Erectile problems can signal heart disease

Diabetic men with erectile dysfunction may be at risk of heart attack or death, according to two new international studies.

One of the studies also showed that cholesterol lowering medications could cut the risk of heart problems by about a third,and suggested that Viagra and other compounds in the same drug family might offer similar protection.
 
The research, which was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, underscores the importance of encouraging all men to report erectile dysfunction (ED) to their physicians, and of focusing treatment, not only on overcoming sexual dysfunction, but also on improving overall cardiovascular health, the researchers wrote.
 
“The development of erectile dysfunction should alert both patients and healthcare providers to the future risk of coronary heart disease,” said Peter Chun-Yip Tong, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Medicine & Therapeutics at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

“Other risk factors such as poor blood glucose control, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, smoking and obesity should be reviewed and addressed aggressively.”
 
Medical experts say men typically show signs of ED more than three years before the onset of symptoms of coronary heart disease. In one study of diabetic men, symptoms of ED always preceded coronary symptoms.
 
 The study also showed that among patients who were taking cholesterol lowering statins, the risk of a major cardiac event was reduced by one third.

Viagra and other medications in a family known as 5-phosphodiesterase (5PDE) inhibitors, also appeared to reduce the cardiac risk; however, this finding was just beyond the borderline of what experts consider to be statically significant.