Man, 41, Died of Stroke After Taking Viagra With Alcohol

It’s not that Viagra and alcohol don’t mix, but you shouldn’t drink one if you don’t have a prescription for the other.

That was the lesson after an unnamed man, 41, suffered a stroke and died after he took the maximum dose of sildenafil and washed it down with some booze, according to a report from Science Direct researchers. Sildenafil is the generic form of Viagra.

Granted, this incident is considered very rare, but researchers were aiming to show that sildenafil and booze don’t always mix, and perhaps should not be used together — again, unless the medicine is prescribed.

According to the report, the man was staying in a hotel with a female friend when the incident occurred. He took two 50 mg tablets of the drug ad alcohol in the evening. This is someone, the report added, that had no previous medical history.

The next morning, he “developed uneasiness” and was taken to the hospital, the report added. He was declared dead upon arrival, the victim of a blood clot in his brain.

“Other significant findings on microscopic examination were hypertrophic ventricular wall of heart, fatty changes in liver and acute tubular necrosis and hypertensive changes in the kidney,” the researchers wrote.

Strokes have been reported in less than 2% of people who have taken Viagra or sildenafil, per the drugs’ manufacturers, so there is always the possibility this man had other undiagnosed health conditions or high blood pressure.

More common sildenafil side effects are said to be a headache, flushing, heartburn, abnormal vision, back pain, muscle aches, rash, and dizziness, as well as chest pain on rare occasions. Viagra was approved as a drug to help with erections in 1998.

It initially was prescribed as a heart medication, until the men who took it found it had other, well, benefits.

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