Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison report this month that sildenafil, sold in the U.S. as Viagra, increases the amount of oxytocin released by the pituitary gland.

Sometimes called the “love hormone” or “cuddle chemical,” oxytocin has been linked to sexual arousal and plays several important roles in social interactions and reproduction, including triggering uterine contractions and lactation. It is also released during orgasm.

The finding is the first indication that erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra may have physical effects in addition to increasing blood flow to sexual organs, said study author Meyer Jackson, a physiology professor at the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, in a news release.

Oxytocin release is regulated by an enzyme that acts like a braking system, limiting hormone release by dampening neural excitation of the cells. This same enzyme, phosphodiesterase type 5, also limits blood flow by contracting the muscles around blood vessels.

In both places, sildenafil works by blocking this enzyme, essentially releasing the brakes put on the oxytocin, said Jackson.

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“The same stimulation will produce more (oxytocin) release,” he said. “I think this is a missing link in terms of trying to sort out the issues around whether there are additional effects of phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors,” which include Viagra, Levitra and Cialis.

The new report was published online Aug. 9, appears in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Physiology.

In the study, the scientists measured oxytocin released from rat pituitaries in response to neural stimulation. When the pituitaries were treated with sildenafil, they responded to the stimulation by releasing three times as much oxytocin as they did without the drug.

Importantly, the drug had little if any effect on hormone release in the absence of stimulation, Jackson said.

“Erectile dysfunction drugs do not induce erections spontaneously, they enhance the response to sexual stimulation,” he said. “The same thing is happening in the posterior pituitary - Viagra will not induce the release of oxytocin on its own, but it will enhance the amount of release you get in response to electrical stimulation.”

Though sildenafil’s effects on these pathways are still unknown, work by other researchers has shown that oxytocin-sensitive cells in the brain play a role in the neural control of erectile responses, suggesting that Viagra and its kin may work through multiple channels.

The study, said Jackson, shows that blue pills could have other uses as well. Oxytocin has been linked to the ability to make strong social bonds. Another recent study showed that sildenafil helped hamsters overcome jetlag.

“This is one piece in a puzzle in which many pieces are still not available,” Jackson added. “But it raises the possibility that erectile dysfunction drugs could be doing more than just affecting erectile dysfunction.”

Francis Evrard, a 61-year-old repeat offender who spent 18 years in prison for raping children before being freed on July 2, snatched the boy from a street in the northern town of Roubaix on Wednesday.

Police said the pair were discovered later in the day partly clothed in a garage used by Evrard after the use of a new nationwide search system. Officers found a packet of Viagra in his pocket.

“He says very clearly that he asked for these products in prison and that they gave him a prescription which he collected when he was released,” Jerome Pianezza, Evrard’s lawyer told Le Parisien newspaper.

The police have yet to confirm where he obtained the drug.

The story has shocked France and stirred a debate over repeat offenders just weeks after a new criminal bill was signed into law.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, who returned from his summer holiday this weekend, will hold a meeting on Monday with his prime minister, justice, health and interior ministers to discuss the affair and any new measures that could be taken.

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Justice minister Rachida Dati was also set to travel to northern France on Sunday to meet magistrates and police involved in the investigation to seek their opinions.

The new law would force repeat offenders in paedophile cases to take hormone medication while in prison but there is also a debate about chemical castration and the treatment of paedophiles after they have left prison.

The case has also highlighted dissatisfaction with France’s justice system which magistrates complain is underfunded and inefficient and has one of the smallest budgets in Europe.

They say it is pointless to keep voting new laws without the funds to make sure that the new rules are applied.

“Each time there is a repeat offender, it’s always the same thing, an overreaction in the media, ministers meet and we announce with great fanfare that what has happened is unacceptable and must not happen again,” said Bruno Thouzellier, president of the magistrates union.

The boy was found with the help of a new alert system for missing children based on one used in the United States involving a nationwide media campaign and messages in stations and on motorways.

Dati will meet with EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini on Aug. 30 to discuss introducing a Europe-wide alert system

They’ve been caught with the drug in jelly and tablet form as they go back towork in the North Sea.

Bosses fear there could be a black market for the sex drug on the rigs.

