Saturday, May 28, 2005

Is Viagra causing blindness in some users?

If you use Viagra, watch out - it might make you go blind. The FDA is investigating reports of varying degrees of blindness reported by a small number of men who use Viagra. No hard (no pun intended) evidence has been found that shows that Viagra caused the blindness. The men affected are suffering a condition known as nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION), which causes a rapid reduction of vision and can, in the most serious cases, lead to blindness.

Dr Howard Pomeranz, co-author of a report on this condition published in the Journal of Neuro-ophthalmology in April, said that Viagra had long been linked to sight problems. Viagra was known to cause temporary color changes in some men's vision, he said, but NAION was a much more serious condition. Serious indeed - imagine all those little old men on Viagra, now walking around blind with a hard-on! (OK, maybe DON'T imagine that...)

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