Natural Herb Set to ‘Horn’ In On Viagra Market

Now that we’re well into football season, the erectile dysfunction advertisers are in high gear. Every other commercial seems to be Viagra, Cialis, or Levitra and I can’t help but wonder if other people notice the laundry list of side effects as much as I do, the narrator listing them off one by one as the man and woman canoodle. It’s almost as if there are more negatives than positives to these erectile dysfunction treatments.  
But thanks to the findings of Dr. Mario Dell’Agli and his team of researchers from the University of Milan in Italy, men can now have their cake and eat it too, after discovering what’s been dubbed the “natural Viagra.”

The “natural Viagra” is more commonly known as horny goat weed and has been used as a natural male (and female) sexual enhancer since its discovery in ancient China.

Of course, horny goat weed is just one among several natural herbs that have the reputation for serving as aphrodisiacs, but their reputations as such sometimes precedes them. So to determine their efficacy, Dell’Agli tested four of them.

Before I get into the findings, remember that erectile dysfunction is primarily a function of poor blood flow to the penis. But it’s also the result of an overproduction of an enzyme called phosphodiesterase, or PDE5 for short. It’s the body’s overproduction of this enzyme that effectively cuts off the normal blood flow that leads to the penis, ultimately inhibiting a man from having an erection. Drugs like Viagra and Cialis “solve” this problem by lessening the body’s production of PDE5.

While Viagra and other ED treatments do indeed reduce PDE5 – essentially solving the ED problem – other problems often take shape that weren’t there prior to taking the drug, from the fairly innocuous problems (headache, stomach ache, stuffy or runny nose) to the “it can do what to me?” problems (diarrhea, urinary tract infections, heart attack, inability to differentiate between shades of color like blue and green, blindness).

With these side effects in mind, the researchers tested the four alleged aphrodisiacs. At the end of the day, three of them were frauds (my word, not theirs), with the exception of horny goat weed (or Epimedium brevicornum, in scientific speak). Similar to Viagra, it contained a chemical that inhibited PDE5, only not quite as effectively. But after taking the chemical out of the horny goat weed and modifying its chemical composition, the researchers say its ability to inhibit PDE5 is “as good as Viagra” because it more effectively targets the enzyme itself. And the best part of all, it doesn’t carry with it the laundry list of side effects.

This is great news for everyone who suffers from ED and serves as more grist for the mill for us natural health advocates. The fact is, natural alternatives are always the best way to go in terms of their limited number of side effects, and they are usually just as effective as the pharmaceutical industry’s “solutions,” if not more so. Combining the lack of side effects with horny goat weed’s efficacy, I’d say this is the latest example of that.