up in a room from birth you're swimming against a very strong tide. Long gone are the days when science was as simple as castrating a rooster and grafting his balls back: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Adolph_Berthold

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replication_crisis

Re: Men on Viagra may reduce their Alzheimer's risk – study

#26
post #21
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

also, sex. (more seriously, anything that improves your circulation will probably help with alzheimers, plus good sleep)

Yes, sex is just awesome in every sense. Regular sex lowers the level of stress in the body and increases the level of oxytocin. As a result, people feel more motivated to work and experience greater satisfaction from their work as soon as the stress level decreases. It also leads to increased life expectancy, so people have more time to work and more time to have sex - it's a complete cycle

> people feel more motivated to work and experience greater satisfaction from their work

It kinda weirded me out to see work/productivity being listed in regards to benefits of sex. Yeah, it might help but this way of thinking sounds absolutely horrendous.

Re: Men on Viagra may reduce their Alzheimer's risk – study

#27
post #3
post #2

Or these men simply lead more active lives with regular exercise. Hard to tell.

Wouldn't taking these kind of factors into account be quite basic part of the analysis? Of course, they cannot take everything into account.

> Wouldn't taking these kind of factors into account be quite basic part of the analysis?

They acknowledge that they are just looking at the number of prescriptions and that the research doesn't show that the drugs themselves were reducing people's risk.

It could equally be the amount of sex that is reducing the risk.

Re: Men on Viagra may reduce their Alzheimer's risk – study

#30

The study is called "Phosphodiesterase Type 5 Inhibitors in Men With Erectile Dysfunction and the Risk of Alzheimer Disease" and published in "Neurology", for reference. It's open access, link: https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000209131

All in all, it's not too surprising. The paper mentions neuroprotective effects, but it has been known for a while that nearly all types of PDE inhibitor can boost cognitive function, which has led to some interest in them as nootropics: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25464010/ There has been some interest in PDE5 inhibitors, specifically, as treatments for Alzheimer's: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/…

Can women take viagra too? For the same cognitive effect?
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