Beyond ED Viagra For Longevity

0:09 Hey everybody, this is Hunter Williams. I hope you're doing amazing wherever you might be in the world. Today's video is going to be all about Viagra, not for erectile dysfunction, but actually for longevity purposes. You may not know that although Viagara works amazingly for Erectile Dysfunction, there's actually a lot of longevity benefits. By Viagra, also this class of medications, which are known as PDE5 inhibitors. And typically if we are looking at the conversation around longevity in that class medications most of the time what comes up is Cialis.

0:40 Cialsis is great. I love low dose Cielis for longevity. That's something that not enough people talk about using for Longevity purposes. However, in recent months I've been toying with Viagra at regular doses and low doses, and going back and forth between Cialis and Viagon. And the reason I do that is because to me, I kind of get a tolerance build up from Cielis, meaning that it works great. You can use 2.5 or five milligrams a day, every day. It works. Great. However, you don't necessarily notice the performance benefits, whether that's for exercise performance or sexual performance.

1:15 unless you go up to higher doses, like 20 milligrams, which is fine. But what I have found is that rotating back and forth, maybe doing like four weeks on low dose Cialis and then going to four of low-dose Viagra, we'll talk about what that is, seems to work really well because you're obviously using a similar class drug, but you are getting different stimulation and so you can go back-and-forth between the two. I've been a big proponent of using low Dose Cialsis for a while, But I never thought to maybe intersperse low dose Viagra with it or even normal dose viagras

1:48 to reap the same benefit and I seem to like it a lot. It seems to work really well and i think what it does is it helps keeps me relatively sensitive to those so you can use one month on one and then go one one to the other. I don't think, not that I've seen anyone is really talking about that, They tend to reserve Viagra more for the performance side of things where Cialis is for performance, but then also to more, for longevity side. But what I want to talk about today is actually the longevity benefits that we see in a lot of the literature around Viagar itself and how you could potentially

2:18 use a low dose of that mixed with your C. Alice or alternating back and forth, how would you do that? And then, also, what we would see practically speaking from beyond the erectile dysfunction benefits, because obviously it works great for that. So that's what I'm gonna talk about today. Thank you guys so much. As always, make sure you're on the email list. Check that out down below. It's the best way to stay in touch with me. At the stands right now, I got the hat trick of censorship, meaning I've got my YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram all deleted for talking about peptides and

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3:19 So you can check that out. It's a lot of fun. We're having fun in there. it's very, very cool, a low key vibe group about peptides and hormones and stuff to check it out, But without further ado, I'm gonna share my screen and today we're gonna talk about low dose, not necessarily low-dose, just Viagra for longevity purposes. All right, today we're going to be talking about sildenafil, which is otherwise known as Viagra. If you didn't know Viago, the chemical name of it is Sildenfil beyond erectile dysfunction. We're gonna explore the potential health and longevity benefits of what everyone calls the little blue pill.

3:49 Just to give you a background on Viage, it's originally developed in the 1990s for angina and hypertension. Ironically, It was not actually developed for erectal dysfunction initially. It for high blood pressure. Then it became the first FDA approved oral erectile dysfunction treatment in 1998 after researchers noticed an unexpected side effect, which was that it helps with rectal dysfunction. Since then it's been prescribed to over 60 million men worldwide. 2005, it gained FDA approval for pulmonary arterial hypertension under the brand name Revatio.

4:22 And today growing evidence suggests its effect on blood vessels and cellular signaling might confer Health and longevity benefits far beyond its original uses. So we see development in the 90s, 1998 FDA approval, 2005 expanded for pulmonary hypertension. And today I think we can explore it for longevity. Now let's look at how Viagra works, nitric oxide, CGMP and beyond. One, we have the PDE5 inhibition. It blocks the enzyme that breaks down cyclic GMP, amplifying nitrous oxide signaling throughout the body, which obviously is why it worked well for erectile dysfunction,

4:56 but it works for a whole host of other things in the process of doing that. We have vasodilation. So higher CGMP levels cause smooth muscles to relax, widening blood vessels systemically. And then we have a ubiquitous pathway where the nitric oxide and CGNP operates in cardiovascular system, lungs, brain and other organs, which is where it's conferring a lot of these benefits. Now, when we look at mechanisms of action, one we have endothelial function, it relaxes vascular smooth muscle, lowers blood pressure, improves blood supply to organs, and inhibits platelet activation for antithrombotic effects.

