Viagra and other impotence pills may perk up the brain and reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by up to 18 per cent, a study found.
Men who took the little blue pills for erectile dysfunction had increased brain activity and were less likely to develop dementia in later life.
Researchers found the drugs, originally developed for treating high blood pressure, can get into the brain and trigger cell signals closely linked to memory.
ED is usually treated with phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE5) inhibitor drugs, including sildenafil (Viagra, pictured) and 비아그라시알리스차이 tadalafil (Cialis), which increase blood flow to the penis
Dr Leah Mursaleen, head of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: ‘Developing drugs for diseases like Alzheimer’s is a costly process and can take many years.
‘Being able to repurpose drugs already licensed for other health conditions could help accelerate progress and open up new avenues to prevent or treat dementia-causing diseases.’
The study, published in the journal Neurology, looked at 269,725 men with an average age of 59 who were diagnosed with erectile dysfunction but no memory or thinking problems.
