Did you know Viagra was originally made to treat high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs? It wasn’t until the clinical trials of humans that they noticed that while on the medicine all the dudes got boners. So, they ditched the high blood pressure pills and marketed the medicine as the cure for male impotence. They struck a frickin’ gold mine. In 1998, Viagra was the fastest selling medication when it came out. In 2008, Viagra brought in a cool 2 billion dollars in annual sales and in 2016 it was still bringing in 1.6 billion dollars in global sales. Who knew one simple pill that suppresses the enzyme that controls blood flow would be worth tens of billions of dollars. Unfortunately, there are side effects that come with the little blue pill. In the first year alone there were 522 deaths that were linked to Viagra. Guys would rather have sex and die than not be able to have sex at all. But what else is new? Below are just some of the instances that taking or abusing Viagra landed some dudes on hard times.

Hugh Hefner’s Hearing

Hugh Hefner was a legend to many people. He was the rich old guy who had like ten girlfriends he boned all the time. But to have all that sex Hefner had to pop Viagras like they were Skittles, and he did. He took the medication for years. It worked for him in the bedroom, but unfortunately it permanently screwed up his hearing. Viagra caused Hugh to have sudden sensorineural hearing loss, which can happen when someone takes too much over time. There are at least 47 other confirmed cases of Viagra damaging the inner ear. Apparently, there are hundreds of cases of guys going deaf while on the pill, but the evidence that it was just Viagra’s fault is inconclusive. Hefner was quoted on saying “I’d rather have sex than my hearing.” Who could blame him?

Party Like a Rockstar

Speaking about senses getting messed up because of Viagra, apparently it can screw up your eye sight too. According to the Food and Drug Administration, there are at least 43 cases of blindness due to a block in the optic nerve that was caused by an ingredient that is in both Viagra and Cialis. In 2010, the guitarist for the band Tokio Hotel was on tour when he decided he was going to experiment with Viagra. The morning after a good night, he said his vision was blurred and his head was pounding. He said he was in so much pain all he could do was lay in bed. He was just 20 years old at the time. So all you young guns out there, don’t think you can escape the side effects because of you age.

Performance Enhancing Drug

Believe or not, there have been some sports players that used Viagra as a performing enhancing drug. “How?”, you might ask. Well, remember Viagra suppresses the enzyme in our bodies that controls blood flow? This allows the blood vessels to relax and widen, this increases cardiac output and more efficient transport of oxygenated fuel to the muscles, all of this can enhance endurance. Basically, Viagra can make athletes play better because of more blood flow, hence more oxygen gets to the muscles. In 2012, during the time the NFL was suspending a lot of players for taking Adderall, Chicago Bears wide receiver Brandon Marshall, was quoted saying “But some guys, they’ll do whatever they can to get an edge. I’ve heard some crazy stories. I’ve heard of guys using like Viagra, seriously.” After further studies, Kenneth Rundell, the director of the Human Performance Laboratory at Maryland, said that Viagra “Basically it allows you to compete with a sea level, or near sea level aerobic capacity at altitude.” Other researchers found that Viagra doesn’t enhance performance at sea level in healthy athletes because their blood vessels are already fully dilated. So, there could be a big advantage if an athlete is performing in a high altitude and their body isn’t use to it. They could just pop a viagra and boom their blood vessels are dilated just like at sea level. The only problem is, hopefully no dirty thoughts creep into guys’ heads when they are on the blue pill during the big game.

Love Hotel

In Japan there are these things called Love Hotels. I bet you can guess what they are for. Basically, two lovers check into a Love Hotel for some “rest time.” They can pay to use the room all night but most people just rent the room for a couple of hours. This leads to a lot of older gentlemen hiring much younger “ladies of the night” for their company in these establishments. Many of these old dudes pop Viagra during their stay. Unfortunately, there have been cases where they have heart attacks and die while in the room. The excitement is just too much for them to handle. One Love Hotel owner said that he had three men die while on Viagra in the span of just two years. What’s worst is the hallways and elevators in these hotels are very narrow so paramedics cannot bring their stretchers up to fetch the body. They have to piggy back them down the stairs to get them out. Most often the girls flee the scene in fear of talking to the police, or worst, the guy’s family. It’s not until the hotel staff make their rounds when they find the body.

Taking Too Much

In 2013, a 66 year old guy from Colombia took Viagra to help with his bedroom performance. He took way too much and while it did work for him, he couldn’t make it go down. He didn’t get medical attention for several days and the whole time he was erect. It was extremely painful and by the time he went to the hospital, he suffered from penile fracture and it was starting to become gangrenous. The doctors thought they would have to amputate to stop the gangrene from spreading but luckily it didn’t have to come to that.

However, that didn’t stop the false rumors from being spread. The whole town was talking about how the guy had to have his member cut off because of Viagra. The story spread to the newspapers, then the internet. Several posts and articles were written about the dudes situation and the whole world thought this guy wasn’t packing anything anymore. The man eventually reached out to the newspaper, La Nacion, to set the record straight and say that he in fact still had his penis.

Seeing Green

A 36 year old man from the U.K. was in a pub drinking with his buddies. One of his friends in the group bought some viagra for laughs and the guy starting taking them as a joke. It must have been a pretty long joke because this dude ended up taking 35 Viagra pills. After a while his vision literally turned green, which is a side effect of Viagra called cyanopsia. When he got home his wife saw he was not feeling well and he had a raging hard on that wouldn’t go away. He ended staying in the hospital for 36 hours and was lucky he didn’t die. However, his boner lasted 5 days. What’s worst is his wife was mad at him for being so stupid so you know he didn’t get any.

Less and Less

There once was a British married couple that Viagra affected their lives immensely. The wife had suspected her husband of cheating on her for a long time. Since the husband had a bad case of ED and relied on Viagra, the wife started keeping track of how many pills he had left. She noticed he had less and less pills even though they didn’t have any sexy times. She confronted him and he was caught. However, they decided to work through it and not get a divorce. While they were trying to repair their marriage, after the husband got done calling another woman, the wife accused him of cheating again. The husband claimed the other woman was just a friend but the wife couldn’t take it anymore. She went and got a hammer and hit her husband over the head with it. She killed him. She then drove to a cliff to commit suicide but was caught by police before she could. She’s now in prison for the rest of her life for murder.

Bored at the Airport

In 2018, Steve Cho, a 27 year old American, was waiting in an airport in Thailand to travel to South Korea. He decided it was a good idea to take multiple Viagra pills while he waited for his flight. Maybe he thought he would get lucky on the plane, maybe he had a honey waiting for him in South Korea, or maybe he was just bored out of this mind, who knows. But instead of him getting aroused he straight up lost his mind. He took off all his clothes and even at some point he pooped on the floor. When airport security came to restrain him, he chucked his feces at them. It took six guards to take him down. They locked him in a room and he eventually snapped out of it. He admitted he took a lot of Viagra than blacked out. He doesn’t remember anything. Unfortunately for him, the security cameras caught everything.

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