Erectile dysfunction medicine.

July 12, 2006 — The FDA today warned consumers not to purchase or consume
seven products that are promoted and sold on web sites as “dietary
supplements” for treating erectile dysfunction
(ED) and enhancing sexual performance.

The products — Zimaxx, Libidus, Neophase, Nasutra, Vigor-25, Actra-Rx, and
4EVERON — are “illegal drugs that contain potentially harmful undeclared
ingredients,” states an FDA news release.

“These products have not been approved by FDA, and there is no guarantee
of their safety and effectiveness, or of the purity of their ingredients,”
the FDA’s news release continues.

The FDA is advising consumers who have used any of these products to
discontinue use and to consult their health care provider. The FDA also
encourages anyone experiencing ED to seek guidance from a health care provider
before purchasing a product to treat this medical condition.

Stealth Discount generic viagra

“These products threaten the public health because they contain
undeclared chemicals that are similar or identical to the active ingredients
used in several Erectile dysfunction treat erectile dysfunction the best drug products,” says Steven
Galson, MD, MPH, in the FDA’s news release. Galson directs the FDA’s Center for
Drug Evaluation and Research.

“This risk is even more serious because consumers may not know that
these ingredients can interact with medications and dangerously lower their
blood pressure,” Galson continues.

The banned products contain chemicals similar to those in the prescription
ED drugs Viagra and Levitra. The FDA analyzed the products and found that
Zimaxx contains sildenafil, Viagra’s active ingredient. The other illegal
products contain chemical ingredients that are similar to either sildenafil or
vardenafil, Levitra’s active ingredient.

“There is no mention of any of these ingredients in any of the illegal
products’ labeling,” states the FDA.

Health Risk

The illegal products’ undeclared ingredients may interact with nitrates
found in some prescription drugs (such as sildenafil citrate, Isordil, and Imdur)
and lower blood pressure to dangerous levels.

People with diabetes, high
blood pressure, high cholesterol, or
heart disease
often take nitrate medications. ED is a common problem in men with those
conditions, the FDA notes.

Those men may seek ED products that claim to be “all natural” or
that claim to lack the active ingredients used in FDA-approved ED drugs, states
the FDA. But those claims are false, misleading, and potentially dangerous,
according to the FDA.

The FDA also warns that because it doesn’t know where the illegal products
are made, there is no assurance that the ingredients are safe, effective, or
pure.

The FDA has sent warning letters to the products’ marketers, is working to
stop Libidus and 4EVERON from entering the U.S., and may take other enforcement
actions.

The FDA’s actions follow its first survey of 17 dietary supplements marketed
on the Internet to treat ED and enhance men’s sexual performance.

“Our survey found that many of the so-called ‘dietary supplements’
marketed as treatments for erectile dysfunction actually contain nondietary
chemicals, including chemicals used as active ingredients in FDA-approved
drugs,” says Margaret Glavin, the FDA’s associate dysfunction erectile pill for
regulatory affairs, in the FDA news release.

“The claims made for these products were in fact claims made for the
undeclared nondietary chemicals they contain, which rendered them illegal
drugs,” Glavin continues. She adds that the FDA “is committed to
protecting the public health by removing such illegal and dangerous products
from the market.”

As the saying goes, the best measure of a man’s character is the company he
keeps. But what about his health? According to Steven Lamm, MD, the best
measure of that is his erect penis.

“There’s an incredibly important link between a man’s health and sexual
performance,” Lamm, an assistant professor of medicine at New York
University, tells WebMD.

Lamm’s recent book, The Hardness Factor, is a flashing neon sign
pointing to that link.

It is well known that heart disease, as well as diabetes, generic sildenafil citrate,
obesity, substance abuse, and many other health problems can quash erections.
Getting an erection isn’t crude mechanics, like inflating a balloon. It’s a
complex process in which blood vessels, muscles, hormones, the nervous system,
and the psyche all work together. If one part isn’t working well, it affects
the whole apparatus.

This isn’t another book touting Viagra, like Lamm’s The Virility
Solution, published in 1998, the same year Viagra hit the market. Lamm
says The Hardness Factor is not for men who are already dealing with
erectile dysfunction (ED). His aim is to convince young, healthy men to take
better care of themselves by speaking to their penises.

