Viagra can permanently damage your color vision: Study
What's the story
Remember how we were told as kids that excess of everything is bad? This 31-year-old man from US learned this quite the hard way.
In a first of its kind, this man, who took more than the recommended 50mg dose, was left with red-tinted vision, an irreversible damage.
He visited the urgent care clinic complaining of red-tinted vision in both his eyes.
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What actually happened?
The man reported that his symptoms began shortly after taking a dose of liquid sildenafil citrate, an important ingredient of Viagra.
He was then diagnosed with persistent retinal toxicity due to the high dose of medication damaging the outer retina.
Despite various treatments, his tinted vision has not improved more than a year after his initial diagnosis.
Do you know?
We have never visualized such effect on the retina: Doctors
Researchers examined his retina for evidence of structural damage at the cellular level, something that they had never seen before. They also identified microscopic injury to the cones of the retina, the cells which are responsible for color vision.
Here's how
"Our finding will help other doctors"
"While we know colored vision disturbance is a side effect, we've never visualized the structural effect of the drug on the retina until now," said Richard Rosen, Director of Retina Services at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai (NYEE).
"Our findings should help doctors become aware of potential cellular changes in patients who might use the drug excessively," he added.
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What does Pfizer have to say?
Pfizer, the manufacturer of the Viagra brand, on its part, said: 'It's important to note that no regulatory body has approved liquid sildenafil citrate to treat erectile dysfunction."
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Not just distorted vision, Viagra can be deadly too
Notably, the active drug in Viagra was linked to 19 deaths in the UK last year, the highest on record since 1999.
Sildenafil, the main ingredient of many erectile dysfunction medicines, caused more than a dozen deaths due to heart problems, including coronary artery disorder, irregular heartbeat and heart failure in 2017, according to a report by the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.