Buy Viagra Study

Research doctors at one of America’s most prestigious universities, Johns Hopkins University (opened 1876), are warning men with sleep apnea to consider the risks and benefits before taking Pfizer’s Viagra or any drug containing Sildenafil citrate, the active ingredient in Viagra.

Sleep apnea, sleep apnoea or sleep apnœa is a sleep disorder characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep - wikipedia.com

Sleep apnea is very common, as common as adult diabetes, and affects more than twelve million Americans, according to the National Institutes of Health. Risk factors include being male, overweight, and over the age of forty, but sleep apnea can strike anyone at any age, even children. Yet still because of the lack of awareness by the public and healthcare professionals, the vast majority remain undiagnosed and therefore untreated, despite the fact that this serious disorder can have significant consequences. An estimated 18 million Americans have obstructive sleep apnea, yet 95% of them are undiagnosed and untreated. Sleep apnea is about twice as common among men as among women. - sleepapnea.org

And now there’s news that Viagra (sildenafil) may worsen severe sleep apnea.

A report in the Archives Internal Medicine (Volume 166, page 1763 ) suggests that taking Viagra at bedtime may worsen severe obstructive sleep apnea. This may be disturbing news to many men, because erectile dysfunction is particularly common among those with sleep apnea. Viagra prolongs the action of nitric oxide, which promotes upper airway congestion, thereby contributing to sleep apnea. The researchers studied 14 men with severe sleep apnea, who spent a night in a sleep lab having their breath and blood oxygen monitored after they took a single 50- mg dose of Viagra or a placebo. johnhopkins.com

Just one dose of Viagra significantly increased the amount of sleep time with a lower blood oxygen saturation level; while asleep, men who took Viagra weren’t getting as much oxygen as those who took a placebo. They also had more breathing pauses per hour.

Bottom line advice on Viagra and sleep apnea: If you take Viagra and have sleep apnea, talk with your doctor about whether the pleasures you derive from taking the drug outweigh the risks of worsening your nighttime breathing problems.