Other uses for Viagra to treat illnesses

[Trurl]

I heard on the radio years back when viagra first came out that the three scientist involved in creating it had one the Noble Peace Prize. The prize wasn't for Viagra it was for the study on how the medicine relaxed or contracted blood vessels.

 

Medicine is not my field of study, so keep it simple. My question is could the use of the ingredients of Viagra be used to treat hyper tension or relieve pressure in the eyes in illnesses such as glaucoma?

 

I have heard that it could but that is not the kind of information you get when you type Viagra into a search engine. Thanks for the info.

[Yggdrasil]

The main ingredient of viagra is nitric oxide (NO). The scientists received the nobel prize for their study of the biological roles of nitric oxide because the fact that nitric oxide acts as a signaling molecule is a very surprising and revolutionary idea. Nitric oxide is a very unstable free radical. Normally, the body wishes to get rid of free radicals as they can cause damage to DNA and other important biological molecules. Plus, signaling molecules, because they need to be transfered between cells, are generally thought of to be stable. So, the fact that an unstable free radical acts as a signaling molecule was quite a revolutionary find.

 

Here's a page with some more information on nitric oxide:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitric_oxide

 

I'm sure you could find more information by searching for nitric oxide on google or PubMed.

[Trurl]

Thanks for the info. I found that Nitric Oxide relaxes the muscles of the blood vessels along blood to flow more freely. But interesting enough for some reason it hurts the eyes instead of helping them. Too much NO causes glaucoma. So those experimental drugs block NO. It has been in the news that Viagra has effects on vision. That is the complete opposite effect I thought it would have. I thought that better blood flow would improve the eyes health.

[Yggdrasil]

It makes sense to me that nitric oxide would not be good for the eyes. The relaxation of the muscles around the blood vessels increases the volume of the blood vessels (which is the reason for increased blood flow). The increased volume of the vessels will push agains surrounding tissues, increasing intraocular pressure. Since high intraocular pressure is thought to lead to glaucoma and other eye problems, nitric oxide seems like it would be harmful to eye health.