But some workers claim they simply forgot it was in their bag.

Jake Molloy, of offshore workers union the OILC, has been called in to represent some of his members.

He said: “I’ve got no idea why they would want to bring it offshore with them in the first place.

“But the guys I’ve represented said it was a mistake.”

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Over the past year, there has been a surge in the number caught with Viagra at heliports or airports.

It’s thought it could be down to the high number of offshore workers now living in Thailand, where the drug is freely available.

When they’re caught, they often face a fight for their jobs. Mr Molloy added: “Viagra should never be carried offshore.”

With eight tablets of Viagra costing as much as £46.99, the bill to the NHS is running into hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The figures were released this week by the Prescription Pricing Authority, which bills all 150 primary care trusts in England.

Medication including Viagra, Levitra and Cialis are the most common drugs to be prescribed.

GPs say the rise in demand is good news as it means awareness among men is increasing.

But the Government has capped the number of prescriptions doctors can give out to and there are some fears over the cost of the drugs.

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Dr Philip Fielding, a GP at The Royal Well Surgery in Cheltenham and vice chairman of Gloucestershire’s Medical Committee, said: “We’re restricted by the Government in terms of how many prescriptions we can give out for Viagra. The key change and reason for a rise in prescriptions is public awareness of erectile dysfunction and the availability of medical help.

“What we’re finding is that there’s an appropriate application of the drug for patients rather than an increase in the number of patients with the medical condition.”

He added: “Every male at sometime in their life will go through a period of problems.

“Often it’s a psychological issue and it’s a bit like stage fright.

“Even the best can get stage fright and it affects performance.”

A spokesman for Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust said: “It’s important to recognise that this is a health-related problem like any other.

“It’s clear that the taboos previously associated with this condition are being overcome and the good news is that more men feel able to access medical help when they need it.

“This would explain an increase in prescriptions in Gloucestershire.

The drug may have potential for treating several other conditions such as mountain sickness and Raynaud’s phenomenon, reports the August issue of Harvard Men’s Health Watch.

Viagra is now marketed under the name Revatio for pulmonary hypertension — an uncommon but serious disorder of high pressure in the blood vessels leading to the lungs, the newsletter said.

Viagra can reduce pulmonary artery pressure at high altitude and improve the ability to exercise in low oxygen conditions.

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The three erectile dysfunction medications currently on the market — Viagra, Levitra and Cialis — all work by the same means, and they have similar side effects. The most common are headaches and facial flushing, which occur in 15 percent of men, as well as nasal congestion, indigestion and back pain, but these side effects are often mild and temporary, the newsletter said.

The actions reflect Beijing’s recent push to regain global consumer confidence following a slew of bans or recalls on Chinese exports — from toothpaste to seafood — found tainted with high levels of toxins and chemicals.

The regulation “strictly regulates the activities of producers, strengthens the responsibility of local governments and increases the punishment for illegal activities,” according to statement posted on the government’s Web site.
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No other details were given and it wasn’t clear when the State Council would pass the draft, putting the regulation into effect.

The Cabinet meeting was attended by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao — indicating the country’s leaders were taking an interest in the issue after months of reluctance by officials to acknowledge the problem.

“Product quality and food safety concerns the health and the life of the people, it concerns the trustworthiness of companies and the image of the country,” the statement said. “We must attach great importance to the matter.”

The official Xinhua News Agency on Wednesday said poultry from Germany, the Czech Republic and the U.S. state of Virginia have been blocked because of “local outbreaks of animal diseases.” Pork products from the former Soviet republic of Georgia have been banned for the same reasons, it said in a brief two-sentence report that did not elaborate.

Also Wednesday, European Union Consumer Commissioner Meglena Kuneva urged China to stick to its commitment to be more transparent about actions it takes against manufacturers who make goods recalled in Europe.

“This is very important for us to keep trust and confidence in our trade and our partnership,” Kuneva said after visiting a toy factory in the eastern province of Jiangsu.

Gangs sold fake Viagra, Tamiflu
Meanwhile, sting operations on fake-drug rings were made between August 2005 and May 2006 and involved gangs spread across the country, two of which sold their products via the Internet or by e-mail, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

The announcement, posted late Tuesday on the government’s Web site, did not say what happened to the suspects, if anyone was sickened as a result or why the information was released only now. But it likely is aimed at underscoring Beijing’s past efforts to clean up its problems with rampant piracy and substandard goods.

