ED Medications - It May Be Doing More Harm Than Good

Do you know that medication for ED can have serious side effects that go far beyond the bedroom? From sudden vision loss to increased risk of heart attack to hearing loss, these drugs can have a significant impact on your health. If you're curious to learn about more about these potential side effects associated with ED medication, I'll see you on the inside.

This podcast is for you. The Modern Man I'm Dr. Anne Truong, your host. I'm an intimate health medical doctor and best selling author of the book Erectile Dysfunct Fix. I'll do a deep dive into sexual health and performance and how it affects men of all ages and backgrounds. So let's get started and be sure to visit my website@sexualhealthformenpodcast.com for more information and resources from the show. See you on the inside.

Erectile dysfunction is a common condition among men and you can use medications such as Viagra, Cialis and Levitre. But before I go into the medication, I want to go back and discuss how you actually get an erection. All right. Okay. So a normal sexual function and how you get an erection. It all starts in the brain. There are six systems that are involved and your brain has to be relaxed, the muscle has to be relaxed and you have to be relaxed. So that way it starts in the brain. The brain will relay messages to your emotions in your brain. How are you feeling? Are you feeling relaxed? You feeling anxious? Or are you feeling depressed? Are you feeling in a rush? Are you distracted? And then number three, it's the hormones that gets released in your brain that then stimulate the nerve in the back of your head and then goes to your heart. And then your heart pump out more blood, your blood vessels relaxes and then it goes to the penis muscles. In order for you to get an erection, your brain has to be relaxed, your emotion has to be in the right spot and the penis muscle has to be relaxed. And thus it's critical to know that the brain is the largest sexual organ, not the penis is the brain. And how Viagra or Cialis or Levitra worked is that it goes to the penis muscle and the medication inhibits the breakdown of a chemical called cyclic gmp. So that way you have more of that in the penis muscle and that relaxes the smooth muscle of the penis. And that how it help with erection, it actually doesn't increase nitrous oxide. It actually relaxes the smooth muscle of the penis. The so like I said, in order for you to get an erection, you need to have the muscle of the penis relaxed. The same way that we use Botox to treat ed. Injecting Botox and Botox relaxes the muscle. It's almost like you're getting a half erection, but I, I am straying from the point. So you can see from my slide that Viagra or Cialis Levitra work on the smooth muscle of the penis. However, as you know, ED is really a blood flow problem. And it starts. And endothelium. Endothelium is the lining of the blood vessels. And endothelium secretes nitrous oxide. No, on the slide that you see here. And if the endothelium is impaired by either high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, obesity, stress, not getting enough sleep, or you're smoking or you're drinking too much alcohol, more than two drinks a day, or certain drug, which I'll show you in the slide, that can contribute to ED as well as recreational drug as well. And again, the brain is what stimulates the secretion of the nitrous oxide and the endothelium. So when you take Viagra, it's going to the muscle. It doesn't do anything to the blood vessels at all. So what that means is that you're, if you look at the slide, the blood flow problem, it really is kind of behind where the penis is at. That's where you have the blood flow blockage. And that's where you need to be looking at in getting more blood flow in is by getting more doing things that will help with endothelium secreting nitrous oxide. And what Viagra does is that it just goes to the penis, smooth muscle. And this is a picture here. I want to show you where you see the penis to the right. And then the artery gets blocked. When the arteries get blocked because of poor endothelial function or poor blood flow, you're not getting enough blood flow to the penis, as you can see. And keep in mind, ED medication does not address poor blood flow function due to endothelial dysfunction. And you can see here on this slide that I have. Certain medications are more likely to cause ed, such as antidepressants like Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, Prozac, Elavil, antiocer medication, particularly Tagamet or Cimetidine, Pepcid and Zantac beta blockers such as Propranolol, Timolol and Pembutalol, and the diuretics or water pills such as Diarrel, Spironolactone and chlorothiodone, tranquilizers such as Diazepam or Valium, Melaryl or Librium and miscellaneous medications such as Finasteride that you take for hair loss as well as for prostate estrogen, anti androgen, antihistamine, anticholinergic and some anti cancer patients. Other medications are least likely to CAUS is ACE inhibitors such as Captopril, Enalapril and Ramipril and calcium channel blockers which is Cardiazem, Procardia and Verapamil and nitrate which is Isodil and MDR or esmo. Now these medications, the ACE inhibitor and calcium channel blockers are used for high blood pressure and nitrates are used for when you have chest pain and as such, I want to get back to hello there. Want an amazing sex Life? This free gift is going to give you more sex by helping you get harder and lasting longer. Let's talk about the most sensitive subject, the effect that aging has on your sex life. If you're over 40, there's about 67% chance that you have to deal with one or more of these issues. You sometimes go soft in the middle of sex. You sometimes have trouble lasting long enough to climax. Your erection just doesn't feel as hard as it used to be and your penis is not as sensitive as it used to be. You cannot reach orgasm or ejaculate. You sometimes have trouble getting in an erection. These things lead to frustration and embarrassment when you cannot please your partner. My name is Dr. Ann Truong and I've been treating men for issue like this for over 25 years. As a board certified