Generic Viagra

Athletes looking for a performance boost appear to be turning to a little blue pill more usually taken for its off-the-field benefits: Viagra.

But experts are divided over whether it actually offers athletes an edge.

Some sports authorities say the drug is now finding a following among athletes. It isn’t clear how many might be taking it in hopes of improving athletic performance.

It also has attracted the attention of the World Anti-Doping Agency. The agency is studying Viagra’s effects in athletes, but hasn’t yet banned it. Viagra is not on the International Olympic Committee’s list of prohibited drugs, so athletes can take it at the Beijing Olympics.

Viagra, also known as sildenafil, is manufactured by Pfizer Inc. It originally was developed as a heart drug; its use as a treatment for erectile dysfunction was accidentally discovered.

The drug works by increasing the effects of nitric oxide, which makes blood vessels expand. That should theoretically allow blood cells to get more oxygen from the lungs. It also might improve heart function.

Viagra also is approved to treat pulmonary hypertension, a condition in which the lungs’ blood vessels tighten. Doctors have used the drug experimentally to treat pregnant women with high blood pressure and to ward off jet lag.

But whether Viagra makes athletes faster, higher or stronger is uncertain.

“Just because you have more nitric oxide doesn’t mean that you are going to be a better athlete,” said Anthony Butch, director of the Olympic Analytical laboratory at UCLA. “If you have all the nitric oxide you need, and if you generate more from Viagra, it’s not clear what effect that would have.”

Still, some preliminary studies have shown that cyclists taking Viagra improved their performances by up to 40 percent.

“If you have more oxygen going to your muscles, that’s more energy and that makes you a better athlete,” said Dr. Andrew McCullough, a sexual health expert at the New York University School of Medicine. “Even if it only gives you a 10 percent increase, in peak athletes that is enough to win.”

McCullough said Viagra is only likely to help athletes such as runners, cyclists or skiers - sports where endurance and speed are key. Viagra does not work directly on muscles, so will not make athletes stronger.

Athletes often mistakenly assume a drug will work in their bodies the same way it does in sick people. For instance, in people with lung problems who take Viagra, the drug widens their blood vessels so they can absorb more oxygen.

Athletes taking Viagra might hope the drug would expand their already normal-sized vessels to give them extra lung capacity. But some experts say that’s unlikely.

“Viagra corrects problems in people who are in a challenged or diseased state,” said Ian McGrath, a professor of physiology at the University of Glasgow.

In normal people, McGrath said, the body’s own regulating system is not so easily superseded by drugs, and taking Viagra might be useless. But McGrath also said taking Viagra theoretically could help people breathe better in heavily polluted cities, such as Beijing.

“If you have some sort of illness from pollution, then Viagra might help,” he said.

Scientists at laboratories that conduct drug tests say they haven’t noticed a suspicious spike in samples containing Viagra.

“We see it as much as we see ibuprofen or aspirin or antibiotics that are not prohibited,” said Christiane Ayotte, director of a WADA-accredited laboratory in Canada. “Athletes may be taking it, but they may be taking it for non-doping purposes.”

Ayotte thinks it would be unrealistic to ban Viagra.

“Are athletes going to have to submit therapeutic-use exemptions for Viagra?” she asked. “That would be quite humiliating.”

Other doctors hypothesized that Viagra’s more well-known effects on men’s sex lives might be the ultimate explanation for any enhanced athletic abilities.

“It could be that athletes are taking Viagra and then having vigorous sexual activity,” said Dr. Gerard Varlotta, director of sports rehabilitation at New York University’s Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine. Varlotta doubted that Viagra itself could improve an athlete’s performance.

“If athletes are euphoric after sex after taking Viagra, they may be euphoric about their athletic endeavors,” Varlotta said. “That may make them a better athlete.”

This wouldn’t be the first Irish story concocted out of pure mist. But, as CBS News Correspondent Mark Phillips reports, this mist doesn’t come drifting up the bay on tiny leprechaun feet.

This mist comes steaming out of the industrial exhaust of a pharmaceutical plant in the little town of Ringaskiddy on Ireland’s south coast. And this mist, they say here, has turned this gritty little port town into Europe’s new capital of love.

“There isn’t a man without a smile on his face or a woman without a bigger smile,” says Geraldine Dermitty.

The source of all this levity: the plant where they make something called sildenafil citrate, which just happens to be the active ingredient in Viagra.

And the locals swear something is escaping from the plant that’s made them more, how shall we say, caring. Just ask little 11-week-old Sam’s delighted dad.

“Well he’s a good result since I moved down here, yes,” says Kieran Kramer.

The local infant population, locals say, has soared.

When his son was born, Kramer says the maternity ward was packed.

“We were lucky to get a bed,” he says.

About the only people who don’t find this all mildly amusing are the ones who run the plant.

Asked if he finds it at all funny, Viagra plant manager Paul Duffy says, “No, not particularly.”

Plant officials say emissions are strictly controlled by Irish environmental laws. No chance of a leak.

“It’s a myth that could not happen and that does not happen,” says Duffy.

The locals have another view. Just look at the windsocks around the plant, they say. The one up wind and away from the exhaust is flaccid, while the one down wind gets the full effect.

Of course there may be another reason for Ringaskiddy’s allegedly newfound friskiness, and it might have less to do with proximity to the Viagra plant than with proximity to another famous Irish landmark. Blarney and the Blarney Stone is just down the road.

And whatever’s in the air here, it hasn’t interfered with the Blarney Stone’s gift of the gab.

“Well you get the odd aroma from it, not an odor but an aroma - a wiff,” says Duirmaid Considine.

So what does Considine do?

“I take a deep breath and hope for the best,” he says.

Viagra started off as a rather disappointing treatment for angina but doctors began to notice that patients were very reluctant to stop taking it, even after surgery had dealt with any angina problems. One by one the Viagra users confessed that a wonderful thing had happened after Viagra: their sex life had dramatically improved. Many of these Viagra patients had medical reasons why they may have had erectile problems, ranging from the impotence (erectile dysfunction) caused by blood pressure drugs, heart problems and general to health. Doctors are trained to report all unexpected side effects, and the reports on these positive Viagra “side effects” kept pouring in.

But was Viagra safe to use? Doctors reported that 70% were helped by Viagra to a better sex life, while 16% got headaches, 10% severely, others had other symptoms such as indigestion or a blue tinge to their sight.

These diamond shaped Viagra pills cost around $12 for a single tablet. The effect soon wears off so the demand can only be guessed at. If just 2 million men decide to use Viagra regularly (twice a week) then the US demand alone will be around 200 million tablets a year or up to $2 billion in market value. But that’s just the US.. British private clinics are charging around double the US price per Viagra tablet (£16) but are reluctant to do so without a full diagnostic screen costing around £300-400.

And then people wondered about Viagra for women, so-called female Viagra (new drugs for female sexual dysfunction). Although there is little evidence that Viagra helps women who take it themselves to improve their love-life, Viagra may help pregnant women with placental insufficiency, by improving blood supply to the uterus. Some doctors also think it may have a slight effect in assisting conception in some forms of infertility - perhaps for the same reason.