Peyronie’s disease and Verapamil

Calcium channel blockers, or calcium antagonists, are a class of medications as well as natural substances (D-glucaric acid) that disrupt calcium ion conduction along what are known as the calcium channels of the body.

While some doctors use calcium channel blockers to treat Peyronie’s disease, there are researchers who have evidence that these very same calcium channel blockers can actually cause Peyronie’s disease.  This shows how strange and up-side-down is the world of Peyronie’s disease treatment.

The most widespread prescription use of calcium channel blockers is to reduce elevated blood pressure in patients with essential hypertension, particularly elderly patients.  Calcium channel blockers are notably effective to reduce large blood vessel stiffness, a common cause of elevated systolic blood pressure in geriatric patients.  They are also used to control and reduce rapid heart rate, prevent spasms of brain blood vessels and reduce chest pain due to angina pectoris.

Calcium channel blockers, or calcium antagonists, also treat a variety of conditions, such as Peyronie’s disease, high blood pressure, subarachnoid hemorrhage, migraines and Raynaud's disease.

All tissue of the body requires oxygen, and the heart muscles in particular need oxygen to pump blood.  The faster and harder the heart pumps blood, the more oxygen it needs. Heart pain occurs when the amount of oxygen available to the heart muscle walls is inadequate for the work load of the heart.  Calcium channel blockers dilate the large arteries that supply blood to the heart muscles, and thereby reduce the pressure within those arteries. This action reduces the stress on the heart muscles and reduces the need for oxygen at the same time, thus reducing angina pain. In similar mechanism, calcium channel blockers reduced elevated blood pressure, and slow the rate at which the heart beats in a condition known as tachycardia.

Peyronie’s treatment with verapamil

One type of calcium channel blocker known as a phenylalkylamine calcium channel blockers, is called Verapamil.  It is used in the treatment of Peyronie’s disease because it is thought to be effective in disrupting the calcium ions found within the Peyronie’s plaque, thus slowing or reversing the development of the offending plaque material that is the cause of the notorious Peyronie’s curved penis.

Peyronie's disease is a complex health condition without a known cause that affects nearly 4-6 percent of the worldwide male population.  It is best characterized by the development of internal fibrous plaque material below the surface of the penile shaft that results in curvature of the penis, as well as pain.  Peyronie’s disease typically on average at age 54, yet men of all ages (from 16 to 80) can and do  develop it for reasons that are not consist or clear.

Some medical doctors prescribe a topical gel of the calcium channel blocker, Verapamil to be applied once or twice daily over the area of the Peyronie’s plaque.  Since it is thought that calcium channel blockers change the way that calcium is bound within the plaque, that it might slow or reverse the development of Peyronie’s disease.  While this form of treatment has not proven especially effective, and has fallen out of general favor, other medical doctors attempt a more direct route of administration by injecting Verapamil directly into the plaque material of the penis.  This can be a rather painful treatment, and is often given in series of 12 to 20 injections over time.  Verapamil injections have not proven to be especially effective, either, yet remain on the list of medical therapies because it offers some avenue of treatment for both patient and doctor who do not have much medical treatment available for this troublesome and persistent problem.

Danger of Verapamil injections into the Peyronie’s plaque

In addition to the problem of inconclusive results and lack of support within the medical community for the use of Verapamil drug injections as a Peyronie’s disease treatment, there is also the vexing problem of trauma to the delicate tunica albuginea by repeated piercing of these multiple injections.

While there is still debate if calcium channel blockers actually cause Peyronie’s disease in healthy men, as well as if it can be used to treat Peyronie’s disease in those men who have it, the use of verapamil appears to be reducing if only because of discouraging clinical outcomes.

The Peyronie’s Disease Institute has maintained since 2002 that it makes sense to attempt to restore and support the natural healing ability of the body to correct Peyronie’s disease as occurs in about 50 percent of men who develop this condition. Read how you can use many Peyronie’s disease natural treatment options to help your body heal and repair without risk or danger of unnecessary drugs or surgery.