Drugs Can Cause Peyronie’s Disease
Prescriptions drugs that start Peyronie’s disease
The cause of Peyronie’s disease remains unknown. However, among the more commonly suspected causes are injuries as during intercourse, penile trauma as during a difficult catheterization procedure or surgery, genetic predisposition, or a problem of the immune system.
Because medical Peyronie’s disease treatment is also poorly defined, with no standard drug receiving formal approval, one must wonder about the drugs that are currently being prescribed by medical doctors for their Peyronies patients.
Several prescription medications list I want to do this! What’s This?
Peyronie’s disease among the potential side effects. While no formal research exists that proves these medications cause Peyronie’s disease, presumptive evidence and frequent patient complaints of strong association with these drugs supports these as possible causes.
- 1. Beta Blockers – These are the most common mediations in popular use that list Peyronie’s disease as a potential side effect. Beta blockers is a class of drugs used for various indications, but particularly for the management of cardiac arrhythmias, protection of the heart after a myocardial infarction (heart attack), angina pectoris, atrial fibrillation, cardiac arrhythmia, congestive heart failure, glaucoma, migraine prevention, mitral valve prolapsed, and hypertension (high blood pressure). They tend to diminish the effects of epinephrine (adrenaline) and other stress hormones in the body, thus reducing cardiac demands. If you have ever been treated for any of these conditions, and were treated with a beta blocker, this might explain a current case of Peyronie’s disease. Commonly prescribed beta blockers:
Acebutolol Alrenolol Atenolol
Betaxolol Bucindolol Carteolol
Carvedilol Celiprolol Esmolol
Labetalol Metoprolol Nadolol
Nebivolol Penbutolol Pindolol
Propranolol Sotalol Timolol
- Interferon – This prescription medication is used to treat multiple sclerosis, leukemia, and hepatitis. Its manufacturers list Peyronie’s disease as a possible side effect.
- Dilantin – This is a well established anti-seizure medicine, also reported by its manufacturers as a potential cause of Peyronie’s disease.
- PDE5 drug group (Viagra, Cialis, Levitra) – this is a group of inhibitor drugs that block an enzyme process of the smooth muscle cells lining the blood vessels supplying the corpus cavernosa of the penis. As a result of this influence, these drugs act to increase blood flow in the penis in response to sexual stimulation. The maker of each of these three drugs advises that men with Peyronie’s disease should consult with their doctors due to possible adverse effects on the penis.
The bottom line concerning all these drugs is that every one of them has side-effects and related ways of complicating the problem of someone who is already sick. Drugs should be used with great reserve and discretion, and avoided if at all possible.
Once PD is present and a man learns that there is no known medical treatment available, he should consider using Alternative Medicine for Peyronie’s treatment options. This is an option that the Peyronie’s Disease Institute has researched and developed since 2002, with considerable success.
Peyronie’s and Verapamil
Verapamil and Peyronie’s disease treatment
Verapamil is used in Peyronie’s disease treatment by injection directly into the Peyronie’s plaque or a topical Verapamil cream is applied to the skin over the Peyronie’s plaque. For more information about this method, see Peyronie’s disease treatment via direct drug injection.
Verapamil is a calcium channel blocker of the phenylalkylamine L-type. It works by relaxing the muscles of the heart and blood vessels. Verapamil is an anti-arrhythmic drug approved by the FDA in 1981 to treat hypertension, angina, cardiac arrhythmia, and recently, cluster headaches. No oral or transdermal Verapamil is approved for Peyronie’s disease treatment. Most used for Peyronie’s treatment is in the form of a topical Verapamil cream that is applied twice daily for many months.
There are many different companies that compete against each other with their own unique patented Verapamil formula, creating difficulty to know what to believe about the use of Verapamil for Peyronie’s disease treatment.
With so much competition among companies and unsafe practices of illegal companies, some even resort to making inferior and dangerous topical Verapamil cream products. As a result, Peyronie’s patients who use counterfeit Verapamil have reported:
- Changes in blood pressure, causing dizziness, fainting, heart beat irregularities, often requiring changes in other medications to become stabilized
- Severe skin irritation
- Skin burns and blistering
Peyronie’s Verapamil connection
As with many popular medications, the exact way Verapamil is supposed to benefit Peyronie’s disease is not entirely known. Keep this in mind when someone says they do not know how vitamin E or acetyl-L-carnitine or PABA helps Peyronie’s disease.
It is proposed that long term use of Verapamil blocks calcium from entering into the Peyronie’s plaque or scar. Another theory s that Verapamil increases fibroblast activity to make more collagenase that breaks down the Peyronie’s plaque or scar. However, calcium is an essential mineral that must have free access and movement in all tissues and hundreds of different normal and healthy chemical, enzyme and hormone functions of the body. The body needs calcium to function normally and healthfully, and it does not do well when it is blocked by a drug like Verapamil.
