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VIAGRA HELPS
VIAGRA HELPS
ANCHOR LEAD: VIAGRA HELPS REVERSE HEART ENLARGEMENT, ELIZABETH TRACEY REPORTS
The medication sildenafil, or Viagra, has been shown in an animal model to reverse cardiac hypertrophy, a possibly dangerous enlargement of the heart that may result from high blood pressure. David Kass, professor of cardiology at Johns Hopkins and study author, says this finding came from studies in which Viagra, or sildenafil, was shown to benefit animals with enlarged hearts.
KASS: In one group of animals we stimulated the hearts to enlarge by forcing them to beat against a higher pressure and while that was going on we treated them with sildenfil. In the sildenafil treated animals the amount of muscle increase, or hypertrophy or enlargement of the heart was markedly less, less than half of what it was in the animals that did not get any medication. :22
Another study showed that even in animals with hearts that were already enlarged, sildenafil was able to largely reverse it. Heart function also improved. Kass says using sildenafil to treat high blood pressure, heart enlargement and heart failure may be right around the corner.
At the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, I'm Elizabeth Tracey reporting.
