I saw a news article about pharmaceuticals, including Viagra, getting into the water supply. How does this happen? Does it cause environmental problems?

Viagra in the drinking water sounds like a fantasy or a joke (or a recipe for a very happy village), but it's not far from reality. Significant traces of prescription drugs have been found in groundwater, rivers, lakes, bays, and coastal waters, including erectile dysfunction drugs, antidepressants and other psychiatric medications, hormones, and other substances like caffeine and nicotine.

How does it get there? Well, what goes in has to come out. When you take a drug and your body can't metabolize all of it, some gets excreted. So, those drugs are getting into the water through wastewater, i.e. sewage. Even treated sewage can still have those chemicals in it. Yeah, it's not nice to think about. Drugs can also leach into groundwater if they are thrown away and disposed of in a landfill.

The good news is that (hopefully) not a lot of that is getting into the drinking water supply, but that depends on where you live and what your water source is. And they're still out in the environment, where you can be exposed to them, and they can impact wildlife. The full and longterm effects aren't known, because environmental agencies have just recently started monitoring pharmaceutical pollution.

For the average Viagra user, there's not a lot you can do to prevent this from happening. Maybe don't take a higher dose of Viagra than required, to avoid excreting the excess amount. In the (unlikely) event that you have some unneeded or expired Viagra that you need to dispose of, don't throw it in the trash or flush it down the toilet. Take it to a pharmacy, medical facility, or police station where they accept prescription drugs for disposal. This goes for any type of drug, prescription or over the counter, that you might need to get rid of.

Anyway, Viagra probably isn't one of the drugs that would have the greatest impact. The ones that are really causing problems are hormones - estrogen and phytoestrogens. They can disrupt the normal development and reproduction of wildlife, and exposure to excess estrogens can have serious health consequences for humans, including...impotence in men.

Sometimes smartphones are just too helpful for their own good. (Except when they seem to be playing dumb. Looking at you, Siri.)

One of the best examples of this is the often-annoying autocorrect feature. Autocorrect totally makes sense, in theory, especially given the inevitable fat-fingered typing on those tiny phone text keypads. But between autocorrect and that other helpful feature, autocomplete, your phone sometimes seems to be sabotaging your text communications, and hilarity ensues.

It's such a rampant problem that it quickly became an internet meme, with a number of websites springing up with some of the best of the worst mangled texts.

Of course, there's no shortage of boner jokes in this genre. Check out what happens when these innocent texts get Viagra-fied:

This one is truly epic.

Always take Mom's advice.

And be extra careful on Valentine's Day.

Sometimes, no matter how you try, you can't turn it off.

But like Freud said, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar - except when autocorrect gets a hold of it.

Viagra already has a number of documented pediatric uses, and now we can add another. A small study at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has shown that sildenafil helps children with underdeveloped hearts. Children and young adults with a congenital heart defect called single ventricle heart disease palliation showed improved circulatory capacity and cardiac function after 6 weeks of treatment with the drug.

The condition can cause long-term illness and increased risk of death, even after surgical intervention. All the subjects in the study had previously undergone a procedure called a Fontan surgery to divert blood flow to the lungs. However, those blood vessels can become resistant, lessening the benefit of surgical treatment.

Echocardiograms showed that the drug had dramatically improved the heart's blood pumping capacity in those treated. The study was published in the journal Pediatric Cardiology.

More doctors trust Viagra...sound like the tagline for an ad? It's true, though. In a Harris poll of almost 800 physicians, Viagra and Cialis were the most trusted drug brands. The surveyed doctors were asked questions about drugs in four categories: erectile dysfunction drugs, antidepressants, antipsychotics, and non-insulin diabetes drugs. Out of a possible 100 points, Viagra and Cialis ranked highest, tied at 82.

Since the poll asked subjective questions about familiarity with brands and the doctors' dispositions toward the manufacturers, it's arguable that the winners were just the drugs with the highest advertising profiles, or who gave out the best schwag.