Peyronie’s disease and Verapamil side effects
When taken topically or orally for Peyronie’s, Verapamil can cause side effects that may impair thinking or abnormal organ function because of calcium metabolism interference. Care should be used when driving a car, operating dangerous equipment, or any skill in which mental alertness or memory is needed.
Verapamil and Peyronie’s disease warning
Men treating Peyronie’s disease with Verapamil must deal with extreme fatigue, loss of energy, blood pressure problems and skin reactions that often occur. Also, if Verapamil is stopped suddenly any side effect or problem for which it is being taken (like Peyronies) may become worse.
You should not use Verapamil if you are allergic to it, or if you have:
- Serious heart conditions, especially “sick sinus syndrome” or “AV block” (unless you have a pacemaker)
- Low blood pressure
- Recent heart attack
Personal experience with Verapamil and Peyronie’s disease
After attempting to treat my own Peyronie’s disease with topical Verapamil cream for eight months, my overall health suffered from weakness, fatigue, memory failure and low blood pressure caused by the Verapamil in my blood stream. However, worst of all, while using Verapamil my Peyronie’s disease worsened. The size of each Peyronie’s plaque increased and my Peyronie’s curve doubled.
Shortly after using Alternative Medicine to eliminate my Peyronie’s problem, I started the Peyronie’s Disease Institute with my MD colleagues I was working with at the time. With this organization I communicate with dozens of men daily about their problems with PD. Considering the information outlined above, it seems fewer and fewer medical doctors use Verapamil for Peyronie’s disease management.
Peyronie’s Disease Treatment and Vitamin E
Peyronie’s Vitamin E Dosage
The usual Peyronie’s disease vitamin E dosage advice from a medical doctor will be to “take no more than 400 IU of vitamin E a day.” Sometimes this number will be doubled to 800 IU daily by some doctors who are more aggressive with their recommendation. All of this is of valuable interest because vitamin E is the most commonly recommended non-drug Peyronie’s disease treatment, and very often it is the only non-drug Peyronie’s disease treatment that will be discussed.
Since vitamin E is available in both a synthetic form and a naturally occurring organic form, which form you use determines how much you can safely take. Eight different members of the vitamin E family, four known as tocopherols and four known as tocotrienols, make up the vitamin E family. A balanced diet – very difficult to achieve these days – contains all eight members of the vitamin E group. The most widely found member is known as gamma tocopherol, which works to eliminate nitrogen free radicals and is a very effective anti-inflammatory agent. Tocotrienols are primarily found in the skin and subdermis where they protect against UV and free radical damage.
Most vitamin E supplements contain only alpha tocopherol because it was thought that only this single part of the family of eight is the most important for Peyronies disease treatment. In fact, most vitamin E skin products contain a small amount of synthetic dl-alpha-tocopheryl acetate. This means that they contain only one of the eight members of the vitamin E family in the less effective synthetic form. Only products which supply the complete vitamin E family and are particularly rich in gamma tocopherol and tocotrienols in their natural and unesterified form contribute to accelerated wound healing and minimized scarring. This is why PDI is most insistent on men using a vitamin E therapy that is heavily slanted toward gamma tocopherol and all the tocotrienols.
Peyronie’s and vitamin E controversy
Concern about vitamin E safety during the past decade or so has been due solely to bad publicity in this area, which is based on perpetuation of questionable research and misunderstanding about vitamins. Faulty research reporting and misinterpretation of findings are the same two reasons for the condemnation of vitamin E supplementation.
First, vitamin E confusion arises from a medical reporting that ignores details of a particular vitamin E study reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The problem is gross generalization or not understanding the vitamin E research study.
The Annals of Internal Medicine vitamin E report is presented in http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/0000605-200501040-00110v1 Review this information to verify what I report is accurate:
- Those who took part in this vitamin E research often combined vitamin E with various drugs while they were being studied. All potential and actual adverse drug reactions to these different drug combinations were not factored in or considered anywhere in the study results.
- All study participants were elderly people, already being treated for a variety of chronic diseases. The researchers report this as a strong complicating issue, and puts suspicion on all conclusions because these elderly and sick people are far more likely to be taking high doses of vitamin E. They readily admit it is inaccurate to generalize these findings of this group to a healthy, normal, average or younger age group population.
- This study contained too many variables. It evaluated many different research studies, all of them used different procedures and protocols such as different vitamin E dosages administered for a widely variable amount of time. They admit they evaluated and combined data from sources that originated and were collected in different ways; they went beyond comparing apples and oranges, they compared grapes and bowling balls.
- None of the studies reported took the time to report or differentiate chemical immense differences of natural and synthetic vitamin E.
