How Viagra could keep brain healthy

VIAGRA could help prevent the onset of a common form of dementia, scientists believe.

Experts think that erectile dysfunction drugs – which work by increasing blood flow to the genitals – could also help blood reach the brain.

They hope this could ward off vascular dementia, which affects 150,000 people in Britain. It is caused when blood vessels become diseased, which restricts cerebral flow.

Scientists at St George’s, University of London, are currently testing tadalafil – a drug similar to Viagra – on volunteers to see if their theory is correct. They have already conducted trials with 24 people in the capital, with another 30 due in the coming months.

If their results, expected to be published later this year, show that the drug does help blood reach the brain, the researchers are planning a second trial to see if it improves cognition.

Speaking at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Toronto, research leader Dr Atticus Hainsworth said: ‘This initiative is to use existing medicines to see if we can use them for a different purpose.

‘Our study at the moment is simply to ask whether it increases blood flow to the brain. If it does, we need to see if mental function is maintained for longer. We hope that it would either prevent or slow down vascular dementia.’

The Alzheimer’s Society in Britain and the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation in New York have co-funded the £328,000 trial.