Viagra, medicinsko gledano, sprošča krvne žile, omogoča visok pretok krvi in s tem, hm, napetost tkiva. Biokemično gledano viagra zadržuje encim fosfodiesteraza, da bi razpršil ciklični GMP (in s tem ‘ukazal’ mišicam uplahnitev).

Ciklični GMP pa sodeluje tudi v določenih možganskih procesih. Denimo tistem, ki uravnava notranja uro organizma. Zato so argentinski znanstveniki s poskusi na hrčkih prišli do ugotovitve, da lahko viagra olajša in polepša dolga potovanja z letalom. Ne sicer povsem tako prijetno kot v legendarni prvi Emmanuelli, ampak tako, da med letom proti vzhodu ‘sinhronizira‘ človeško uro z zemeljsko.

Hamsters that received small doses of sildenafil, sold under the name Viagra, adjusted more quickly to laboratory simulations of a six-hour time-zone change than animals in the control group. The researchers found that a single dose of sildenafil helped the animals adapt up to 50% faster than usual. They believe that because a one-off dose had this large an effect in hamsters, the drug might offer a simple way to combat jet lag in people. Diego Golombek, at Quilmes National University in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and his colleagues conducted their experiments on hamsters accustomed to a regular cycle of 14 hours of light, followed by 10 hours of dark. Because hamsters are nocturnal animals, they use the running wheels inside their cages during the dark periods.

Ker viagrina učinkovina pospešuje notranjo uro človeškega organizma, ne more pa je upočasniti, bi bila, če bodo poskusi to potrdili, koristna samo pri potovanjih proti vzhodu. Ta pa so, po neki drugi raziskavi, človeškemu organizmu pravzaprav najbolj neprijazna.

Patricia Agostino, another team member, notes that people find it harder to adapt to eastbound travel: “Your body adapts better when you travel west.” A rodent study in 2006 found that severe time advances hastened death much more than time delays. Why that is the case is uncertain, but she speculates that “there are probably different molecular pathways that account for time advances and delays”.

Kolikšen odmerek bi zadostoval za premagovanje jet laga, naj bi pokazali poskusi, vsekakor pa bo moral biti manjši kot za viagrin izvirni namen. Vsaj pri moških.

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