Viagra is used in the treatment of erectile dysfunction. In simple terms, it helps to overcome problems with erection. Also, this drug can help in the treatment of gastroparesis and such a severe disease as arterial hypertension. Unfortunately, this drug may also cause side effects and quite severe ones.
Science World Report recently revealed that researchers at the University of New South Wales discovered sildenafil’s ability to negatively affect vision ability. The fact is that this drug complicates the normal enzyme functioning, which plays a decisive role in the light signals’ transportation from the eye to the human brain. Particularly affected are people who have an eye disease that can result in blindness or with retinitis pigmentosa.
People with good eyesight are also predisposed to negative effects because they can be gene carriers. This gene may cause retinitis pigmentosa. By the way, such a mutation can occur in 2% of the human population, that is, in every 50th. Retinitis pigmentosa disease may develop due to a mutation in the gene that produces the PDE6 enzyme. Patients who have two copies of the changed gene can get this disease.
In simple terms, a man does not realize he has any vision problems, but his wrong combination of genes may result in vision problems during the Viagra application.
Experiments on mice were conducted during studying and clinical trials. A single dose of sildenafil was administered for healthy and sick animals with such a gene mutation. After it, a temporary loss of vision was observed even in healthy mice, not to mention mice with mutations. In the pupils of animals, scientists noticed signs of cell death. Thus, carriers of retinal diseases are subject to significant degeneration.
It is worth noting that before this study, scientists knew about temporary visual impairment in healthy people if they took high doses of Viagra. So, in such a case, high sensitivity to bright light, as well as a violation of color perception, a kind of blurred vision are found.
Therefore, now scientists believe that when prescribing Viagra, doctors should keep in mind that the consequences for vision can be much more severe than temporary blurred vision. Another thing is that usually, men take this drug without a doctor’s prescription. So, it makes sense to think about the consequences of such a “self-medication.”