New Viagra Study Could Lead To Help For Muscular Dystrophy Patients

Viagra can overcome the signalling problem and thus prevent the muscle fatigue

Viagra comes to the rescue again! A fascinating new study conducted by the University of Iowa shows that the use of the world’s most popular erectile dysfunction medication can play a part in overcoming the fatigue associated with exercise that muscular dystrophy brings. The study which was done using mouse models shows that the fatigue linked with muscular dystrophy could have nothing to do with the muscle weakness which is caused by it and that Viagra can overcome the signalling problem and thus prevent the muscle fatigue.

Professor Kevin Campbell who is the head of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Iowa as well as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator said that this research has come up with an “exciting finding” and explained that the research could show that fatigue could be remedied by medications such as Viagra which targeted this “newly discovered pathway”. The study results and the complex mechanisms which this research looked at were published in the online version of the medical journal Nature.

The active component of Viagra namely sildenafil is being increasingly used in the research projects which are looking for cures into treatments for illnesses where lack of blood supply and faulty blood vessels are involved. Just recently in India research was conducted using the similar erectile dysfunction treatment Cialis to help men and women who suffered from rheumatism caused by a lack of blood supply to the hands and feet.

Despite being around for ten years Pfizer do not perceive the Viagra remedy as purely a treatment for erectile dysfunction and it is already used to treat people suffering from pulmonary arterial hypertension and is sold as Revatio. Both Eli Lilly who make Cialis and Bayer who make Levitra invest millions of pounds trying out their erectile dysfunction drugs in other applications.