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In the investigation into counterfeit drugs, police in five cities and provinces arrested 19 suspects in May 2006, closed six factories and seized 40 tons of materials used to fake the flu treatment Tamiflu, which has also been used to combat bird flu. The raid followed a tip from the U.S. Customs office in Beijing, the statement said.

The suspects were selling the drug to customers in the United States and elsewhere via the Internet, it said.

Meanwhile, information from the United States led to the arrest of 12 suspects in the southern province of Guangdong last October and the seizure of 1 ton of materials used to make fake versions of the impotence drug Viagra. Two production lines were closed, the statement said.

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In April last year, a tip from Pfizer Inc., the maker of Viagra, also led to the arrest in Shanghai of a suspect identified only by his surname Huang, who allegedly sold fake Viagra and other brands of medicine to customers in the United States, the Netherlands and 10 other countries, which were not listed.

The statement said Huang used e-mail to stay in contact with customers. He sold 18,000 pills to 24 people and netted over 190,000 yuan ($25,000) it said.

Most drugs with the Viagra label sold in China are bogus versions. Six months after Viagra was introduced, state media reported that 90 percent of the little blue pills sold in Shanghai were fake.

In a separate case, the ministry cooperated with Interpol in February 2006 on a cross-border sting that netted three Chinese suspects in the southern region of Guangxi who were allegedly manufacturing a fake anti-malaria drug and selling it to customers in Southeast Asia.

The ministry also announced a toothpaste bust that occurred in April 2006 in Xuancheng, a city in the central province of Anhui, which was the hub of the six-province network which illegally labeled it products Colgate, Crest and Zhong Hua, a local brand.

It did not say if the fake toothpaste contained diethylene glycol — a thickening agent in antifreeze — which is a common but unregulated ingredient in Chinese toothpaste and at the center of international recalls.

Eric Singer: Ace might have tried to kiss me at some point. I remember Paul telling me that once back in the old days, they were all sitting around the dressing room and for whatever reason, Peter just went over to Ace and put his dick on Ace’s shoulder! Then Ace turned around and kissed it!

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C.C. Banana: Note to self — don’t put dick on Ace’s shoulder.

Eric Singer: Ace has a giant schlong too, you know. One night before a Kiss show, he actually took Viagra because he wanted his dick to be hard during the concert. When I asked him why, he said, “So people can see me get hard in the costume.” He even tried snorting it once!

C.C. Banana: Ace Frehley snorted Viagra?

Eric Singer: Yep! He thought it would get into his system faster. So Ace snorted the Viagra… but do you know what happened? His nose swelled up instead! True story! When I tell this stuff to people, they think I’m lying or embellishing. But it’s all absolutely true. Anyone who has ever worked with Ace will verify it. You’ll never meet another person like him. Ace Frehley stories are the absolute best.

The antlers are sawn into pieces in Sweden before being made into pills in east Asian countries, particularly Hong Kong and Taiwan. The pills are sold for large amounts of money as ‘Swedish Viagra’, according to Helmut Haidic, the Sweden-based Austrian behind the business.
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Haidic got the idea to sell the antlers after coming into contact with experts on traditional Chinese medicine during his trips round Europe. Deer horns have long been associated with sexual potency in China.

Locals in Haidic’s adopted home town of Fredrika sell him horns that they find in the forests.

“The animals horns fall off naturally every year. People who are walking in the forests come to me to hand them in.”

After Helmut Haidic sells the horns on, they are ground down to a powder before being made into pills that resemble the real Viagra.

“I’ve heard that they sell for 1,250 euros a kilo as an end product, but I don’t get anything like as much,” Haidic, whose day job is running fishing and hunting tours, told The Local.

Haidic has had a positive response to his business from people in Fredrika, where he has lived for nearly 30 years.

“They think it’s fantastic that there is a use for this material,” he said.

But an expert on sexual health said he was sceptical about the potential of the organic potency medicine.

“I wonder what substance in this would make it a potency medicine,” Olle Waller, who works at a sexual health clinic in Stockholm told SVT.

