Diabetes, Viagra And Cardiac Disease Risk

Diabetes is known to be a very prominent risk factor in the pathophysiology of developing cardiovascular disorders in both males and females. According to latest estimates, chronic diabetics are at 50% greater risk of experiencing a cardiac episode (or serious heart attack), compared to those who have normal blood sugar levels. According to latest data presented by American Heart Association, adults with diabetes are more likely to die with cardiac disease as compared to non-diabetics. Nearly 68% adults aged 65 and above die due to some type of heart disease. According to another report, annually 1.4 million Americans are diagnosed with diabetes.

What Should You Know About Diabetes?

Of all the reported cases, about 90 to 95% cases of diabetes are identified as type 2 diabetes. Insulin is a pancreatic hormone which controls blood glucose level. In diabetes type 2, either pancreas is unable to produce sufficient amounts of insulin or the body fails to use insulin effectively. As a consequence, blood glucose elevates significantly, resulting in varying symptoms. Increased glucose levels in blood may damage nerves and blood vessels. High cholesterol, hypertension, and obesity are also common in diabetic people. All these factors lead to heart attack, stroke and other life threatening cardiovascular conditions.

Diabetes, Viagra And Cardiac Disease – How Are They Related?

According to a recent research study, Viagra- a popular drug that is universally consumed for the management of erectile dysfunction, may lower the risk of heart attacks, resulting in improved survival in men with diabetes type 2. Prof. Andrew Trafford, from the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, and colleagues have worked on previous research studies which indicated that a class of drugs, PDE5 inhibitors may have advantageous effects on cardiac health of men with long term, poorly managed diabetes.

Researchers evaluated health report (from 2007 to 2015) of 5,956 men who were suffering from type 2 diabetes. Of these, 1,359 men were given PDE5 inhibitors for ED. Upon evaluation; it was reported that:

31% lower mortality risk was observed during the average 6.9 years of follow up.
1,031 men with previous history of heart attack, those given PDE5 inhibitors had relatively 40% lesser mortality risk.
Patients with history of peripheral vascular disease, heart failure and transient ischemic attack had a 34%, 36% and 40% lower chances of death, respectively with periodic intake of PDE inhibitors.
Among all men, 432 encountered heart attacks during follow up.
The death rate in men who were given PDE5 inhibitors was 25% whereas death rate in those who didn’t used PDE5 was 42.7%.

Prof. Trafford and team believes that PDE5 inhibitors has significant benefits for men with type 2 diabetes and an urgent investigation should be carried out in this matter.

References

Anderson, S. G., Hutchings, D. C., Woodward, M., Rahimi, K., Rutter, M. K., Kirby, M., … & Heald, A. H. (2016). Phosphodiesterase type-5 inhibitor use in type 2 diabetes is associated with a reduction in all-cause mortality. Heart, heartjnl-2015.
Das, A., Durrant, D., Salloum, F. N., Xi, L., & Kukreja, R. C. (2015). PDE5 inhibitors as therapeutics for heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Pharmacology & therapeutics, 147, 12-21.