Drug dysfunction erectile medication daily news.

VANCOUVER (CBC) - A B.C. woman’s death last year from metal toxicity underlines the dangers of buying medications through the internet, says the regional coroner for Vancouver Island.

Marcia Bergeron, 57, of Quadra Island died last December from a heart attack brought on by toxic metals in her system. Toxicology tests found the concentration of aluminum in her liver to be 15 times the norm.

A coroner’s inquiry found on Thursday the toxins came from counterfeit medicines Bergeron had ordered online. (more̷

sexual problems are often complex and interrelated.
Medications may be used in treating certain conditions that contribute to
sexual problems.

Medication Choices

Estrogen. If you only have vaginal
dryness and irritation (and not other symptoms such as hot flashes), you can
use a limited amount of
estrogen in a cream, tablet, or ring in the vagina.
The daily estrogen makes your tissue less thin and sensitive and more moist.
Many women find that using a cream or tablet twice a week is enough. This may
increase vaginal tone and lubrication, which will decrease
vulvar dryness, irritation, and shrinkage (atrophy).
(more̷

The U.S. federal government took steps earlier this week to shut down Web sites in California in order to protect the public from hacked Web sites, but new incidents show that the problem is not going away any time soon.

On Thursday, compromised pages hosted by the Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Superior Court of Madera County, California, were still hosting inappropriate content. Brookhaven had links that redirected visitors to pornographic Web servers, and the Madera County court site featured ads for porn and Viagra.

Brookhaven has begun an investigation into the incident, said Tom Schlagel, a manager with the lab's information technology division. “From what I've been told, there isn't any evidence that there's any pornography on the server,” he said. “It's all just redirections.” (more̷

March 14, 2000 (Anaheim, Calif.) — New research shows that 522 patients have died while taking Viagra (sildenafil) in the first year the drug was on the market. Since its introduction in March of 1998, more than 12 million prescriptions of the blockbuster treatment for erectile dysfunction (ED) have been written. There are continued concerns that the drug could trigger heart problems in some users; already it is not recommended for patients taking nitrates for this reason.

“Our data appear to suggest that there’s a relatively high number of deaths and adverse cardiovascular events associated with the use of Viagra. I want to emphasize that in no way are we trying to imply a cause-and-effect relationship,” lead researcher Sanjay Kaul, MD, a critical care cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, tells WebMD. Kaul presented his findings here Tuesday at the 49th Annual Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology.

Kaul got his numbers by lodging a Freedom of Information Act request with the FDA. Overall, he found 1,473 major adverse events in the agency’s surveillance database related to Viagra. For instance, in addition to the 522 deaths, Kaul noted 517 patients who experienced heart attack or anginal chest pain when using the drug.

However, it’s difficult to interpret the data without comparing them to a similar population not taking the drug, and that’s why Kaul says that additional research is necessary. In the meantime, he says there’s no reason to panic.

“The most important message is that in most patients at low risk, Viagra is generally safe. However, you need to evaluate the patient’s cardiac risk before you prescribe Viagra,” says Kaul.

Meanwhile, another Viagra study presented here Tuesday came to a very different conclusion. This research, done in collaboration with Pfizer, Viagra’s manufacturer, compared some 4,500 patients taking the drug to about 3,100 on placebo. The bottom line is that the rates of heart attack and death in men with ED treated with Viagra were low, and there wasn’t any real difference between the groups.

“It’s reassuring that … in general, for most patients, even those with existing coronary [heart] disease … resuming sexual activity is very unlikely to trigger a [coronary] event,” says lead researcher Murray A. Mittleman, MD, an internist and preventive cardiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

Mittleman says that the FDA database is better at spotting unusual events than seeing aberrations in common conditions like heart attacks. However, the agency concedes that drug problems are drastically underreported, with perhaps only one in 10 eventually getting the FDA’s attention. (more̷

Nov. 2, 2004 — The FDA is warning men to steer clear of two dietary supplements promoted and sold on the Internet for treating erectile dysfunction and enhancing sexual performance.

The FDA says the supplements, sold under the names Actra-Rx or Yilishen, actually contain an active prescription ingredient that could cause serious complications in some men.

The agency has also issued an alert instructing FDA officials to stop the importation of Actra-Rx and Yilishen.

A chemical analysis published earlier this year in The Journal of the American Medical Association showed that a sample of Actra-Rx sold by Body Basics of Los Angeles contained a prescription-strength amount of sildenafil. Sildenafil is the active ingredient in the prescription drug Viagra, which is approved by the FDA for the treatment of erectile dysfunction.

In its own tests of Actra-Rx, the FDA also found that the supplement contained prescription-strength sildenafil.

Dangers of Sexual Supplements

FDA officials say an interaction between sildenafil and certain prescription drugs containing nitrates, such as nitroglycerin, or nitrates found in illegal drugs may cause a dangerous lowering of blood pressure.

People with high blood pressure or heart disease are often prescribed drugs containing nitrates. Because erectile dysfunction is a common problem among men with these conditions, officials say taking Actra-Rx or Yilishen could increase the risk of serious and potentially life-threatening side effects.

Officials say anyone experiencing erectile dysfunction should see their doctor to discuss treatment options and should not take dietary supplements that claim to treat the condition. (more̷