5:32 Even if we took the erectile dysfunction benefits aside, something that does that alone is going to help with longevity. Then this is where we actually see some of these pretty cool things that you wouldn't associate with and most people don't realize, but actually works to support mitochondria. Viagra activates protein kinase G, which triggers ischemic preconditioning. And then this promotes mitochondrial biogenesis through PGC1 alpha activation. What else does that sound like? SLUPP332, anybody?

6:02 Also doing a similar thing. Then it is also an anti-inflammatory. It activates AMPK. What does that sound like? ATX304, metformin, anybody. Uh, it also inhibits pro-flammatory NF-kB pathways. Up-regulates the antioxidant enzymes to neutralize reactive oxygen species. In essence, is acting as an antioxidatory to bring down inflammation in the body. Then we will look at cellular signaling. It modulates inflammation and survival pathways as downstream effects of improved endothelial function and nitric oxide signaling take place.

6:36 Reduces the activation of inflammatory cytokines. Protects neurons and neuroinflammation models. Enhances cellular energy metabolism. Supports tissue resilience against oxidative stress. And PDE-5 is especially abundant in vasculature and lungs, providing focus boost to nitric oxide CGMP pathways in key systems. All that to say that it's doing so much beyond just helping with vasodilation, this downstream effect of the vasodylation is that we're getting all this

7:07 reduction in inflammation and improvement in organ systems, specifically the brain, particularly to help with long-term health. Now, let's get into some of the data because some, of this now that we have like a good sample set of a lot of men using Viagra for decades now is pretty cool. One, we noticed 17% lower heart attack risk. There was reduction in incidence among Sildenafil users in 500,000 plus patients in a study. Also, 22% percent lower stroke risk reduction and stroke incidence over a three-year follow-up period.

7:42 24% reduced mortality. So lower all-cause mortality among PDE5 inhibitor users, 24 percent reduction. That is pretty significant. And then we see 7% coronary dilation, increase in coronal artery diameter with a 100 milligram dose, which would be the typical dose. A lot of Viagra comes as a hundred milligram pill. Again, just to reiterate, a 2024 study of over 500,000 middle-aged men with erectile dysfunction found significantly lower rates of heart attacks, strokes, and cardiovascular deaths among those prescribed either Viagra or Cialis.

8:16 And by enhancing NO signaling or nitric oxide signaling, Viagar lowers blood pressure, improves coronary blood flow, reduces platelet activation. A lot of times for guys with blood-pressure, sometimes Cialsis and Viager is enough alone just bring it down. And again, as opposed to maybe using some blood pressure medication, which isn't bad per se, I would rather lean on these to help rather than having to be on blood medication especially some of the more strong ones. When we look at cardiovascular protection, obviously the endothelial health improves brachial artery flow mediated dilation which reverses endoethelal

8:51 dysfunction throughout the body. It also works on vascular repair, so it increases circulating endothelial progenitor cells involved in blood vessel repair. And what happens as we see improved disease outcomes, men with coronary disease on PDE5 inhibitors should longer survival and fewer heart failure hospitalizations. Also to, to go back to the mitochondrial aspect of this, there are exorcizomatic effects. from Viagra. Some researchers suggest PD-5 inhibitors provide benefits similar to physical activity by improving blood flow and cardiovascular response,

9:24 potentially improving fitness and people who cannot exercise enough or acting as a performance enhancer in people that are athletes. It's funny. I remember because when I was younger, I didn't know anything about this stuff, right? I have probably 19 or 20 in college. And I, remember we were talking about, there were some NFL players at the time. that got in trouble for taking Viagra. I guess they got busted for takin' out Viogra because I gues it was on the banned substance list as is pretty much everything that works well.

9:54 which sucks for athletes. However, I remember talking about it at the time and we were kind of joking and were like, why would you take Viagra before a game? That would be the last thing I would think about before game. Now that I'm older and I've obviously been in this world. I realized that it actually is a definite performance enhancement benefit to a point. You don't want to take too much because it can cause too. Much vasodilation, which could lead you being dizzy. But anyway, again, in terms of heart failure, mixed outcomes across different types, improved exercise capacity, but the relax trial showed no benefits in ejection fraction for that.

