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Serving Pikes Peak Community College students |
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By Terran Anderton
Sildenafil, better known as Viagra, now has another purpose besides its use for erectile dysfunction. Viagra is being used to treat pulmonary hypertension disease with high blood pressure of the lungs caused from constricted blood vessels. There is no cure for this disease, and in the past, there have not been many treatments. Viagra has been tested and proved that it releases pressure in the lungs.
Viagra also shows “encouraging results,” for young people, says Mark Duster, a pediatric cardiologist in Colorado Springs. “I have some patients on it.”
Viagra can be used for a treatment of this disease for all ages, but it has been used more on adults and children than on infants. The dosage for infants has not been determined, but the dosage for adults is 50mg three times a day. The treatment is easy because it can be taken orally rather than through an IV.
Patients with pulmonary hypertension are weak and less active than normal. The ‘six-minute walk’ is a test to see the results before and after the Viagra treatment. The treatment has shown that Viagra helps. Patients have shown an increase in energy walking nearly 50 feet to 100 feet further than they could before.
It is too early to tell the long-term effects, but the short term effects have been helpful. There has not been any harm reported in this testing since it was developed about 18 months to 24 months ago.
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