- Researchers are reporting that erectile dysfunction drugs are associated with a lower percentage of Alzheimer’s cases in men.
- They say erectile dysfunction drugs increase blood flow, which could help lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
- Experts say these drugs also need to be tested in women.
Erectile dysfunction drugs may lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in men by increasing a person’s blood flow, according to a study published today in the journal Neurology.
Researchers, however, note that study doesn’t necessarily directly prove that erectile dysfunction drugs reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s. It only says there’s an association.
The researchers point out that erectile dysfunction drugs, which dilate blood vessels to allow for more blood flow, were initially developed to treat high blood pressure. But now researchers say there could be yet another benefit.
“Although we’re making progress with the new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease that work to clear amyloid plaques in the brain for people with early stages of the disease, we desperately need treatments that can prevent or delay the development of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Ruth Brauer, a study author and lecturer at the University College London in the United Kingdom, in a press statement. “These results are encouraging and warrant further research.”
The research involved 269,725 male subjects with an average age of 59 who were also recently diagnosed with erectile dysfunction. None had any memory problems or other signs of Alzheimer’s at the beginning of the study.
Researchers followed participants for an average of five years. The study looked at the 55% of subjects with prescriptions for erectile dysfunction drugs and compared them to the 45% of participants who didn’t.
During the follow-up period, 1,119 men developed Alzheimer’s. Among those taking erectile dysfunction drugs, 749 developed Alzheimer’s – a rate of about 8 cases per 10,000 person-years (person-years…
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