ED and Cardiovascular Risk
Well, it’s not an easy issue to discuss, but there’s an important warning tonight for men who may be experiencing any symptoms of erectile dysfunction, or E.D.
This could be a big warning sign of a future heart attack or stroke.
There’s no question that cardiovascular disease is common; it’s the leading killer in America.
And the fact is, so is erectile dysfunction.
More than 10 million men in the United States are affected. In fact, around 40 percent of men at age 40 have it to some degree; that number rises to 70 percent in men at age 70.
And these men need to take the signs seriously. Sexual dysfunction is reason enough to see the doctor, but in many, it is clearly not just a sex issue.
New research in the latest Journal of the American Medical Association provides a wake up call to doctors and patients dealing with the problem of male erectile dysfunction.
The condition may be, in many men, a serious harbinger of life-threatening cardiovascular conditions.
Dr. Richard Hayes, a cardiologist at NYU Medical Center, says, “Erectile dysfunction is basically perhaps one of the signs that there is plaque build up in any of those systems in the legs or in the arteries that supply blood to the head, the carotid arteries or in the heart itself and a lot of the things that cause heart disease or lead to heart disease also lead to erectile dysfunction.”
The latest data followed men age 55 and older over seven years who were assessed for both erectile dysfunction and cardiovascular disease, such as heart attack and stroke.
New onset erectile dysfunction was associated with a 25 percent increased risk for heart attacks, strokes, angina, or mini-strokes, compared to men with no erectile dysfunction.
If men who already had E.D.. at the onset of the study, the risk for cardiovascular disease was 45 percent greater than those with no E.D.
“The cells in the arties in the penis are the same cells that line the arteries all over so if there is something wrong with those there is going to be something wrong with cells elsewhere,” says Dr. Hayes.
E.D. may be the sentinel, or first sign of cardiovascular disease. And the worse the E.D., the greater the risk for having a heart attack or stroke.
The implications are hugely important: men who suffer from E.D. should not be silent about their problem.
“They don’t necessarily say it at any point if you don’t ask them, so it is real important to get that history. Men will often be ashamed about saying something like this,” Dr. Hayes states.
And if a man does seek help for erectile dysfunction, it might be the only doctor’s appointment made.
Many don’t seek help for other medical problems or for simple routine physicals and health screening. So this complaint of E.D. should prompt the doctor to further investigate into whether the person has any cardiovascular disease or risk factors for it, like high blood pressure or high cholesterol.
“They talked about it being common in men over forty, I think we should be talking about it to almost every man,” Dr. Hayes advises.
E.D. is as associated with cardiovascular disease risk as is smoking or a family history of heart disease. And in fact, a previous study showed that among patients who seek help for E.D., nearly 20 percent had undiagnosed high blood pressure, 15 percent had diabetes, and 5 percent--or one in twenty--already had significant coronary artery disease.
For more information, go to http://jama.ama-assn.org/current.dtl
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