viagras, cialises, etc as performance enhancers?

[feelgood]

just curious, as i just haven't really ever heard of anything around this, but if those drugs act to increase blood flow, do pro athletes/bikers/runners try to supplement with them? are they a banned substance? or is there no real athletic boost to the kind of blood flow viagara, etc provide?

just watching Tour De France and wondering....

[PeakT]

Great question!  That's what I love about this forum.  Writing a page on the site is pretty painful and labor intensive, but I can just write a quick blurb here about something I've noticed.  Yes, I have read reports of athletes abusing the stuff but I don't think any big names.

It's really kind of risky for a young superman elite athlete to use it, because they are probably not going to get that much benefit and are risking priapism and the multitude of side effects that go with the PDE5 Inhibitors.  However, they do probably provide some benefits for even this crowd.  A couple of studies have shown that there are some benefits.  For example, check this out:

"Sildenafil improves cardiac output and exercise performance during acute hypoxia, but not normoxia"
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16455814

And you know how it is in professional and the highest tier of college sport:  most guys will do anything to shave off 10 msec and if taking Viagra will do it, they'll probably double the dosage.

Again, though, it really doesn't have the same effect in young men.  Look at this study that shows that Viagra simply reduces the refractory period in young guys:

http://www.nature.com/ijir/journal/v15/n3/abs/3901005a.html
"Sildenafil does not improve sexual function in men without erectile dysfunction but does reduce the postorgasmic refractory time"

A

[feelgood]

interesting stuff! thanks Peak....

Speaking of the Tour, i watch these guys in amazement. All that time in the saddle, just excruciating climbs and long stages....With extreme stuff (all the racing and hours of training) like that, i know T levels can take a bit of a hit...and then the saddle issue causing numbness/possible ED.

And yet, on the podium after a state, you often see the wife and kids giving the dude a kiss...So obviously they're "gettin' it done" so to speak

I wonder if they have incredible amounts of nitric oxide from that kind of work they do, and that offsets any T drop....who knows - or, virtually all the guys you see out there are just the ones that are immune to any T drop...

i remember reading a Lance A piece, and he said something like "yeah, there are all these issues, back issues, walking around with low testosterone, etc...yet i will say i've never had any problem in the bed department"....or something cocky like that

[PeakT]

And yet, on the podium after a state, you often see the wife and kids giving the dude a kiss...So obviously they're "gettin' it done" so to speak

It might be with Caverject though - we'll never know...