Can You Still Take Viagra With High Blood Pressure Medication?
Although high blood pressure typically comes without any detectable symptoms, it negatively affects your sex life. This makes it difficult for high blood pressure patients to enjoy sexual activity.
While you may not get a heart attack, having a high BP will no doubt make sex less appealing for you. After all, it decreases the level of satisfaction you can get from sexual activity, resulting in a lowered sex drive.
Many patients with high blood pressure often consume Viagra to help with their sexual limitations.
Viagra guarantees better libido and stronger erections, making it quite useful for high BP patients. But the question arises, is it safe to take Viagra while you’re on high blood pressure medication? Let’s find out.
Does High Blood Pressure Cause ED?
High blood pressure is known to be a contributing factor to erectile dysfunction and might even be the direct cause in some cases. That’s because having high BP narrows down your blood vessels, which ultimately restricts blood flow across your body.
As we know, erectile dysfunction is caused due to poor blood flow to the penis. When the penis muscles don’t get the necessary blood, they cannot carry out the necessary functions for getting an erection. And even if you can achieve an erection this way, it typically won’t last long enough for you to engage in sexual functions.
Since high BP hampers blood flow, we can conclude that it would affect your ability to get erections. However, we cannot say that high BP is the only reason for erectile dysfunction. Simply put, it can happen due to several reasons.
What Are The Causes Of Erectile Dysfunction?
Erectile dysfunction is a condition among men which makes it difficult or impossible to obtain and maintain erections. In some cases, the erection might be possible for a few moments but not long enough for you to actually engage in sexual activities. Whatever the case, erectile dysfunction prevents anyone from having a normal libido.
There are several potential causes for erectile dysfunction, some of which are listed below:
High Cholesterol Levels
It is no surprise that your body needs a healthy level of cholesterol build-up to create ample healthy cells for normal biological functionality. However, having too much cholesterol can lead to deadly risks, including heart conditions that can result in fatality.
The primary reason is that your body develops fatty acids in your blood vessels. The more these vessels grow, the harder it is for there to be natural blood flow in your arteries. When this blood flow is interrupted, blocked, or hampered, you incur certain health risks, including erectile dysfunction.
Diabetes
Diabetes is defined by high blood sugar levels, which can damage your kidneys, blood vessels, heart, and nervous system. This causes symptoms such as an elevated need to urinate, permanent thirst, dry skin, fatigue, and weight loss.
Type 2 diabetes is when the body fails to produce adequate amounts of insulin or starts resisting the build-up of insulin in your body.
It is commonly associated with symptoms such as hunger, excessive urination, increased thirst, and blurry vision. It also causes poor blood sugar control, eventually damaging your blood vessels and nerves, resulting in erectile dysfunction.
Heart Disease
The heart is the root of life and is responsible for pumping blood which is safely distributed across your body. This allows for normal functionality, so naturally, any interference with the blood flow can result in serious issues, including erectile dysfunction.
Miscellaneous Causes
Erectile dysfunction can also be caused by conditions such as hypertension/high blood pressure, old age, trauma, being overweight, or drug and alcohol abuse.
Moreover, it might also stem due to any previous surgery done in the case of prostate cancer. There are also psychological reasons, such as anxiety, stress, depression, or relationship problems.
Is It Safe To Take Viagra If I have High Blood Pressure?
For the most part, it is typically ok for high blood pressure patients to consume Viagra or other alternatives such as Levitra, Stendra, or Cialis. But that doesn’t mean you should take them without consulting your doctor.
While no standard issues arise from mixing ED medication with high blood pressure medicine, there will be problems if there are some particular incompatibilities. So we recommend letting your doctor decide on the green signal.
Before you even consider taking ED medication, consult your urologist or cardiologist and ask them whether or not it will hamper the effects of the medication you have been prescribed.
While mixing two different types of remedies is safe for the most part, there might be certain ingredients or components within the different medications that might be incompatible. Such scenarios might very well lead to far more serious outcomes that negatively affect your well-being.
The main thing you need to ascertain is whether or not there will be any interactions between the two different types of medications. Simply put, everything should be fine if your high BP medication doesn’t come in the way of Viagra or vice versa.
However, if there is any interaction between Viagra and blood pressure medications such as alpha-blockers, it is quite likely it will not be a good mix for you. Read ahead to learn why.
Why Is It Risky To Mix Viagra With Alpha-Blockers?
Alpha-blockers are a class of blood pressure medication that combats norepinephrine, a harmful hormone that tightens the walls in the veins and small arteries. Norepinephrine causes the blood vessels to close, hampering the overall blood flow in your body.
Alpha-blockers prevent norepinephrine from tightening the arteries, ensuring the blood vessels stay relaxed and open. As a result, the blood pressure is lowered and becomes more stable. Some examples of high-blood-pressure alpha-blockers include Doxazosin, Terazosin, and Prazosin.
Taking Viagra while consuming alpha-blockers can lead to serious side effects. So we don’t recommend mixing the two.
If you require Viagra while medicating with alpha-blockers, it’s best to consult your doctor before doing anything else. That’s because your doctor needs to lower the dose of alpha-blockers for a safe result.
Alternatively, he might also suggest a lower dose of Viagra; only consume the recommended dosage to avoid problems.