medical doctor who specializes in men's health, I helped over 7,000 men reverse the effect of ED. As a way to introduce you to the ED treatment that I offer, I want to give you the most incredible free gift ever. But don't let the fact that this free gift fool you. This powerful gift will help you get harder and stay and last longer and may just revolutionize your sex life, making sex more exciting, more thrilling and an amazing experience again. How is that? So here's what you're going to get in this most incredible free gift Number one A Good morning wood smoothie recipe. This is my specially formulated antioxidant recipe that will help you get harder and stay in stimulating more blood flow. It is formulated to increase your nitrous oxide level, which is one of the biggest keys to making you harder and firmer more often and will also help you last longer. And it is filled with lots of green that create more nitrous oxide in your blood. This smoothie will give you that morning wood effect and will also make you harder on demand when you need it most and you'll see the effect in about several weeks. Number two Nitrous Oxide Testing strip. You will also get two of these strips which you will use along with simple instruction to test your nitrous oxide level in your saliva. Nitrous oxide is a gas in your body and is required for good blood flow to the organ. The strip can determine if your nitric oxide are deficient which can help us advise you on the best way to reverse your ed. Even more important, since ED is an early warning sign of problems with circulation and heart health, this can also be a great way to prevent heart related problems such as strokes and heart attack. Number three and the best part of all, a 30 day free trial access to the Modern Man Club as part of our mission to make men hard again, we launched the Modern Man Club as a way to provide education and support to community of men who's on the path to reversing their ed. With pre recorded and live session being offered every week, I will help men regain sexual health through training support. I will be there all the way with you to hold your hand through so that way you can overcome ED and have your best sex life members rave about this session and the sense of community they gain by being a member of the Modern Man Club. And all you have to do is to say maybe to this offer and once you say maybe you will be on your way to a more fulfilling and exciting sex life. So all you have to do is fill it down the form below and then I will see you on the inside. The Medication so we know how the medication work. We know how it is involved in the sexual function in creating an erection. Let's talk about these medications, some of the side effects and know that these medications do not increase blood flow. Again it all it does is relaxes the smooth muscle. So the most common side effect from these medications is headaches, facial flushing or redness in the face and indigestion or stomach pain. Also visual problem. You may have blurry vision including color, a blue tinge, color sensitivity to light and particularly hearing loss. You can actually have hearing loss from ED medication and the reason why is because these medications cause the smooth muscle to relax but not only in the penis but also everywhere in your body that has blood vessels and therefore it causes the blood pressure to drop and therefore it can lead to dizziness, lightheadedness and passing out and particularly if you are taking in addition to ED med Blood pressure medication, then it will lower it even more. And also if you are concurrently taking alcohol. So it's a dangerous combination of you taking ED med and blood pressure medicine and drinking alcohol. And in some cases, as you know, ED medication can cause priapism, which is a prolonged and painful erection that lasts more than four hours. And this can lead to permanent damage to the penis and cause permanent ed. So ED medication is not suitable for everyone, especially those that are on medication and in certain conditions. Now, I will put these research in the footnotes so you can take a look at them. Now, how effective are these medications like Viagra, Cialis in treating, in taking it for ed? And now remember, it doesn't treat ed. It really, what it does is relaxes the muscle of the penis. All right. Now you can do the same thing by using Botox, which is probably more natural. And so in one study, Sudinophil or Viagra was found to be effective in 69% of men with ED compared to 22% of placebo. Placebo, meaning just a sugar pill. And another study, Tadalafil was found to be 81% effective effective for men with ED and 35% effective men who receive a placebo or a sugar pill. And just know that the effectiveness of these medications only depends upon the underlying cause of ed. So if ED is caused by diabetes or heart disease or blood vessel problem, then the medication will be less effective as compared to a psychological condition such as anxiety or depression. Now what's the onset of these medications? It can really vary depending upon what you eat, particularly if you eat a fatty meal like for instance, Viagra, it start to work within about 30 to 60 minutes after you take the medication. However, it can take up to two hours to even reach peak effectiveness of the medication. And the duration of the Viagra is about four to six hours. It's the same for Verden or Levitra, but Tadalafil, however, or Cialis is a little bit different. Tadalafil typically works with in about 30 to 60 minutes after taking the medication. However, it can take up to two hours to reach the peak. But the duration of Tadalafil is much longer than Viagra, lasting about 24 to 36 hours. That's why sometime you can take Cialis or Tadalafil a low dose every day because it has a longer duration of action. So it's important to note that these medications do not automatically produce an erection. You still have to be sexually stimulated. It doesn't help with libido either. So having said that you still need to do foreplay, you still need, your brain will need to be in the right place, it needs to be relaxed, your emotion needs to be in the right place. And the blood vessel and the heart has to, you know, work