For most of the nearly two decades that Viagra has been available to the public, athletes, as well as their coaches and trainers, have questioned whether the little blue pill might enhance not only their sexual performance but also their athletic performance.
It’s hardly surprising that such questions have arisen, given the way that Viagra works. The pill, first introduced by Pfizer in 1998, is designed to temporarily overcome the symptoms of erectile dysfunction caused by insufficient blood flow to the penis. Viagra addresses that problem by relaxing arteries so that blood flow can be maximized for four hours or so.
Why Not Try Viagra for Sports?
Because blood carries oxygen to all of the body’s tissues and organs, athletes have wondered if taking Viagra before a game or meet might not give them a competitive edge by increasing oxygen levels in the lungs and in muscle tissue.
Sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, is also prescribed — at lower doses — to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension, or PAH, a condition in which high blood pressure in the lungs puts an extra load on both the heart and the lungs. For the treatment of PAH, sildenafil is sold both under the brand name Revatio and also in generic formulations.
Somewhat surprisingly, scientific inquiries into this question have been relatively limited. And the research that has been done is limited primarily to studies about what, if any, benefits Viagra delivers to athletes performing at extremely high elevations.
2006 Study Encouraging
One study, first published in 2006, found that athletes given Viagra before exercising at elevations of 12,700 feet or higher performed better than those who were not given the little blue pill. However, that same study also found that Viagra supplementation did nothing to enhance athletic performance at lower elevations. Test participants in this study began breathing oxygen-depleted air 60 minutes before beginning time trials at simulated higher elevations, giving them at least a short time to acclimatize to the oxygen-thin air common at such altitudes.
A more recent study, published in the “International Journal of Sports Medicine” in July 2016, found that sildenafil supplementation did nothing to enhance performance of athletes at simulated elevations of roughly 13,125 feet. However, in that study, participants were not acclimatized to oxygen-thin conditions in advance of their time trials as they were in the previous study.
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Both Studies Small in Scale
Both of these studies, published roughly a decade apart, tested athletic performance in only a small number of athletes — 10 in the 2006 study and 11 in the more recent study. In view of their contradictory findings, additional research with larger numbers of test subjects would seem to be in order.
However, scientific research aside, many athletes who believe that Viagra might give them a competitive edge are already using the drug in an effort to improve their performance. And this includes athletic competition at both sea level and other elevations that would hardly be considered high-altitude. At this time, Viagra is not on the list of banned substances published annually by the World Anti-Doping Agency, or WADA. In the absence of conclusive scientific evidence one way or the other about the drug’s effects on physical performance, the use of Viagra could very well be giving athletes a psychological edge, which can be a decisive factor in competition.
British Cyclists Tested Viagra
The use of Viagra by athletes has certainly been in the news in recent months. In an article posted at the website of The Sun in March 2017, it was revealed that Team Sky, a British professional cycling team, tested Viagra on endurance riders during a high-altitude training camp in 2010. The article did not reveal whether Team Sky cyclists actually use the drug in competition. However, two years after the 2010 training camp, Team Sky’s Bradley Wiggins won the Tour de France and Olympic gold.
The Sun article noted that Victor Conte, founder of the scandal-ridden Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative, or BALCO, told reporters in 2008 that he had given some of his athletes Viagra “back in the day.” He said that they called it “Vitamin V.” He went on to say that he believes strongly that the little blue pill has performance enhancing benefits.
How Viagra Benefits Athletes
Conte noted that sildenafil improves blood flow by relaxing the muscle tissue lining the arteries of the cardiovascular system. He likened Viagra’s effects on blood flow to replacing a garden hose of a smaller diameter with one of greater diameter. Just as the larger hose can carry more water to your garden, so too can Viagra-expanded arteries carry more oxygen-rich blood throughout your body.
Don Catlin, M.D., one of the pioneers of modern drug-testing in sports, also weighed in on the Viagra question, telling Popular Science that its benefits, if any, seem to be limited to athletic performance at higher altitudes. Dr. Catlin, the former director of the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory, is the co-founder of the Los Angeles-based Anti-Doping Research Institute.
What about Contact Sports?
Dr. Catlin acknowledged that some studies have found that the ED drug might help cyclists, endurance runners, mountain climbers, and skiers competing at high elevations. However, he cast doubt upon suggestions that Viagra supplementation also would help improve athletic performance in contact sports at higher elevations, noting that no scientific evidence of such benefits has yet been found. Dr. Catlin said that improved performance, if any, would likely be limited to making up for the deficit caused by competition at high altitudes.
Dr. Catlin told Popular Science that any such competitive advantage from Viagra would probably be miniscule and could be gained — or even surpassed — through other means, including altitude training. The latter consists of alternating periods of living and training at higher and lower elevations. Performance gains of 1 to 1.5 percent have been documented from altitude training, according to Popular Science.
More Studies Needed
The 2006 and 2016 studies on sildenafil’s effects on athletic performance do agree on at least one point. Neither of those studies found any evidence to indicate that sildenafil improves athletic performance at reduced elevations, including not only sea level but also at the elevations of most sports stadiums in the United States and elsewhere.
In yet another report of Viagra use among athletes, it was widely reported that players on Argentina’s national soccer team took a cocktail of drugs, including Viagra, acetaminophen, and caffeine, before competing at La Paz, Bolivia, in late March 2017. The Argentine team, also known as the Albicelestes, hoped that the trio of drugs might give them an edge in a World Cup-qualifying game against Bolivia’s national team. The game was played in La Paz’s Estadio Hernando Siles, a sports stadium that sits at an elevation of roughly 11,900 feet.
Argentines Missing Star Player
Despite whatever competitive edge the Viagra may have offered, the Argentine team lost to the Bolivians 2-0. It should also be noted that Argentina’s team was missing its star player, Lionel Messi, who’d been suspended for four games because of unsportsmanlike conduct.
More study is clearly needed to fully explore how, if at all, Viagra might enhance athletic performance, whether at normal or high elevations. In the meantime, many athletes hoping to gain any competitive edge available to them undoubtedly will continue to use the drug in the hope that it will work for them.
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