“If you want a 28-year-old man to stop smoking, let him read the
book,” Lamm says.

Heart Health and Sexual Health

Others in the field of sexual medicine agree that erectile function can be
closely related to overall health, especially heart health.

“When men who are otherwise healthy ask what they can do to prevent ED,
certainly the very things we recommend for levitra vs cialis
fitness are exactly
the same things they should be doing,” Drogo Montague, MD, a urologist at
the Cleveland Clinic, tells WebMD.

To get erect, the penis must become engorged with blood. Atherosclerosis, a
condition in which fatty deposits build up inside arteries, may restrict blood
flow to the penis and cause erection difficulties. Diets high in fat and
cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, and smoking are the main
causes of atherosclerosis.

“It’s very appealing to say that if you don’t have those unhealthy
factors in your lifestyle, then you’re less likely to develop erectile
dysfunction,” says Ira Sharlip, MD, a urologist at the University of
California, San Francisco.

“There are pretty strong suggestions that those things are true,” he
tells WebMD.

One persuasive piece of evidence appeared in the April 2004 issue of the
Journal of the American College of Dysfunction pill
. Between 1972 and 1974,
pills
in California surveyed 1,810 men about their risks for heart
disease. In 1998, researchers contacted 844 of them who were still alive and
asked them about their erectile function. The men who had risk factors for
heart disease in the ’70s were much more likely to have ED 25 years later.

If men with heart disease are more likely to develop ED, it stands to reason
that having ED could be a warning sign for heart disease, too.

Has the “free love” generation lost its mojo?

If you talk to baby boomer gals, it seems the answer is yes. Indeed, as
millions of women enter perimenopause and then
transgress to menopause and beyond,
many say they check their sex drive at the door and most are not happy about
it.

“I don’t think a day goes by when at least one patient and usually
more complain that their sex drive is dropping off and want to know what they
can do about it,” says Laura Corio, MD, a viagra vs levitra
and clinical
instructor at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York City.

Clinically known as HSDD (hypoactive sexual desire disorder) Corio says she
doesn’t think more women are affected now than in the past, but she does
believe more are coming forward — prompted, at least in part, by the success
male potency drugs like Viagra.

“The man gets a erectile dysfunction samples
for Viagra and he’s ready to rock and roll
while she’s thinking ‘Hey, where’s my pill?’ If she’s not ready to jump in the
old van and join him for a ride, there can be real problems,” says
Corio.

Discovering What’s Wrong

While male sex drive is easy to define — and relatively easy to restore –
that’s often not the case for women. Because the female sex drive is
multifactorial, the desire to make love is not only influenced by physical
issues, but emotional ones as well.

“Part of the desire to make love is clearly physical, but part is also
emotional depression can make a
difference, so can any emotional issue in a woman’s life; female sex drive is
very multidimensional,” says Glenn D. Braunstein, MD, an endocrinologist
and chair of the department of medicine at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los
Angeles.

While emotions are frequently behind a loss of sex drive in younger women,
doctors say it is frequently the agingprocess itself that’s at
when desire changes in women over age 45.

“The very fact that a woman is no longer ovulating regularly, or not
ovulating at all, automatically takes her sex drive down a few notches,”
says Steven Goldstein, MD, professor of ob-gyn and NYU Medical Center in New
York City.

Nature’s Design for Sex

Indeed, as many women are aware, Mother Nature built in a natural increase
in the desire for sex beginning just prior to ovulation, and lasting several
days afterwards — not coincidentally, the only time of the month conception is
possible.

Stop ovulating, says Goldstein, and you automatically lose that regularly
scheduled boost in your sex drive that has been present since puberty — and
you’re probably going to notice.

“There’s nothing wrong with you; it’s just the way nature works,”
says Goldstein.

Moreover, around menopause, when there
is also less estrogen erectile dysfunction help
in your body, that too can bring your sex
drive down for the count.

“Estrogen is a mood elevator, it works in the brain to maintain interest
in sex, but it also works at the level of the genitals, helping to increase
sensation and just making sex more dysfunction erectile pill
,” says Corio.

