Warning About Herbal Sex Pills

Monday, November 12th 2007, 8:56 pm

By: News On 6

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Many pills marketed as safe herbal alternatives to Viagra and other prescription sex medications pose a hidden danger for men on heart and blood-pressure drugs.

Popping one could lead to a stroke, or even death.

Many "all-natural" products work because they contain unregulated versions of the very pharmaceuticals they're supposed to replace. And that represents a special danger for millions of men who take nitrates to lower blood pressure and regulate heart
disease.

When mixed, nitrates and impotency pharmaceuticals can slow blood flow catastrophically, leading to heart attack or stroke. Emergency rooms and poison control hot lines are logging more incidents of the long-ignored phenomenon as sales of "natural
sexual enhancers" boom.

An Associated Press investigation shows that spiked herbal impotency pills are emerging as a major public health concern.