Man, 41, dies after taking two Viagra pills while drinking
A 41-year-old man has died after taking two Viagra tablets while drinking alcohol, it has been reported.
The man, from Nagpur, India, was staying at a hotel with a female friend, with the pair drinking together before he took two 50mg tablets of sildenafil, which is sold under the brand name Viagra.
When he woke up the next morning, he felt “uneasiness”, according to the March edition of the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine.
He was also vomiting, and his female friend urged him to seek medical help.
However, he dismissed her concerns, telling her he had experienced the symptoms previously.
But his condition got worse.
The man was taken to hospital but was declared dead on arrival.
He died of a cerebrovascular hemorrhage, which is when oxygen delivery to the brain is reduced.
An autopsy ruled that the mixture of alcohol and the medication, as well as pre-existing high blood pressure, led to his death.
His blood alcohol level was 0.186 – almost four times Australia’s legal driving limit of 0.05.
Viagra ‘abused’ for longer sex
In India, the unsupervised and unprescribed use of Viagra has become rampant, with people using it for longer-lasting sexual intercourse rather than as an aid for erectile dysfunction.
The deceased did not have a prescription for the medication, according to the Daily Mail.
Side effects of the drug include headaches, recurring upset stomach, blood pressure issues, flushing and nasal congestion.
However, according to a recent study, the drug can also have an unintended benefit.
In January, a study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine claimed that the use of the medicine lowers the risk of heart disease in men by 39 percent.
Researchers from the University of Southern California studied 70,000 adult men with an average age of 52 who had been diagnosed with erectile dysfunction at some point between 2006 and 2020, the New York Post reported.
They looked at the participants’ medical records to see who had taken the drug and whether or not they have suffered heart problems during the follow-up period. Factors such as race, height and weight were taken into account when adjusting the findings.
The study found that those who used erectile dysfunction drugs were less likely to suffer from heart issues – and deaths from heart conditions dropped by almost 40 percent.