Viagra helps jet-lagged hamsters

But researchers had to turn down dosage to shrink a certain side effect

Reuters
Updated: 10:20 a.m. CT May 23, 2007

WASHINGTON - The male impotence drug Viagra may be useful for treating jet lag as well, according to Argentine researchers who gave it to hamsters made to feel like rodent globe-trotters.

The researchers manipulated the schedule of turning lights on and off to induce jet lag in the laboratory animals, they reported on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Adult male hamsters given Viagra, also called sildenafil, recovered from jet lag up to 50 percent faster than hamsters that were not given it, the researchers said.

The scientists stopped giving the hamsters the highest dose they had been using in the experiment due to a certain side effect.

"However, we used the intermediate dose for the rest of the experiments because at that dose animals did not manifest the effects of sildenafil-induced penile erections," they wrote.

UNFORTUNATELY - the sildenafil treatment only worked on hamsters travelling eastward, and had no effect on those going to the west.

More research urgently needed.

StompStamp out droopy jetlagged hamsters.

(Was this government sponsored research?)

John