Prevent Heart Disease,
Avoid Erection Problems

Men with certain risk factors for heart disease in mid-life -- such as obesity and high cholesterol levels -- are also more likely to develop erectile dysfunction many years later, new findings indicate.

The researchers believe that linking impotence with these risk factors could lead men to take steps to prevent erectile dysfunction (ED), which would also protect them against heart disease.

"Patients may be more inclined to use (cholesterol-lowering drugs) if they can prevent ED, as well as heart disease," senior author Dr. Elizabeth Barrett-Connor, from the University of California in San Diego, said in a statement. "Now researchers should include erectile dysfunction as an outcome in trials of" such drugs.

The new findings are based on a study of 1810 men who were evaluated for heart disease risk factors in the early 1970s. Of these men, 570 were alive and completed an erectile function survey in 1998. The average age of the men was 46 years at the start of the study, and 72 years at follow-up.

Significant predictors of future ED included older age, obesity, and high cholesterol levels, the researchers note in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Smoking was more common among men destined to develop ED, but the association was weak. High blood pressure and blood glucose levels were not linked to ED, but this may be because men with these risk factors often died before they could be surveyed in 1998.

"To our knowledge, no studies have reported the degree to which mid-life heart disease risk factors predict ED 25 years later," the authors note. The results suggest that a number of factors exist that influence ED risk years later.

SOURCE: Journal of the American College of Cardiology, April 21, 2004.

Reference Source 89

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