Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water, as the idiom goes.
Balance and nuance in any analysis aren’t always easy – and it certainly cuts against our natural, stubborn egos – but such an approach is valuable.
For instance, as hard as this pill may to swallow in the context of COVID, not everything that big pharma pushes out is overpriced toxic bullshit. Most of it is, perhaps, but not all. And here’s a great example.
Tadalafil, popularly marketed as Cialis in the United States, it turns out, might not exclusively benefit aging men with erectile dysfunction.
In a nutshell, the drug works by inhibiting an enzyme called phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5), which relaxes smooth muscle and increases blood flow. This mechanism delivers numerous other documented health benefits aside from helping men get hard.
Its half-life of about 18 hours, which means that its therapeutic window lasts approximately 36 hours. So a single daily maintenance dose is more than enough to keep it in constant circulation.
Patients with mild cognitive impairment, one study published in Clinical Psychopharmacology and Neuroscience found that “daily low-dose tadalafil administration increased relative regional CBF [cerebral blood flow] in the postcentral gyrus, precuneus, and brainstem… cognitive function was significantly improved after the administration of tadalafil for eight weeks.”
It’s also beneficial for cardiovascular (heart) function. Research published in Nature Public Health Emergency Collection found that “tadalafil was associated with a decreased risk of MACE [major adverse cardiac events] in men with LUTS [lower urinary tract symptoms].”
Because tadalafil decreases oxidative stress and reduces the activity of inflammatory cytokines (immune cells), research published in Future Cardiology suggests that it might effectively combat COVID-19:
“PDE5 inhibitors could be good candidates in the clinical management of COVID-19 patients, especially those with a history of underlying cardiac and metabolic diseases. With their dual inhibitory effects on SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro and the NO/cGMP/PDE5 pathway, PDE5 inhibitors suggestively act in more than one way against COVID-19.”
Through this same anti-inflammatory mechanism, Tadalfil also confers pain-killing benefits for arthritis patients, an autoimmune condition associated with increased inflammatory activity.
Research shows that Taladafil improves the testosterone: estrogen ratio, which is often skewed in men due to age, diet, and lack of anaerobic exercise. Relatedly, it may increase lean muscle mass in nonobese men – a potential remedy for age-related muscle mass (called sarcopenia).
As well, it may treat Raynaud’s Phenomenon, altitude sickness, and numerous other conditions.
Taladafil is also a potential boon for mental health, as it has exhibited antidepressant properties in rat studies.
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Generic versions of tadalafil have been available in the US since 2018, so you no longer need to shell out a fortune to reap the benefits. Unfortunately, the government mommies at the FDA still won’t allow adults to access this relatively safe medication without a prescription, so you’ll have to get a script from a doctor.
Or go to Mexico where the government treats adults like adults.
Ben Bartee is an independent Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs. Follow his stuff via Armageddon Prose and/or Substack, Locals, Gab, and Twitter.
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