Now I learn it may even help adventurers climb Mount Everest.

Normally, blood pressure is lower in lungs than in the rest of the body. But as one ascends Mount Everest in an oxygen-deficient atmosphere, it can become dangerously high resulting in high altitude sickness.

Dr. Martin Wilkins of Hammersmith Hospital in London, England, asked volunteers to breathe low levels of oxygen for 30 minutes. This caused constriction of blood vessels and a 56 per cent increase in pulmonary pressure. The experiment was then repeated after volunteers used Viagra. This time, lung pressure remained normal. Viagra relaxes blood vessels.

Studies are currently being done to see if Viagra can be used to improve the lives of those suffering from chronic lung disease. It’s too early to know if mountain climbers will someday use Viagra to control pulmonary pressure.

But I wonder if taking Viagra at 8,850 metres might trigger unexpected and undesirable side effects.

On the other hand, if you decide to go down rather than up, swim goggles may present a hazard.

Dr. Benjamin Levine, an ophthalmologist at Cornell University in New York, studied the effects of goggles on 20 swimmers with an average age of 29 years. Intraocular pressure of both eyes was measured at one minute and at five minutes after the goggles were put on.

Levine reports that both readings showed a significant increase in intraocular pressure that returned to normal once the goggles were removed.

In five of the 40 eyes, the pressure increased. At the moment it’s not known whether this increase in pressure is of clinical significance but a big change could be of importance to patients who are being treated for glaucoma. It would not likely affect others.

And handguns, it seems, are not the only things to shoot you these days.

And is it really dangerous to eat nuts and seeds if you suffer from bowel problems?

Dr. Michele Andreoli, an ophthalmologist at Loyola University in Chicago, reported to the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology that the nail gun is a frequent cause of eye injury.

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During a five-year period, 648 patients with an average age of 34 suffered severe eye injuries due to nail guns.

Sixty per cent of incidents occurred on the job and 99 per cent of the injured were males.

Ophthalmologists at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary reported similar findings.

Many of the injured workers explained that the nail gun jammed, and they turned it around to examine the cause. Then the gun went off with disastrous results. The moral? If you plan on doing a weekend renovation, use eye protection.

On many occasions I’ve advised patients suffering from diverticulosis not to eat nuts. Diverticulosis (small hernias of the colon) is most often seen in elderly patients and those suffering from chronic constipation. It’s always been believed that if nuts became trapped in these pouches it would trigger inflammation and possible perforation of the bowel.

But Lisa Strate, assistant professor of gastroenterology at the University of Washington, says that nuts and seeds do not increase the risk of diverticular complications. In fact, in some cases, these foods may decrease the risk.

Her study over 18 years involved 47,228 men ages 40 to 75 years to determine if nuts, corn and popcorn caused diverticular complications. At the start of the study all men were free of bowel problems.

During these 18 years there were 383 cases of diverticular bleeding and 801 cases of diverticulitis (inflammation of the pouch). But no association could be found between the bleeding and foods being ingested. Nor did the consumption of nuts, corn or popcorn appear to be associated with diverticulitis.

On the other hand, there was surprising news for those who had refused nuts and popcorn for years. The consumption of popcorn two or more times a week actually decreased the risk of diverticulitis by 28 per cent. For nuts the decrease was 20 per cent. But this is only one study

John Joseph Alty, 52, was caught at Melbourne airport on October 14, 2005, with 754g of methamphetamine hidden in two cognac bottles.

Alty, a British national, had been carrying the two bottles of cognac in a duty-free bag.

The County Court heard Alty was offered $2000 to take the bottles to Australia by a man he knew as “Mark” whom he met at Hong Kong airport.

Defence counsel Theo Kassimatis told the court Alty was drunk when he accepted the offer and had believed steroids were in the bottles, not methamphetamine with a street value of $905,000.

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“He knew what he was doing was illegal, but not as serious as he now understands he’s done,” Mr Kassimatis said.

The court was told Alty runs a shop in Bangkok that sells replica watches and Viagra.

He pleaded guilty to one count of importing a traffickable quantity of a prohibited item.

Judge Susan Cohen will sentence Alty on Thursday.