- Within the scientific community the findings of the original research has been questioned and criticized.
Vitamin E safety
The Annals of Internal Medicine report states vitamin E has a relative risk of 1.05. A relative risk of 1.0 is actually a neutral finding. This 1.05 risk level is not clinically significant to establish an association between a fatal dose or use high dose vitamin like vitamin E. Consider that water might have a relative risk of 1.05 in certain situations.
Before taking higher doses of vitamin E for therapeutic benefit, consult a health professional first. Discuss your health concerns, possible vitamin E side effects, and what dosage of vitamin E might be best for you. Vitamin E may be deficient in some diets, especially very low fat diets. Most nutrition experts agree that taking vitamin E supplements is safe.
Vitamin E study limitations and problems
Here is a summary of this study presented by those who conducted this study:
The evaluation of high-dosage vitamin E trials in which more than 400 IU of vitamin E was used was often too small to establish accuracy of findings. This study should not have included elderly patients with one or more chronic diseases, yet they were the primary participants. It is not clear how to generalize the findings of this study conducted on ill and elderly people to a population of healthy adults. It is also not clear how to determine the exact dosage at which someone might be at risk of taking too much vitamin E based on this study using ill and elderly people.
In spite of these large obvious flaws and limitations, the conclusion of this study is that any dosage at or above 400 IU daily of vitamin E may increase mortality and should be avoided.
Secondly, misunderstanding and confusion exists over the many subtle differences between natural and synthetic vitamin E. The ultimate error is that natural and synthetic vitamin E will chemically react the same, and that is not true.
Problem #2 – Natural or Synthetic Vitamin E
Natural vitamin E is d-alpha-tocopherol, and synthetic vitamin E is dl-alpha-tocopheryl. Since the names of the chemicals are different you know the chemicals are different. As the chemicals are different, their reaction is also different in the body.
The Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients reports, “Natural vitamin E supplements outperform synthetic forms, according to a VERIS Research Summary. Results of recent studies suggest that natural vitamin E is more bioavailable and is retained in body tissues significantly longer than synthetic vitamin E. These studies show that previously accepted differences were underestimated and that the bioavailability of natural vitamin E is about twice that of synthetic vitamin E compounds.”
Vegetable oil, specifically soybean oil, is the primary source of naturally occurring vitamin E. However, synthetic vitamin E is manufactured from petroleum chemicals (yes, the same oil that comes out of the ground, used to make tar, motor oil and gasoline, often linked with cancer).
Doctors are very comfortable and familiar with prescribing synthetic chemicals. For this reason they are not hesitant to prescribe a synthetic vitamin. But, the primary difference scientists use to determine toxicity and function within the body is the molecular structure of a compound.
When taking levels of “vitamin E” above 400IU is found to be unsafe, it is because the vitamin E is synthetic and not tolerated well. All biomedical testing proves that within the human structure there is a strong chemical discrimination or preference between natural and synthetic vitamin E.
“Our studies suggest without question that natural vitamin E delivers at least twice the impact as synthetic E,” said Robert Acuff, PhD, Professor and Director, Center for Nutrition Research at East Tennessee State University. He concludes it is the natural form of vitamin E is obviously the one human tissue was designed to use. Margaret Traber, Associate Professor at the Linus Pauling Institute, Oregon State University, seems to discriminate between the two forms of vitamin E, reporting that the human body will retain the natural organic form of vitamin E, while rapidly eliminating the synthetic form in the urine and bowel.
It is my opinion that the human organism will tolerate much higher doses of natural vitamin E – provided by Peyronie’s Disease Institute and the Natural Complementary Medicine LLC website – and can tolerate much less synthetic vitamin E available found in lower cost and lower quality products. For this reason PDI only uses organic and natural vitamin E for use in Peyronie’s disease treatment plans. Using the kind of vitamin E we have available, many men use levels in the 800IU-1,200IU range while attempting to reduce their Peyronies plaque or scar.
For additional information go to the PDI website at vitamin E.
Curved Penis and Peyronie’s Disease
Peyronies bent penis is focus of problem
While the primary interest of Peyronie’s disease treatment is the internal scar tissue or fibrous plaque material that causes the distortion or curved penis to develop, it is not the primary interest of the man who has PD. For him, the most important aspect of Peyronie’s disease is the curved penis that plagues him. For this reason Peyronies is also known as the “bent nail disease.”
For those interested in viewing graphic pictures, click curved penis of Peyronie’s disease.
Peyronie’s disease causes a curved penis when the fibrous tissue of the Peyronie scar or plaque pulls unevenly or causes incomplete filling within the erect penis. This can vary in degree or severity from man to man. For this reason the curved penis does not indicate the severity of the Peyronies problem or success of Peyronies disease treatment. The true success of Peyronies treatment is based on the change that occurs in the Peyronies plaque or scar. Once the fibrous scar changes, eventual improvement in the curved penis can be expected in time.