10:25 We look at pulmonary hypertension and heart protection. It's FDA approved for pulmonary arterial hypertension. And the dose is Viagra at 20 milligrams three times daily. Significantly improves exercise ability and symptoms in hypertension patients by donating pulinary blood vessels. Is also being studied for Pulmonary Hypertension due to COPD and pulminary fibrosis and high altitude conditions to helping people that are living at high altitude conditions, so mountaineers use it to prevent altitude-related lung pressure elevation.

10:57 And then animal studies show Viagra reduces right ventricular hypertrophy and fibrosis by easing the pressure load, similar benefits observed in left ventricle failure models. Basically, the cardiovascular profile of Viage directly addresses several drivers of age- related heart and vessel disease and under medical guidance and can be safe for the heart, and even beneficial long-term. Going into some of these lung benefits, which are pretty cool. I get asked a lot about lung health, COPD and the like.

11:27 PD-5 is abundantly expressed in lung vasculature. So there is lots of this PD5 in our lungs. And this is where the nitric oxide to GMP signaling keeps pulmonary arteries dilated. In the super one study confirmed, Viagra increases walking distance and relief symptoms in pulmonary hypertension patients. Now our first line, oral therapy for PAH. It has significantly improved outcomes for this once rapidly fatal disease. So we see benefits in COPD and interstitial lung disease, it modestly improves hemodynamics and secondary pulmonary hypertension.

12:01 Also works with high altitude edema, reduces risk by promoting vasodilation in low oxygen conditions. And it also helps with sleep apnea, which millions of not just men, but people struggle with. that benefits patients with severe sleep apnea related pulmonary hypertension. As we age, lung function declines and pulinary circulation stiffens and Viagra might help older adults maintain better oxygenation during exercise by keeping pulmonary vessels responsive. Now let's talk about the brain. This is one of the more interesting ones to me that I just never even thought of and obviously it makes sense when you talk it.

12:34 But when we look at cognitive function and brain protection, Lower Alzheimer's risk. Reduction in Viagra users over a six-year follow-up study in seven million pursers. Seven million people resulted in a 69% reduction in Alzheimer. Pretty crazy. 25% lower incidence of dementia, reduction of men taking Viage for ED versus non-users, and then 15% low all-cause mortality and a reduction associated with Viager use in the UK Biobank study. 2021 analysis of insurance record identified Viagra as a top candidate for Alzheimer's disease repurposing.

13:10 Lab experiments showed it promoted neuro growth and reduced tau protein accumulation in neuron models derived from Alzheimer patients. Again, I get asked all the time, how do I stop dementia? Just take your ED medication. There you go. That's one of the best ways. How does it enhance and protect the brain though? One, it enhances cerebral blood flow so it does cross the blood brain barrier and improves blood and flow in the micro vessels of the Brain. PDE5 inhibition also dilates cerebral arteries, improving oxygen and nutrient delivery to brain tissue.

13:40 It also helps with synaptic plasticity. Basically, when we elevate CGMP in the hippocampus, it enhances memory formation. And then rodent studies show improved performance on memory tasks, likely via facilitating long-term potentiation. Then we see reduced pathology. It decreases tau phosphorylation and beta amyloid production in brain, which obviously is a cause, major cause of cognitive decline. It also increases PGC-1 alpha and mitochondrial biogenesis, which bolsters neuron energy metabolism and resilience. And then like we talked about before, it's an anti-inflammatory.

14:12 it up-regulates ENOS in the brain tissue, maintaining healthier blood brain barrier. Also activates NPK and inhibits NF-kB to reduce neuroinflammation. So much of the data we have around brain health is observational perspective trials of Viagra and early Alzheimer's are mild cognitive impairment are needed to directly test and hopefully we have more of those along the way. When we look at metabolic health and system benefits, thought this was pretty cool. 2015 randomized trial tested three months of Viagra at 25 milligrams three times a day in overweight individuals with pre-diabetes.

14:47 And results showed significant increase in insulin sensitivity index, lowered PAI-1, which is a vascular inflammation marker, reduced microalbuminuria, or marker of kidney vessel health, And then benefits persisted months even after discontinuation, which is pretty cool that the benefits lasted for months after they stopped using it. What this means is that it suggests that PD-5 inhibition through Viagra might delay progression from pre-diabetes to diabetes and prevent diabetic complications.

