EFN

Viagra has been associated with hearing loss according to a new study. Viagra and other similar drugs are classified as phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors or simply referred to as PDE-5i. Men over 40 who took these medicines were twice as likely to develop hearing loss than those who do not take them.

Gerald McGwin of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Public School of Health led the study. The study evaluated 11,525 all over the age of 40. The information had been gathered from studies that were conducted between 2003 and 2006. Previous studies had already uncovered the link between this type of drug and hearing loss and were made public in 2007. The government ordered all drugs like Viagra, Cialis and Levitra to come with a warning label indicating a person increases the risk of losing their hearing if they take a PDE-5i.

McGwin’s study backed up the original findings, but does not conclusively link hearing loss and impotence drugs. Factors like age should be considered into the findings. Older men are already at an increased risk of hearing loss. A number of different undiagnosed health conditions may have caused the hearing loss and erectile dysfunction
that led the man to take the medicine in the first place. McGwin hypothesizes that this particular drug increases blood to specific tissues in the body, and it may be causing an increase in the ear tissues, thus causing damage. He believes more research is needed before a definitive link can be made.

The information has been published in the Archives of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.