What is the difference among Viagra and similar products, including the “Professional” versions? Is is only the time and duration of effectiveness, or are there other differences? What about interactions with other medications?
Professional version?? There’s a Ron Jeremy joke in there somewhere. . . .
From what I know, there isn’t much practical difference between Viagra, Levitra and Cialis. The latter is billed as being effective for thirty-six hours (the others modestly claim twenty-four). I sometimes wonder if Cialis really takes longer to be broken down by the liver, or if a couple of guys in the clinical trial claimed it worked that long and the marketing guys ran with it.
(I see Cialis is now marketing a “use-every-day” version. I haven’t looked into it, but I suspect it is simply a low [5 mg] dose. Can’t see the need for it, since few guys need to be able to perform at a moment’s notice. [insert second Jeremy joke here])
Apparently, you’re wrong. On XM radio, they ran a lot of ads for Maxiderm, which they advertised as a topical ointment that produced an erection is 3-5 seconds (last time I heard an ad, they no longer mentioned how fast it would work). I never figured out which was funnier, the idea of someone saying “I need an erection, and I need it in 3 to 5 seconds, dammit!” or the fact that you had to rub it on, which often does the job on it’s own.
(Still don’t see a need for quick-acting stuff, but I suppose some guys are more impatient - and hornier - than I.)
I just looked that up and it is clearly some form of bogus herbal quack “remedy” along the lines of Enzyte, also billing itself for “male enhancement” i.e. enlargement, so I wouldn’t take any of their claims seriously.
All of the actual pharmaceuticals listed in the OP have interactions with nitrates (sometimes used for B.P. control, I think), according to the warnings I see on their commercials.
Viagra, Cialis, etc. have a reaction to nitrates because they are vasodilators, they increase blood flow. Nitrates are also vasodilators normally used to treat angina pectoris, the tightening of the chest due to constricted arteries. If you use both of them, you’ll cause your blood vessels to dialate too much, causing your blood pressure to drop dangerously low.
As an aside, Viagra was initially being investigated as a replacement to nitroglycerin, however they found the “side effect” and realized that they can make more money marketing it for erectile dysfunction.
Viagra and similar drugs are phosphodiesterase inhibitors.
There’s a bit about the method of action here.
Nitrates are also present in amyl nitrate and buytl nitrite (poppers). Poppers+viagra is also a very bad plan.
This thread reminds me of something I have been wondering about for a while. If Viagra, etc., act by dilating blood vessels and if nitroglycerin operates by dilating blood vessels, then does nitroglycerin have the same effect as viagra? I used to take a drug called isordil, described as a slow-acting version of nitroglycerin until they stopped making it. Whereas nitroglycerin was quick acting and went away quickly, isordil was slow. And very cheap (obviously not worth the effort to keep making it).
I used to to use it prophylactically (no pun intended), to forestall angina. After I stopped using it, I discovered that I no longer suffered from angina.
See the link in the post before yours.
Basically, ED drugs inhibit a chemical that inhibits a chemical that helps enable erections. Kinda like traveling from St. Louis to Kansas City by way of Tokyo, but it works.
But what if I want to get from St Louis to Kansas city RIGHT NOW.
So, good for a quick bang then?
Take I-70, not drugs.
It’s even funnier than this. When they tried to test it as a blood pressure medication and found it wasn’t working, none of the trial participants would turn their meds in when the trial ended.
“You want my drugs? Well…err…my dog ate them.”
“Oh yeah, I…flushed my pills down the toilet.”
“I lost my bottle.”
When they looked into WHY no one would turn their pills in, they found a new market. I worked at Pfizer when this was going on. The jokes flew.
When Viagra was new, I heard a young lady say if she were out to dinner with a guy, and she saw him take a Viagra, she’d walk out right there and then. She was offended that a guy would decide ahead of time that she would go to bed with him. It seemed like a Catch-22 to me.