Viagra pills

Many men suffer from erectile dysfunction - the inability to achieve and sustain an erection long enough to have enjoyable and fulfilling sex. For a variety of reasons erectile dysfunction is most common in men over 45. The sex drive is often lowered even further in older men who are taking medications of various kinds.

Most of us assume the sex drive gradually diminishes as we get older, so we are prepared to accept erectile dysfunction as a natural condition. But the fact is, the inability for many men to sustain an erection may be more the result of treatable physical conditions rather than an actual loss of sex drive.

It came to be accepted that erectile dysfunction is the result of physical changes in the adult male - not primarily mental or psychological conditions. Phenylalanine - the drug used by Dr. Brindley to give himself a public erection - started to be used with some success in the 80's and 90's, but there are two problems with phenylalanine. First, it is not selective enough to target only the penis, so its effects on other parts of the body are unpredictedtable. And second, the erections it creates are not brought on by sexual stimulation. You can get an erection any old time with phenylalanine, and you will continue to have one until the effect of the drug wears off.

Viagra was the first drug that overcame these two problems. Viagra does not work by relaxing the blood vessels of the penis. Instead it enhances the natural processes that take place when a man is sexually stimulated. It does this by controlling what we might call the "Softeners" - the chemicals in the body designed to make the penis go soft after an erection.

It works something like this. When a man is sexually stimulated his brain sends signals that trigger the production of chemicals that relax the blood vessels in the penis. Think of these as "Hardeners". As the blood vessels are relaxed by the production of Hardeners, blood flow increases and the penis goes erect.