Hearing damage possible with Viagra
May 28th, 2010 | 
According to a study newly published in the Archives of Otolaryngology— Head and Neck Surgery, use of Viagra or similar drugs for treating erectile dysfunction (ED) can result in loss of hearing.
It is worth noting here that the Food and Drug Administration has already asked ED medicines, like Cialis, to carry a warning about the risk of hearing loss.
From health.usnews.com:
ED drugs are part of a class known as phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors, which work by stimulating blood flow to certain tissues. Despite the risk of hearing loss associated with ED treatments, the condition shouldn’t be ignored, since it can signal serious health problems, as U.S. News’s Lindsay Lyon wrote in March.
Previous studies have suggested that men with ED are at greater risk of heart attack, cardiac death, and stroke. So what do erections have to do with gauging cardiovascular health? “An erection is a vascular phenomenon,” according to Robert Kloner, director of research at Good Samaritan Hospital’s Heart Institute and a professor of medicine at the University of Southern California. While there are many causes of ED, it’s most often the result of a vascular issue preventing enough blood from getting where it needs to go, he said.
The researchers considered at data of more than 11,500 men over the age of 40 years and found that those taking erectile dysfunction drugs had double the risk of hearing loss.
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