The internal tissue of the healthy penis is flexible and expandable. This normal tissue is able to allow for a normal erection to develop when blood is trapped inside the organ.
In Peyronie’s disease some of the tissue is not healthy or flexible and elastic. Specifically, the deep tissue known as the tunica albuginea is not elastic because it replaced by dense and inelastic fibrous tissue that is called a scar or plaque. As an erection develops the elastic tissue of the tunica albuginea must stretch and expand evenly on both sides, left and fright, and top and bottom, of the penis. If this cannot happen because an area of the penis is no longer flexible and expandable, then a curved penis results.
Peyronie’s disease usually begins with a small nodule or bump that is found on the top or sides of the penis, just immediately below the surface. A few weeks to several months to a year later, a small fibrous nodule can expand into a larger irregular scar of variable size, shape, density and surface quality. These scars can be as long as the penis. Some appear like a collar to go around the shaft. Some are one large mass, while others appear to be like small isolated islands of fibrous tissue in many areas. Scars can be so soft or small, with edges so tapered and vague that no scar can be found. In a case of Peyronie’s disease when no scar or plaque can be found, it is still assumed to exist when a curved penis develops during erection. .
Normally curved penis
Most men have a straight erection, but some are born with a penis that curves or bends (usually upward). Just as fingers on the hand or a nose can display a natural bend, or arms can be of different length on the same person, the penis can be bent without the presence of Peyronies. Typically, the normally curved penis follows a more gradual and arched design, more like a banana. In Peyronie’s disease the curved penis is more localized and abrupt, like an angulated bend.
When the two primary chambers (corpora cavernosa) of the penis are a different diameter or length, the penis will bend when erect. The penis will appear straight when flaccid, and on erection it will bend.
This slight penile distortion will not be associated with pain, there will be no trauma in the history, and it will not appear suddenly as does the curved penis of Peyronie’s disease.
Curved penis affects sexual intercourse
It is estimated that 75-90% of Peyronie’s disease couples will sooner or later experience a sexual intercourse problem, in regard to either pain or difficult penetration – or both. The curved penis of is the primary reason sexual penetration is compromised, and it is also the reason for the pain that can be experienced by either – or both – partner. This is especially so in those cases in which the distortion is so severe it is described as “cork screw” or “cane handle.”
Incomplete filling of the penis with blood during erection can also happen in Peyronies. This results in an area of the penis, either small or large, that is soft and unable to sustain the rigors of intercourse. A soft area within an otherwise firm erection presents a weakness and vulnerability of the normally turgid erection. A weak area of erection can suddenly collapse or buckle during intercourse, causing additional injury to the penile tissue. This can cause pain, inflammation and additional fibrous infiltration.
It is a rare Peyronies couple that does not deal with some level of sexual difficulty related to penile distortion and reduced firmness of the erection. The many physical, emotional and social issues of Peyronie’s disease are complex. For this reason the reader is referred to “Peyronie’s Disease and Sex” for more information about this complicated area of life with a curved penis.
Treatment of the curved penis
It is important to remember that any penile distortion that develops in Peyronie’s disease is not the primary problem of this condition. A curved penis that appears one night is difficult to ignore, but is only a symptom of the real problem of Peyronie’s disease – the scar. Without the Peyronies scar there would be no curved penis.
This is the reason I advise men who are undergoing Peyronies treatment to focus on the size, shape, density and surface qualities of the scar or plaque to determine if their Alternative Medicine treatment is being effective. The curvature can improve or worsen as the scar is reduced.
A small scar can cause a large bend, just as a large scar can cause no bend at all if it is balanced and symmetrical. For this reason a curved penis can worsen as the scar is being reduced or eliminated. Estimating progress or success of a PD therapy plan is difficult . A man can have many more scars than he is aware of, and they can be larger than can be detected since they are often difficult to locate and often overlap.
If only one scar is present the curvature problems are direct and easy to understand, although this is unusual. However, if multiple scars are present the internal pulling and twisting they cause can be very complicated. Several scars can interact on many planes of internal penile tissue. Any reduction in one or more scar will alter the internal tension and pulling of the tissues, resulting in an altered curvature. There is no guarantee the curvature will change for the better initially – sometimes it can look worse as the scars become smaller. This is why I advise to focus all attention to the size, shape, density and surface qualities of the scar while treatment of the Peyronies problem continues. Realize the curved penis is just a reflection of what is going on with the scar9s) below the surface.
Do not be discouraged by the curved penis of Peyronie’s disease. Instead, stay focused on your plan for effective Peyronies treatment. Learn more about Peyronie’s disease treatment.