'All-natural' sex pill contains Viagra chemical: FDA

The US food and drug safety watchdog warned Thursday that an over-the-counter men's sex aid, labeled as all-natural, contains a chemical similar to the active ingredient in Viagra and could be dangerous.

"'Stiff Nights', a product marketed as a dietary supplement for sexual enhancement, contains an ingredient that can dangerously lower blood pressure and is illegal," the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in a statement.

The FDA began probing Stiff Nights after receiving a customer complaint about the product. The agency did not reveal the nature of the complaint.

The investigation found that rather than being all-natural, Stiff Nights contains sulfoaildenafil, a chemical similar to the ingredient in Viagra.

"Because this product is labeled as an all-natural dietary supplement, consumers may assume it is harmless and poses no health risk," said Deborah Autor, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research Office of Compliance.

"In fact, this product is illegally marketed and can cause serious complications," she said.

Sulfoaildenafil could interact with prescription drugs known as nitrates and cause dangerously low blood pressure.

Stiff Nights is sold online and at retail stores in bottles or blister packs containing red capsules.

A bottle of 12 Stiff Nights capsules was being offered Thursday on Amazon for around 27 dollars.

Another website -- mystiffnights.com -- said the product is made with "only the finest herbs and greens."

(c) 2009 AFP

   

• gopher65 - Nov 05, 2009
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  This isn't the first time an naturopathic "remedy" has been spiked with a pharmaceutical to make it... you know... actually DO something.
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• Royale - Nov 06, 2009
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  yea. I wish they'd spike things more often. To actually be able to buy 'herbs and greens' that truly did what they intended to would be amazing. Unfortunately, they squash things that work well so you have to go to the doctor and pay big pharma. There's a few things on the market now that actually do what they say, but I won't mention them by name so I don't tip anyone off.
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• Caliban - Nov 06, 2009
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  Don't know for a fact- but I would guess that Viagra's active ingredient was at least initially plant-derived. Just like Royale says- gotta pay big pharma.
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• gopher65 - Nov 06, 2009
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  Almost all pharmasetuical products are plant derived. The few "herbal" remedies that work are simply the non-purified form of the pharmaseuticals.
  
  Basically, the difference between taking a pharmaceutical version and taking a herbal remedy is like the difference between taking morphine or heroin. They're basically the same thing, but the morphine is in a set dose size and has been purified to remove as many of the unnecessary tag-along chemicals as possible (just like taking a THC pill instead of using marijuana: you get the pain relief (and, incidentally, the high:P) without the (literally) 4000 other toxins that you'd get if you smoked weed).
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