Ep 5: Viagra: The Sex Drug | When Should You Take Viagra

Sexpert & Topic Intro Growing up, I heard so many dirty jokes that all talked about Vi@gra, Vi@gra and Vi@gra. And for the longest time, I had no idea what it was apart from a joke. So today I thought we can talk about Vi@gra. What is it? Who should use it? Can it be harmful? But first, welcome- I'm Artika and you're watching Allo Ask The Sexpert a space where we invite sexual health and wellness experts to talk about sex, sexual medicine, health, pleasure, and so much more so that you can have Better Sex, Backed by Science. Today's expert is a psychiatrist, andrologist and a sexual medicine expert with Allo Health, Dr. Karthik. Welcome Dr. Karthik, how are you doing? Thank you Artika. Nice to be back here again. It's lovely to have you here again. So I think today's topic, which is Vi@gra, is something that a lot of boys write to us that they want to know about. There are concerns, some of them are excited to use it. So I thought, why not pick it up and have a sexpert come and talk about it? What Is Vi@gra?? Quite an interesting topic. And so it was something it's a drug which changed, you know the pharma company as such. Vi@gra is actually a trade name. Okay. It was introduced by a company called Pfizer. Most of you'd know the company. I think after C0V!D everybody knows. Yes. Yeah. But frankly speaking, it's "S*ldenafil" (drug component of Vi@gra). Okay. It's called S!ldenafil C!trate. Right. Vi@gra was actually the brand name that Pfizer gave when they introduced the drug long back. Okay. Okay. So, one, How Does Vi@gra Work In Your Body? would you want me to throw in some light on how it acts, on what it is? Yes, absolutely. I think you should lead today's conversation. That'll be so helpful for me. Sure. Sure. Now, let's say biologically speaking, whenever there is sexual stimulation of the body, there are certain chemicals, neurotransmitters which come down from the brain. At the end of it- brain is the master organ that needs to, you know, tell you tell the person organ to get an erection. The way it works is whenever there is sexual stimulation, a chemical comes down, acts on the penis and releases a small chemical called n!tric 0xIde in the blood vessels. That does nothing, but it increases the diameter of the blood vessels for that time being. That this why, instead of coming in a smaller pipe, the blood is coming in a bigger pipe. So that is how we get a hard enough erection. Okay. Now, what they discovered How Does Vi@gra Help With Erections initially was people who are who are having difficulties in achieving an erection. Mm hmm. They found out that their n!tric 0xide content in the blood vessel was very, very low. In other terms, let's say their blood vessel quality was on the lesser side. Okay. Okay. So what Pfizer discovered was a drug which inhibits destruction of this n!tric 0xide, which in simple terms, whatever the quantity of the n!tric 0xide is there in your body, it makes it stay inside your blood vessel for a longer time. Okay. So as a result, your blood vessels stay opened up for longer time. Yeah. Now, the irony of this is actually this does not happen only in the personal organ. This happens even in the heart. Let's say, you're exercising.. like dilation you're talking about.. Yes. Yet exercising your heart needs more blood. So what happens? Brain sends this stimulus and the same n!tric 0xide is released near your heart so that your heart gets more blood okay. Why am I stressing on this point is usually when we talk about erectile dysfunction or sexual health, we kind of restrict ourselves only to that. But this actually Pfizer itself did a study. It is an indication that whenever there is a problem with erection, the body is actually telling you that your blood vessel quality is low. When I speak organically. So not only you are at risk of sexual health problems, you are actually at a r!sk of a he@rt @ttack or any brain