15:17 So we see benefits for weight and fat metabolism. There's animal studies showing that actually helps with the browning of white fat and protects against diode induced obesity. Uh, there's mild reduction and metabolic mild reductions in blood pressure and improvements in metabolic health. and then also again acts as anti-inflammatory. We do see lower CRP and inflammatory markers improve through the insulin action and reduce reduction of cardiovascular risk with the use of Viagra. And then when we look at some of the ones that are much less study but we do benefit, one is a cancer adjunct therapy.

15:49 The increased CGMP can promote apoptosis in cancer cells and synthesize tumors to chemotherapy. And then early phase trials exploring the use of glioblastoma and pancreatic cancer. It also may improve drug penetration by normalizing tumor blood flow. So whatever flavor of cancer treatment that someone may be undergoing, Bagger could definitely help. Also helps with bone health and increased bone mass and strength in animal models that stimulates osteoblasts reduce osteoclasts and it could help prevent osteoporosis and fractures in elderly populations.

16:20 Also too, the one question I know is can women use it? And I actually would say yes. Women could definitely use Cialis and they can definitely Use Viagra. I would just use a much lower dose. Definitely wouldn't go to like a hundred milligrams right away. You could probably start at even like five to 10 milligrams and then go up to 20 milligrams. But it does increase genital blood flow and engorgement in women. There's mixed results when it's been studied for female sexual arousal disorder. I don't think it is going to make women more sexually aroused, but it will help with the bloodflow and have some of these extra benefits on the female

16:51 body as well. But they have looked at topical Viagra gel, which has shown promise in phase two trials for women. However, there was one Penn State trial at Penn state that showed that vaginal Viagara significantly reduced acute menstrual cramp pain. It dilates the uterine arteries, increases blood flow and watches out pain inducing prostaglandins. So I thought that was interesting. that it actually has helped with menstrual cramps and menstruial pains in the uterine area.

17:21 Also for Raynaud's, I get asked a lot about Raynoid's. It reduces the frequency and severity of the attacks of RayNoid and the fingers. it helps heal digital ulcers in severe cases in fingers and helps keep small digital finger and toe arteries open in response to colder stress. And then we see microvascular anginas. There was a trial called the WISE trial that found Viagra improved coronary flow reserve in angina symptoms in women. with clean large arteries, but microvascular dysfunction. To answer the question, yes, women can absolutely absolutely use Viagra for longevity.

17:53 I would just do it more in a low dose fashion and then start with a really, really low-dose and you can work your way up. Now to get into the dosing, the standard ED dose is obviously 50 to 100 milligrams taken on demand. It does usually go to work right away. This again is not regularly, this is kind of one of those on-demand things as needed, right? And again, that peak effect for sexual function is that 50-100 milligram dose. Now when we look at the pulmonary artery hypertension dose, they're doing 20 milligrams three times a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner.

18:24 So that's 60 milligrams total per day. And then for longevity, I would say for most men, the longevity dose is 20 to 40 milligrams daily. I'd start at 20 milligrams, use that daily, and then do that in singular split doses if you wanted to do it 20 mg twice daily for 40 mg that would be good. Obviously that is lower than the the erectile dysfunction dose, but we're still harnessing a lot of those benefits just without the overwhelming erectiles response that we would get from doing the 100 milligram dose. And then what I would do this is every other day or a few times weekly, some people use it five milligrams, two to three times a week.

18:58 So you can even still get some of these benefits. What I have been doing is just doing like 20 milligrams and I'll do that pre-workout, right? And so I get the benefits of it to help with blood flow, to health with performance and things. And then I'm doing that three times, three or four times a week. Then you could do that for a month and then switch over to Cialis. So that's what I would do. That's I've been doing is switch every month, and go back and forth. We're getting some of the benefits. we're not building up too much of a tolerance to where we don't really feel it. But anyway, for men, I would start low, go slow, begin at 20 milligram every other day, monitor blood pressure and tolerance.