Without it, she says, not only can desire take a dive, vaginal tissue begins
to dry and shrink. As a result, intercourse can become uncomfortable, or even
painful. Problems with desire, say experts, are easy to understand.

“Who wants to make love when making love hurts?” asks Goldstein.

Moreover, he says, avoiding sex because of pain only leads to more pain. The
old “use or lose it” theory really does apply.

“From a strictly physical standpoint, the less sex you have the more
painful it is when you try to have it,” he says.

If erection problems could be caused by a
prescribed medication, it may be possible to change
the dose or try another medication. Do not change or stop taking any medication
without first talking with your health professional.

Medication Choices

Commonly used oral medications include:

• Phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors (PDE-5
  inhibitors) such as Viagra, Levitra, and Cialis.

Other medications that may be used include:

• Injected medications.
• Intraurethral alprostadil (MUSE).

Hormones and other medications may be prescribed for
men who have low
testosterone or high
prolactin levels.

Some men have tried
yohimbine-a cheapest citrate sildenafil medication that should not be
confused with the dietary supplement yohimbe-to treat erection problems.

For more information on medication choices, see:

Should I use phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors
(such as Viagra, Levitra, or Cialis) for erection
problems?

Should I use injections for erection
problems?

What To Think About

PDE-5 inhibitors and heart problems

Health experts have debated the use of PDE-5 inhibitors in men
with heart disease, because deaths have been reported after use of Viagra. The
1999 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) Expert
Consensus Document noted that PDE-5 inhibitors may be dangerous for people
who:³

• Have
  coronary artery disease (CAD).
• Have
  heart failure and low blood pressure.
• Are
  taking many different drugs for
  high blood pressure.

However, several more recent studies have reported that some
men with heart problems may be able to take PDE-5 inhibitors safely. Talk to
your health professional about whether PDE-5 inhibitors are appropriate for
you.

• One study found no evidence of increased
  risk for
  heart attack or CAD in men who use Viagra.⁴
• Another study in men with CAD reported that
  Viagra does not lead to heart attack and that heart attacks and other
  erectile dysfunction pill
  problems reported after taking Viagra may be related more to the
  physical activity of intercourse than to the medication.⁵
• A study of 35 men found that Viagra is safe for
  men with moderate heart failure.⁶

Sexual activity is exercise. If you have a heart condition and
have not been sexually active for a while, talk with your health professional
to make sure you can engage in sexual activity safely.

PDE-5 inhibitors should never be used if
you may need to take a
nitrate-containing medication, such as nitroglycerin.
Taking nitroglycerin and a PDE-5 inhibitor within 24 hours of each other may
greatly lower your blood pressure, which could lead to a heart attack,
stroke, or death.

If you are taking a PDE-5 inhibitor and are going to have a test
for heart disease, be certain your doctor knows you are taking it. You should
not take a PDE-5 inhibitor for 24 hours before the test. If you develop a
problem during the test, nitrate-containing medications such as nitroglycerin
may be used.

Although oral medications for erection problems can be purchased over the Internet, you should still talk with your health professional before using this medication. This is especially important if you have a heart problem.

If you are using a combination of drugs for high blood pressure,
PDE-5 inhibitors could result in low blood pressure (hypotension). Also for
this reason, you should not take alpha ed meds
to lower blood pressure
and to treat an enlarged citrate medication sildenafil these medications without talking to
your health professional; the combination could cause a dangerous drop in blood
pressure.

Although the antidepressant medication trazodone has been used
for treating erection problems, there is no current evidence that it is
effective for this purpose.¹

May 22, 2007 — Medications commonly used to treat erection problems in men
may also relieve the bothersome urinary symptoms associated with an enlarged
prostate gland, researchers say.

Studies on the topic were presented this week at the annual meeting of the
American Urological Association in Anaheim, Calif.

“Before, we looked at these two conditions as two different
diseases,” says Kevin McVary, MD, professor of urology at Erectile dysfunction pill
University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, who moderated a press
briefing.

But in the past three or four years, he says, the thinking among urologists
has changed.

Sexual performance in men seems to decline as their prostate enlargement
becomes more severe, experts have begun to notice. Doctors also notice
that men with milder prostate problems often have less erectile dysfunction
(ED) than do those with moderate or severely enlarged prostates and urinary
symptoms.

