Are There Any Side Effects with the Drug Viagra?

In the modern world, chemical drugs are the most common means of altering various body reactions and conditions towards the more positive state. However, one must always face the sad truth: there are very few medications that wok flawlessly. Most of them tend to cause at least several unpleasant side effects, and of the "greater meds of our times":, Viagra, could not be an exception.

Let us review those side effects of Viagra that occur more often than not, and the chemical reactions standing behind them. For once, this drug has a so-called spillover effects. Although it has been designed specifically to block PDE5, it also affect PDE6 somewhat, thus influencing the cone cells in the retina. To be more plain, Viagra messes with the color vision, forcing the patient to perceive greens and blues differently from the norm, occasionally making the world in front of his eyes adopt a bluish hue for hours on end. In most people, this side effect is bothersome and disturbing for psychological reasons at worst, but for example pilots ought to adjust their Viagra treatment regimen to the flights they take for ingesting a pill of Viagra within 12 hours of a flight could lead to a fatal situation on air eventually.

Another significant side effect is quite common in patients who have chronic angina and regularly take medications such as nitroglycerin because of it. You see, nitroglycerin increases nitric oxide and opens up the arteries that bring oxygen to the human heart. In itself, this is a useful effect, the prime way of action of this medicine that has led nitroglycerin to become so popular on the market. However, combined with the blocking of PDE5 that occurs after the Viagra ingestion it influences the body very negatively. This is one of the clear examples of two originally useful drugs clashing in effect and creating a danger for the patient, the main reason to study the drugs compatibility before taking certain medicines in a combination.

Viagra also brings with it some annoying little things that cannot harm the body as such yet can very well be irritating. Mostly we are taking about headaches here. The reason for this is that sometimes Viagra influences the arteries in the brain's lining, causing them to open up and add excess pressure to the brain. Another, this time a rather big, side effect to worry about is the possibility of a heart attack. This is exactly the complication that makes Viagra a prescrption drug, even though in the early years of its existance this drug was sold over-the-counter everywhere.

The erection that occurs as a result of a Viagra ingestion is not always clean of difficulties, either. For once, occasionally it can last for over four hours and become increasingly painful. In such case the patient needs to seek emergency medical help. Also, some men, especially from the younger age group, tend to take Viagra for recreational reasons, not really needing it but wishing to increase or prolong the sexual intercourse. Sadly enough, they may become physically dependent on Viagra, unable to achieve and/or maintain an erection without the drug's help.