Viagra Versus Acupuncture

Dr Sharon Elizabeth Allison LAc DAOM

 Many of you might become a little overwhelmed when trying to figure out how Viagra works exactly. There are a lot of PDE5’s and NO’s and cGMP’s to muddle through so I thought I would try and make it easy for everyone to understand, because by being able to understand this, the very obvious differences between Viagra and acupuncture benefits will emerge. So when it comes to Viagra Versus Acupuncture lets look at how it all works.

Viagra (Sildenafil) is a Phosphodiesterase 5 (PDE5) inhibitor. What this means is it stops PDE5 from doing its job. Now it can get complicated if we work backwards with all the medical terminology so lets work forward.

When a man becomes sexual aroused the nerves ( more on them later) will start releasing Nitric Oxide (NO) this nitric oxide meets with guanylyl cyclase (GC) and turns the NO into cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP). 

It is the cGMP that causes the smooth muscle on the penis tissues to relax and allow blood to flow in. Now as you could imagine if cGMP was constantly being made then men would have an erection all the time which many think they would like, however can cause medical complications.  So because men have other things to do in life like work, play sports, have a conversation etc, there is an enzyme that has the natural job of breaking down the cGMP so that the penile vessels stay restricted. This enzyme is PDE5, ( see we are almost there) and so if we stop this PDE5 with Viagra then there will be more cGMP present in the smooth muscles which means more relaxation of smooth muscle – more blood flowing into the penis – more erections.

So important things to think about are

Viagra DOES NOT create an erection

Viagra stops an erection from breaking down

Ok so if it only stops an erection from breaking down then they must be the capacity to create an erection in the first place.

It is simple math. Basically to have an organic erection (no drugs) more cGMP has to be made faster than it can be broken down by the PDE5.

This is where acupuncture comes in.

There are now many studies that have shown that acupuncture can increase NO. So one theory behind acupuncture being benefitial for erectile dysfunction is that instead of inhibiting any action, we are attempting to turn the NO tap on a little stronger. Acupuncture can nourish the nerves (as a Western explanation) so that the natural flow of NO will be produced. If there is more NO flowing from the nerves when aroused and being turned into cGMP FASTER than PGE5 can break it down then there will be more cGMP and more smooth muscle relaxation and more blood flowing into the penile tissues and more erections!

This of course is a very a Westernized view at how acupuncture can help in erectile function however this can really be a way of understanding what is going on in the body.

I hear many people talk about Viagra increasing circulation and this is a good topic for discussion. When we talk in Chinese Medicine and acupuncture about moving blood this concept is completely different. Viagra doesn’t “MOVE BLOOD” or “INCREASE BLOOD FLOW” Viagra is a mechanism to open the blood vessel walls so that blood has the ability to flow in easier. 

In Chinese Medicine we can use the patient’s response to Viagra as a diagnostic tool. If a man can not get an erection with Viagra but has a high libido and does get aroused then the NO levels maybe so low that no cGMP is being made. If he can obtain an erection but can not maintain, then it could be low NO levels or in both cases if there is no apparent reason for low NO  then it could be a blood flow concern. This would then tie into your usual Chinese Medicine Diagnostic tools for blood stagnation, blood deficiency, qi stagnation and deficiency and yang qi deficiency.