FirstMed Consulting Blog

The world of professional sport is no stranger to drug scandals. Anyone who reads a paper or turns on a TV will see how seriously allegations of ‘Doping’ are taken. I had heard of athletes taking anabolic steroids to improve their performance but I noticed reports last week that athletes are now turning to Viagra to enhance their performance.

It isn’t clear how many might be taking it in hopes of improving athletic performance, but stashes of the drug have reportedly been found among some professional athletes and it has also attracted the attention of the World Anti-Doping Agency. The agency is currently studying Viagra’s effects in athletes, but hasn’t yet banned it. Experts are divided over whether it actually offers athletes an edge.

Why? I hear you ask. How could Viagra, a drug designed to help treat erectile dysfunction be of any use to a pro athlete?

Well Viagra has many uses. In fact, it was originally developed as a heart drug; its use as a treatment for erectile dysfunction was only 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.

Athletes taking Viagra hope that the drug will expand their already normal-sized vessels to give them extra lung capacity. If you have more oxygen going to your muscles, that’s more energy and that makes you a better athlete. But some experts say that’s unlikely and Viagra would only work on people with lung problems already. In other words – it can’t fix what isn’t broken.

While it is still uncertain whether Viagra makes athletes faster, higher or stronger, there may also be another reason athletes are taking Viagra – to compensate for the impotence brought on by using banned hormones.