A new study says that Crohn's disease is possibly an immune response failure as opposed to excess inflammation which was the previous hypothesis. If this is this case then it might be a possibility that the impotence drug Viagra could be used to generate an enhanced blood flow to the infected area and so improve the inflammatory reaction to an infection. The study was carried out by UCL and was printed in the The Lancet magazine.

Crohn's disease is a inflammatory problem of the bowel where lesions and ulcers appear on the bowel linings. This leads to gastrointestinal problems and sickness that even requires surgery sometimes. The exact reason of Crohn's disease has not been definitely found but it may be that an infection from tuberculosis or other bacteria/viruses starts the inflammatory response.

The research group in the course of their experiments used the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra to artificially adjust blood flood responses. The stimulation of blood flow with Viagra may be the answer to compensate for an absence of neutrophil activity in the inflammed and infected areas.

The Viagra was used to produce a better response in Crohn's sufferers to the imflammation and the drug boosted the effects of nitric-oxide to lower the inflammed tissue to more reduced and stable levels.