Viagra may be famous for helping men in the bedroom, but a new study shows it may also help children with a rare and often fatal lung disease.

Researchers found the active ingredient in Viagra, sildenafil, helped children with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) walk farther and breathe easier when taken over the course of a year.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension occurs when blood pressure in the arteries that supply blood to the lungs becomes dangerously high and causes symptoms including fatigue, dizziness, shortness of breath, and eventually heart failure and death.

In the study, which appears in the current issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, researchers looked at the effects of sildenafil in a group of 14 children with symptomatic pulmonary arterial hypertension.

The children received varying doses of the drug along with other drugs as needed, such as blood thinners. After one year of treatment, the results showed that the children were able to walk farther than typically seen with other drugs used to treat PAH.

Researchers say sildenafil appears to help pulmonary hypertension by relaxing the smooth muscle of blood vessels and increasing blood flow. That effect resulted in a 20% drop in resistance in the pulmonary arteries and improved breathing for these children.

“Very importantly, the side effects were minimal, the drug was very easy to take, and there were no changes in liver or kidney function that can happen with other drugs [used to treat PAH],” says Adatia.

Reference - WebMD

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