Just when I thought the FDA was beginning to get its act together regarding drug safety comes word that more than a year before the Journal of Neuro-Ophthalmology published a study linking Viagra to a rare form of blindness, a safety officer with the agency warned her supervisors to issue an advisory about that same rare effect to consumers and physicians.

As you've figured out, FDA supervisors listened to her advice, but did absolutely nothing about it. This safety officer's experience was detailed in a letter to Acting Commissioner Lester Crawford from Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee investigating the FDA's inability to protect the public from potentially harmful drugs.

The explanation for this health-harming mistake didn't surprise me one bit. The safety officer described an Office of New Drugs such terrific time constraints that drug safety concerns were "fitted in" where and when they could be.

By the way, the number of patients stricken with blindness after taking Viagra (and Cialis and Levitra) is far larger than the 43 the FDA has cited too. CBS News found more than 140 cases of partial or total blindness from among more than 800 reports sent to the FDA about Viagra use over the last four years from doctors and physicians. Besides that, blindness is just one of the many risks associated with taking erectile dysfunction drugs.

Fact is, there's no need to take a drug to "cure" your sexual dysfunction, when there are a number of natural, healthier and far less expensive treatment options available that get to the real heart of the problem:

• Deal with the stress and anxiety that affects your mind and body by learning an effective energy psychology tool like the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).
• Retool your daily diet based on your body's unique nutritional type.
• Get moving today with an exercise program.
• Enhance your levels of acetylcholine (ACH) by taking choline supplements (1,000-3,000 mg) and vitamin B5 (500-1,500 mg).

Washington Post July 1, 2005