19:28 Obviously, if you're already really healthy, taking too high of a dose can cause a headache and it can't cause you to drop your blood. Pressure may be a little too low. So just be careful with that. If you run normal or slightly lower blood, pressure that can happen. Just be with the dose and then avoid nitrates. Watch for CYP3AA4 inhibitors that raise Viagra levels in the body. And then it can potentially stack with rapid myosin metformin or SGLT2s. I'm not going to say I am the biggest fan of rapid Myosins yet, just because there's still a lot that is out there that I think it could potentially inhibit

20:01 a little muscle. But anyway, pairs really nice with some of these other longevity things we do, I would say, especially the met formin and SglT-2. And the good thing is generic Viagra is very inexpensive, may not cover off-label use with insurance. However, of all the things that i talk about, If you can't find a prescription for Viagra, I probably can help you. There are so many telemed companies, Roe.co, Hims and Hers, most of the time you go on. It might be a little bit harder if you're a woman to get it, but I mean, you know, if watch a football game, You're going to see a commercial for something

20:35 that will lead you down the funnel to find Viacra. So there is no official longevity dose yet. The consensus leans toward frequent low doses daily or near daily, a few times a week, every other day to maintain steady physiological effects. similar to Cialis at 2.5 to 5 milligrams, I would say to me the equivalent 5 milligram dose of Viagra would be 20 milligrams. So if you're doing 2 point 5 to five milligrams of Cialsis, the similar dose for that would 20 mg of viagras. We're going to notice it and obviously you can scale the dose as needed for sexual performance.

21:07 Looking at the safety and side effects, common side-effects you're going to get if the dose is too high, headache flushing, nasal congestion, indigestion. You can also get a little bit of a visual disturbance, but these are usually mild and transient, and they often improve as you get used to it, or obviously too, if you are adjusting the dosage. Again, you can get five to eight point drop in your blood pressure. So again, just be careful with that. And then also, watch out if you're taking like beta blockers or alpha blocker. In somewhat rare and serious events, like around two in one million, you can get some vision loss, but that is very, very rare.

21:41 And then long-term safety data shows that really there's only benefit aside from these weird transient side effects. There's not really anything else. to worry about. So what we do know is that Viagra reduces cardiovascular events and mortality. It's associated with 69% lower Alzheimer's risk, at least in those meta analysis, it improves insulin sensitivity and endothelial function. It's generally safe with proper precautions. What we do need is controlled trials to prove causation and to see how it does there.

22:11 Obviously the dosing pertinent of calls, I gave you mine, but there is no established one for that. And then long-term safety data for longevity purposes, we've got really good safety I would like to see this studied more in women or at least more women talking about it and potentially using smaller doses to get some of the benefits. But from what we can tell, it's a sure fire way to improve and make your life healthier and longer. You do not have to feel ashamed of using Viagra, that is for sure. And that's it for the slides. And, that is my comprehensive analysis slash guide to Viagra for longevity.

22:46 Maybe this is something that you've been aware of for a while if you're an experienced user. Hopefully, if it's not, you now see some of the benefits through the cascade of what is going on through, the mechanisms of, what Viagon does to actually help with longevity And I think there's a place, especially for all men, but maybe even women too, that we can use this and harness the benefits long-term because of what it's doing. I don't think you're really at ever an age that's too young to start. And so typically you associate this with someone, you know, a guy that sends like fifties or sixties, But I guys in their twenties or thirties can start

23:16 using this right away and get benefit from it. Obviously, The one caveat I'll say with this is just the more you use, whether it's Viagra or Cialis at higher doses, the less you notice benefit and the that you would need to cycle off of it to feel the effects. I'm not saying that there's a downside to taking it every day. What I am saying is you probably won't notice as much of the benefit, especially around the performance aspect, if you are taking every at a higher dose. But that's why I like using the lower doses frequently and then when we need to, for whatever performance reasons we can go up to those higher doses.

23:50 But I'm a big fan, again, like I said, I've been going back and forth between Viagra and Cialis and it seems to work really well. And hopefully through watching this video, maybe you can experiment with that yourself. and see how it does for you. But thank you guys so much in closing. I am so privileged and honored to bring you the messages and all the feedback I get is so helpful for me. And whatever you do to help support me, whether it's leaving comments, liking, subscribing on wherever these videos and podcasts are listed, Whether it using my code of places, weather is sharing this with friends and family.

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