in synchrony as well too. And also these medication can be affected by age. The older you are, the less effective it is. And again, underlying heart condition and cardiovascular condition and your blood vessel condition and diabetes. So the cost of these medications used to be expensive because they weren't in generic, but now they're generic and if you don't have insurance, it can take few hundred dollars for a month supply. And if insurance do cover it, it depends on your co pay or your insurance at this time. Now, medication interaction, you need to know that ED medication can interact with many other medications which can then lower the blood pressure and have more side effects as well as interfere with the ED medication itself. Now one medication that these ED medications interact with a lot is called nitrate or nitroglycerin. It's often used for men with chest pain or angina and someone with heart disease. And these medication work or nitrate works by relaxing the blood vessels which then lower the blood pressure. But then when you take it with ED medication, it caused a dangerous drop in your blood pressure which can lead to passing out, dizziness and even a heart attack. So therefore it's crucial that if you take nitrate that you should not take ED medication. Another group of medication that interact adversely with ED medication is the alpha blockers or medication that you take for high blood pressure medication. Just doxazosin and tarazosin. And again, these medications are used to treat high blood pressure. And for prostate enlargement or enlarged prostate, these medications combined together lower blood pressure, again causing a dangerous drop in the blood pressure. And you should definitely not take ED medication if you're on the medication. Another group of medication called protease inhibitors, these are used to treat HIV and other viral infection and it can interfere with the metabolism of the ED medication leading to high blood pressure and increased risk of heart disease. Other medication is antifungal medication and some antibiotic and antidepressants. So definitely crucial that you talk to a doctor before taking ED medication and because it does have potentially dangerous interaction. Now in conclusion, these medications have a lot of interaction. And considering if you have heart disease and high blood pressure, you really need to be really careful with that. And I will do another episode on why taking medication does not cure your disease. Now serious side effect from these ED medication is generally low. However, There are some reports of serious side effects such as sudden heart attack leading to death, strokes. At this point, I actually know two patients who know a couple of guys that actually double up on their Viagra dose because they weren't seeing a response and when they double up, end up having a fatal heart attack. So it's important to note that these are rare, but they do occur. So you have to be very cautious when taking these medications. But before you take ED medication, you should look at why you're having ed. And if you have the physical cause of ed, there's usually from high blood pressure, usually from diabetes, high cholesterol, obesity, you're not exercising, you're eating a poor diet, you're not sleeping seven hours at night, or you're smoking, or you're drinking more than two alcohol drinks a day. And if you work on modifying those factors, such as sleeping better, stop smoking, moderate your alcohol and eating a Mediterranean diet and exercise, do high intensity interval exercise, three hours a week, you're actually probably going to lower your blood pressure, lower your cholesterol, and probably improve your blood sugar. So you don't even need to be on diabetes medication, high blood pressure medicine, or high cholesterol medicine. And therefore you don't even need to take ED medication. So I'm a big proponent of treating the cause of why you have ed, which is from decreasing blood flow rather than taking a medication, which is the band aid for ed. And I see it taking ED medications like taking an opioid pain medication for your back pain, it is just temporary. But the underlying problem why you have DED is being ignored. And over a period of time you're going to see your condition getting worse, you need higher dosage or that condition doesn't even work at all. Remember what I said, Viagra only works in 70% of patients. The other 30% it doesn't work is because they have blood flow problem which does not respond to Viagra. Because Viagra only works on the muscle, it does nothing to increase blood flow that is from your heart down to your penis and does nothing to increase your libido, does nothing to increase your testosterone and or to even increase the blood flow even behind the penis. So treating the root cause of the problem is where you need to be focusing at. Rather than taking an ED medication, it's just a band aid. And I see as almost putting a band aid on a bleeding wound that has pus in it is just a temporary and you're going to be end up in a bigger deep hole in a black hole than you were. And while the meantime your blood flow problem gets worse. And know that about 57% of men with ED a decade down the road end up having a heart attack and get back to looking at, you know, what's going on, what you're eating, are you exercising and instead of taking a medication. So I hope that you're able to get some information from this episode and I will see you next time.

Thanks for listening to the Sexual Health for Men podcast. If you love this episode then please take a screenshot on your phone and post it on Facebook, Instagram or wherever you post. And be sure to tag me and let me know why you like this episode and what you like to hear in the future that will help me know what's great for you. And I would love to give you the most incredible free gift designed to help you improve performance quickly. Go to my website@sexualhealthformenpodcast.com to get the book the Five Common Costly Mistakes Men Make When When Facing Ed. I would appreciate if you subscribe, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen and just know that you can have sexual vitality for life. I appreciate you. Until next time.