It's true - Pfizer pours a lot of money into advertising, and some claim the company has recruited attractive females, including graduating college cheerleaders, to act as sales reps. But all that wouldn't be enough to hold the product up if it was truly terrible. The truth is, it delivers.

Viagra is no doubt well-regarded in part because of Pfizer's efforts in marketing and building relationships with doctors, but it's also a solid product. It works as advertised for most individuals for whom it's prescribed, and patients are satisfied with the result.

PDE-5 inhibitors are also fairly uncomplicated drugs, are predictable in their actions, and don't have serious or lasting side effects or require a lot of dose adjustment. So doctors can feel pretty confident in prescribing them.

Does Viagra cause an increase in testosterone levels? Will it deplete my testosterone?

Since there is a correlation between testosterone and libido or sexual potency, it's not surprising that there could be some confusion about the connection between testosterone and Viagra.

However,  Viagra has no effect whatsoever on testosterone levels. The hormone testosterone is produced by the body's endocrine system, in the testes and pituitary gland. Viagra produces erections by affecting muscles and blood vessels, causing them to relax and dilate. The increased blood flow, not increased testosterone, is what causes an erection.

Using Viagra also doesn't utilize or "use up" your testosterone, and actually, some studies show that sexual activity causes an increase in testosterone levels in males.

That said, if you have erectile dysfunction and Viagra doesn't work for you, the cause may be low testosterone levels. If your testosterone levels drop too far, Viagra won't be enough to help.

While Viagra doesn't affect your testosterone levels, there are a lot of medications that do, none of which are related to sex. These include statins, Propecia/Proscar (finasteride), opiate painkillers, and some chemotherapy drugs, all of which may lower testosterone. Low testosterone levels can have negative health consequences for men, or may indicate other health problems, so if you have concerns about your testosterone levels, ask your doctor to have them checked.

Apparently it does. It's also stocked on supermarket shelves, in the juice and produce aisles.

I'm not talking about pharmaceutical Viagra, of course - I'm referring to the food that's being touted as the latest "natural Viagra".  Pomegranates, or pomegranate juice to be specific. Research has declared that drinking a daily glass of the ruby red elixir for two weeks produces "Viagra-like effects" for both men and women.

Didn't we go through this with watermelon a few years ago?

Anyway, pomegranates, which have had a reputation as an aphrodisiac since ancient times, are the farmers market Viagra du jour. A UK study found that regularly drinking pomegranate juice produced a surge of libido-lifting testosterone in both sexes, plus positive effects on mood, memory, and blood pressure.

As far as the Viagra comparison goes, watermelon is a more accurate analog, as it contains amino acids that relax blood vessels in a manner similar to sildenafil. Neither watermelon nor Viagra have any effect on testosterone production.

Libido-enhancement aside, pomegranate juice has a lot of other fine qualities, being chock full of cancer and heart-disease fighting antioxidants. I'm not usually one to go in for superfood fads, but I might consider adding this one to my daily regimen. Although I wouldn't be surprised to find the store out of stock after the announcement of this news.

Looks like Viagra's not the only thing that needs a warning label about four-hour erections. A man is suing BMW, claiming one of its motorcycles gave him a case of priapism that has lasted two years. After riding the cycle in May 2010 for four hours, he developed an erection that wouldn't quit - and apparently still hasn't.

He blames the design of the seat, which rather than being wide and padded, is narrow and ridge-like, concentrating pressure and vibration at a delicate juncture. The plaintiff is suing BMW and the seat manufacturer, Corbin Pacific, for damages including lost wages, hospital bills, and emotional distress. He is reportedly still unable to have normal sexual relations.

It's times like that when you need a pill that works like Viagra in reverse.

While the case is unfortunate, and no doubt uncomfortable for the poor guy, it may bring some attention to an often overlooked cause of erectile dysfunction: motorcycle and bicycle riding, especially with unpadded seats. The pressure of the seat and the vibrations of the road can indeed cause impotence, which has been confirmed by studies. One Japanese study found some degree of ED symptoms in one-quarter of their sampling of regular motorcyclists.

