Double Duty: Viagra Can Reduce Risk for Diabetes

And you thought Viagra was only good for, well, you know…

There’s news about what else Viagra may be able to do and it’s very good news indeed.

It also gives a whole new meaning to Randy Bachman’s “No Sugar Tonight.”

Research shows that the erectile dysfunction drug improves insulin sensitivity — the uptake of glucose from the bloodstream by muscle — in people at risk for diabetes.

This can lower the level of circulating glucose, and potentially reduce the risk of diabetes.

In the study by Vanderbilt University researchers, overweight individuals with pre-diabetes were randomly assigned to receive sildenafil (Viagra) or placebo (inactive drug) for three months.

Of the 42 subjects who completed the study, those treated with sildenafil were significantly more sensitive to insulin, the researchers reported in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

While further studies are needed to determine whether long-term treatment can prevent the onset of diabetes in high-risk patients, “sildenafil and related drugs could offer a potential avenue for addressing the rising number of diabetes diagnoses,” said Dr. Nancy Brown, chair of the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt.