Anyone tried Cialis or Viagra for neuropathy?

[ChookityPop]

I tried daily cialis over the course of the summer to see if it helped with blood flow etc. After a while the burning in my arms almost disapeared, the same with the burning in my legs. I had the best period since getting ill again in early 2019.

My legs felt better walking and I had almost no nerve pain in my arms. I felt more robust and my quality of life was improved. Small improvements can be huge when being sick with this stuff. I also use compression tights/jeans, sleeves and t shirt/tank top everyday.

This can be totally unrelated to taking cialis everyday of course. I took from 5mg-20mg a day. Mostly 5mg.

Ive read some studies with mice and anecdotal evidence that cialis/viagra ameliorates neuropathy. In diabetic mice/people as well as one patient that got floxed (see reddit link).

Sildenafil Ameliorates Long Term Peripheral Neuropathy in Type II Diabetic Mice
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331563/

How I reversed my Levaquin-induced neuropathy with PDE5 Inhibitors

https://www.reddit.com/r/neuropathy/comments/ed88a4

I stopped taking cialis after my stomach got messed up. in september I got this. It felt like I had taken 1000 sit ups and after every meal my stomach made crazy sounds and I had to run to the bathroom. Talking made me tired in the stomach muscles etc, I had to push myself up side ways with my arms when I would go out of the bed etc to not strain the stomach muscles.

Some time after this the burning in my arms and legs came back. This summer I was a lot outside in the grass laying in the sun thus not using my arms that much as Ive do now in the autumn/winter months which triggers my nerve pain. So it could be that I just rested my arms more in the summer etc.



Anyone else tried this?

I will begin a new trail now to see if it helps with the neuropathy. Little concerned about my stomach though.

 

[Hoosierfans]

Did you try it again? How did it go? Super curious about your experiment (I’m a woman so not sure I could take these...)

 

[ChookityPop]

Did you try it again? How did it go? Super curious about your experiment (I’m a woman so not sure I could take these...)

I did and I felt it helped the pain in my legs and arms. Its difficult to know for sure but something happened not long after starting.Though I want to add that I dont have any official neuropathy diagnosis. But I have symptoms that suggest SFN and Im pushing for a sweat test atm.

 

[kangaSue]

But I have symptoms that suggest SFN and Im pushing for a sweat test atm.

A simple home test you can try for possibly having SFN is the Finger Wrinkling Test. Just make sure your finger pads aren't wrinkled looking to start with as that can also be a sign of having SFN (or autonomic neuropathy - where you don't necessarily have an issue of painful neuropathy)

https://www.jwatch.org/jn200810070000002/2008/10/07/new-wrinkle-diagnosing-small-fiber-neuropathy
A New Wrinkle in Diagnosing Small-Fiber Neuropathy

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892617/ Evaluation of the finger wrinkling test: a pilot study – Guide to needing a TTT

 

[kangaSue]

There's a body of research to suggest that just nitric oxide (NO) donors in general are beneficial for diabetic neuropathy and that includes the PDE inhibitor and nitrates family. Where nitrates are concerned, you would get longer benefit from using the controlled release forms rather than sublinguals.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29565948 A Randomized, Double-Blind Study of the Effects of a Sustained Release Formulation of Sodium Nitrite (SR-nitrite) on Patients with Diabetic Neuropathy. (2018)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4665823/ The effect of transdermal nitroglycerin on pain control in diabetic patients with peripheral neuropathy (2015)

 

[ChookityPop]

A simple home test you can try for possibly having SFN is the Finger Wrinkling Test. Just make sure your finger pads aren't wrinkled looking to start with as that can also be a sign of having SFN (or autonomic neuropathy - where you don't necessarily have an issue of painful neuropathy)

Thanks for letting me know, i didnt know. This is my fingers after 5,10,15,20,25 and 30 minutes. Why do you think?
https://www.jwatch.org/jn200810070000002/2008/10/07/new-wrinkle-diagnosing-small-fiber-neuropathy
A New Wrinkle in Diagnosing Small-Fiber Neuropathy

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892617/ Evaluation of the finger wrinkling test: a pilot study – Guide to needing a TTT

 

[kangaSue]

@ChookityPop
Are you currently taking a nitric oxide donor as the improved blood flow from these can influence the result?

I would venture the opinion though that in comparison to the images shown in the Pubmed paper for 'normal wrinkling' in a healthy subject, your fingers are a bit lacking in the same degree of wrinkling at the different time points.
( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892617/ )

 

[minimus]

Your post jogged my memory that ME/CFS specialist Jay Goldstein mentioned Viagra years ago. Though Viagra was not among the drugs he found to be most helpful in treating ME/CFS patients, he said it occasionally worked. He stopped practicing a long time ago, so he would not have had access to the longer-acting PDE5 inhibitors or known about the prevalence of SFN in ME/CFS patients.

He wrote:

Viagra: I don't have enough money to buy stock in anything, but buying Pfizer a few months ago would have been almost as good as buying Microsoft in 1985. This drug works by inhibiting type 5 phosphodiesterase, one of the six known enzymes to degrade cyclic GMP (as important as cyclic AMP, but maybe not covered in biology class). Type 5 is supposed to be specific for the corpus cavemosurn of the penis and probably the clitoris as well. It is not all that specific, though, at least in my patients, who frequently experience flushing and headache. When Viagra works in CFS/FMS, patients experience a reduction in all symptoms. One patient whom I have been treating for 10 years had not responded to one medication until she took Viagra, whereupon she felt almost normal. Nitroglycerin and hydralazine, which stimulate cyclic GMP by different mechanisms, had not helped her.

Here's the link to the original: Goldstein Treatments

 

[ChookityPop]

Your post jogged my memory that ME/CFS specialist Jay Goldstein mentioned Viagra years ago. Though Viagra was not among the drugs he found to be most helpful in treating ME/CFS patients, he said it occasionally worked. He stopped practicing a long time ago, so he would not have had access to the longer-acting PDE5 inhibitors or known about the prevalence of SFN in ME/CFS patients.

He wrote:

Viagra: I don't have enough money to buy stock in anything, but buying Pfizer a few months ago would have been almost as good as buying Microsoft in 1985. This drug works by inhibiting type 5 phosphodiesterase, one of the six known enzymes to degrade cyclic GMP (as important as cyclic AMP, but maybe not covered in biology class). Type 5 is supposed to be specific for the corpus cavemosurn of the penis and probably the clitoris as well. It is not all that specific, though, at least in my patients, who frequently experience flushing and headache. When Viagra works in CFS/FMS, patients experience a reduction in all symptoms. One patient whom I have been treating for 10 years had not responded to one medication until she took Viagra, whereupon she felt almost normal. Nitroglycerin and hydralazine, which stimulate cyclic GMP by different mechanisms, had not helped her.

Here's the link to the original: Goldstein Treatments

Very interesting, thanks for sharing! use low dose cialis at times and Im pretty sure I have a positive effect from it. At the same time I use compression all over my body which I have to use when Im not sleeping.