Just goes to show, when it comes to putting the fun between your legs, there can be too much of a good thing.

There's no way around it: Viagra is one of the most competitive keywords for search engine optimization. That's why, when Google rolled out a new algorithm meant to yield more relevant search results by penalizing over-optimization, bloggers used the V-word to test it out.

The results were not impressive. Or, at least, mixed.

This particular update went after, among other things, "exact match domains" - domains that are identical with the keyword or words. Which meant that Pfizer's official site for the drug, Viagra.com, actually dropped in the search rankings. Meanwhile, a lot of really sketchy stuff started floating to the top - unrelated sites that had obviously been hacked.

The website of Lois Lowry, children's literature author, is currently still on the page-one results for Viagra - with a warning from Google that the site "may be compromised". No kidding. Unless Ms. Lowry has switched careers and is now a pharmaceutical rep, that site has no business being in those search results anywhere.

The general consensus, among users and webmasters alike, is that this update didn't work so well, and actually worsened search results in some cases, with legitimate websites taking hits in their rankings. But Google is continually tweaking, so no doubt it will take that feedback and use it to adjust its next algorithm in the war against webspam. Unfortunately, in the battle between black hat SEO and Google, there always seems to be some collateral damage.

As expected, the FDA approved avanafil, the newest erectile dysfunction drug. No word on when it will actually go to market

It will be interesting to see if the drug catches on. Viagra is such a well established brand, it's synonymous with erectile dysfunction drugs as a class (that may actually be a synedoche, rather than a synonym, but I'm not sure -  it's been a while since Lit 101). Viagra has a loyal following, especially among older users. Not to stereotype, but with age sometimes comes a resistance to change - or an attitude of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

So unless guys are really unhappy with Viagra's wait time or having bad side effects, I would guess that not a lot of current users would switch. On the other hand, Stendra might appeal to younger users looking into using ED medication for the first time.

The 30 to 60-minute lead time required for Viagra works adequately for couples who have an established sexual relationship, or even a routine. Stendra's 15 to 30-minute activation time, however, fits better with the lifestyles of casual daters and more spontaneous types.

It also takes some of the guesswork out of that important decision: whether to pop the pill in the first place - and leaves less time for things to go off the rails or for your partner to lose interest before the main event begins.

In any case, at this point the drug's maker, Vivus doesn't pose much of a threat to the Viagra empire. Analysts project annual sales for Stendra to be $300 million next year, compared to the $2 billion Pfizer netted in 2011 for Viagra sales.

There may soon be a new upstart entering the ED market - in a few days, the FDA will be reviewing Avanafil, the quick-acting PDE5 inhibitor.

The drug has already been approved in Korea, and has gone through Phase III testing in the US. Chances are, it will get approved in the US.

So, will another ED drug have an impact on the market? Probably not much, given that they all do pretty much the same thing. Avanafil's benefit is that it gets things going a bit faster than Viagra or other drugs and therefore might appeal to different users:

"Men who have a pattern of sexual activity that's predictable -- every Saturday night, or something like that, don't need this." Dr. Ira Sharlip a urologist at UC San Francisco and expert in the field of sexual medicine, sees the drug appealing to those who have more casual or sporadic encounters "If you see that things are heading in that direction, you pop a pill and are ready in 15 minutes, if  correct."

On the other hand, Avanafil clears the system quicker, so while it may cut down the wait time for the fun to start , it may be over sooner too.

One thing Avanafil has in its favor is that the side effects seem to be milder, especially the more serious cardiac symptoms. The headaches and stuffy nose just seem to come with the territory, but most users tolerate them.

Sharlip had an interesting take on some of Viagra's other supposed side-effects. "Despite what the FDA says, I have never seen priapism from any PDE5 inhibitor drug. Priapism is just not a clinical problem. Blue vision with Viagra is uncommon and at worst annoying. Most men who get the blue vision with Viagra don't care about it," he said.

Huh. I'd think that would be a little disturbing, but who knows - maybe some people like looking at the world through Viagra tinted"glasses.