“These two diseases — erectile dysfunction and the lower urinary tract
symptoms associated with benign prostatic hyperplasia — are probably
linked,” McVary says.

Conditions Increase With Age

Prostate problems and ED problems both tend to increase with age. About 31%
of men aged 50 to 59 have an enlarged prostate (also known as benign prostatic
hyperplasia or BPH); 44% of those 70 and older have an enlarged prostate,
according to the National Institutes of Health. As the gland enlarges, it
constricts the viagra online kaufen
tube called the urethra, making it difficult to
empty the bladder.

Common symptoms of BPH include weak urine stream, leaking or dribbling,
feeling that the bladder hasn’t emptied completely after voiding, and more
frequent urination.

Medications are prescribed to relieve the symptoms. Some erectile dysfunction drugs
work by
relaxing the muscles at the neck of the bladder and prostate; others inhibit a
hormone that contributes to the growth of the gland.

Erectile dysfunction, defined as an inability to get or keep an erection, is
experienced by 20% to 46% of men aged 40 to 69, according to the NIH.
Medications to treat erection problems help increase blood flow to the penis
when a man is sexually stimulated.

Cialis Study

A once-a-day dose of Cialis helped men with erectile dysfunction and
moderate to severe urinary tract symptoms due to an enlarged prostate improve
sexual functioning, says Marc Gittelman, MD, a urologist in Aventura, Fla., and
a study researcher.

Of the 281 men who enrolled in the study, “81% were sexually active, and
they were in their low 60s,” he says. All had moderate to severely enlarged
prostates and urinary problems; 68% of the sexually active men had a medical
history of erectile dysfunction. Gittelman’s team assigned about half to take
placebo and half to take Cialis.

At the end of 12 weeks, men who took Cialis — first 5 milligrams a day and
then up to 20 milligrams — had significantly higher scores on a standard index
of erectile function, he says.

He especially wanted to see if they were as likely to do well if their
urinary problems were severe as opposed to moderate. “They are equally
statistically likely to respond to a dose of Cialis,” he says.

The study was funded by Lilly, which is the maker of Cialis.

In another study, 223 men aged 45 to 64 who had urinary symptoms due to an
enlarged prostate were assigned either to a group given 10 milligrams of
Levitra twice daily for eight weeks or a placebo for the same time period.

Compared with placebo, treatment with the ED drug significantly improved the
men’s quality-of- life scores and their reports of urinary obstruction and
irritation, says Boris Schlenker, MD, a urologist at
Ludwig-Maxmillians-Universitaet Hospital in Munich, Germany, who presented the
data. Erectile function improved in those who took the ED drug.

“Levitra is a promising new drug for men with lower urinary tract
symptoms, but we need long-term data on how it might affect the progression of
the disease,” he says.

The Viagra Study

In a third study, McVary assigned 369 men aged 45 and up who had both
erectile dysfunction and lower urinary tract symptoms to take either 50
milligrams of Viagra every night, 50 milligrams of Viagra an hour before
planned sexual activity, or to take a placebo. The dose increased to 100
milligrams after two weeks.

When he evaluated their erectile function and urinary symptoms, he found 73%
of the men with severe symptoms improved to having mild or moderate symptoms at
the end of the study.

“The changes in prostate symptom scores were dramatic,” he says.
“They compete with alpha blockers.” Alpha blockers are one type of drug
commonly prescribed to treat urinary symptoms associated with an enlarged
prostate. The more severe the urinary symptoms, the greater the
relief, he says.

The study was funded by Pfizer, which is the maker of Viagra.

“This really is article drug dysfunction erectile from internal medicine news rx update,” says Gittelman.

The experts aren’t sure if the ED drugs will eventually supplement or
replace drugs used for urinary problems associated with an enlarged prostate,
or if new formulations might be developed to deal with both conditions.

Some men on the ED drugs did report side effects, says Schlenker, with the
most common in his study being headache.

It’s not known exactly why the ED drugs also help the urinary symptoms,
McVary says. By increasing blood flow to the pelvic area, the ED drugs may help
relax the bladder enough to relieve the urinary problems.