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Erectile dysfunction affects 18 percent of U.S. men
February 01, 2007
There's more bad news for those pudgy couch potatoes, junk food
junkies and TV devotees -- and this time it really hits them where
it hurts.
A study published Thursday found that about 18 percent of U.S.
men age 20 and up suffer from erectile
dysfunction -- and the condition is strongly linked to a sedentary
lifestyle of little physical exercise, poor diet and lots of television.
Not surprisingly, the condition was most common in older men. But
there was a strikingly high prevalence in men with diabetes and
high blood pressure.
"This really means that staying active -- moving more and
eating less -- and staying healthy, in addition to being good for
your cardiovascular health may also be good for your sexual health,"
said epidemiologist Elizabeth Selvin of Johns Hopkins University
in Baltimore, Maryland, who led the study, in an interview.
"It's just another reason to get off the couch and exercise,"
Selvin added.
The study in the American Journal of Medicine sought to get a sense
of the prevalence of erectile dysfunction, formerly called impotence,
in what Selvin called "the post-Viagra era."
The U.S. government approved Pfizer
Inc.'s Viagra in 1998 as the
first pill for erectile dysfunction -- the inability to attain an
adequate penile erection for satisfactory sexual activity.
The arrival of Viagra not only provided a treatment option, but
boosted awareness of the formerly taboo subject and made it more
acceptable to discuss.
The study estimated that 18.4 percent of U.S. men age 20 and older
-- about 18 million -- have the condition. Among those ages 20-39,
5.1 percent had it; ages 40-59, 14.8 percent; ages 60-69, 43.8 percent;
and age 70 and older 70.2 percent.
Half of the men in the study who had diabetes also had erectile
dysfunction. Nearly 90 percent of men with erectile dysfunction
had risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including diabetes,
high blood pressure, poor cholesterol levels or smoking, the study
found.
To read more : http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/02/01/erectile.dysfunction.reut/ |
