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Year
2007 |
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Impotence Indicates Risk Of Heart Disease
June 11, 2007
Many people who suffer a heart attack had never
had any symptoms of heart disease. Of the roughly 5,000 individuals
who die of sudden cardiac arrest in Sweden each year, two thirds
had not had any known heart disease. But in men there is one thing
that should constitute a advance sign of coming heart problems:
impotence.
In some cases, impotence can have neurological, psychiatric, and
other causes. But the most common cause, accounting for up to four
cases of five, is that the blood circulation in the penis has become
so poor that erection is impaired, or no erection can occur at all.
And if the circulation in these vessels has been affected by atherosclerosis,
then it is highly probable that the same process is under way in
the coronary artery in the heart.
In a dissertation from Lund University in Sweden, the physician
Rasmus Borgquist has managed to show that this reasoning is correct.
"One of our studies shows that otherwise healthy men with
impotence show signs of early atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries
of the heart. In another study we saw that men with impotence evince
a higher incidence of high blood pressure, high blood fat, abdominal
fat, and other traditional risk factors for heart disease,"
he says.
The conclusion is that men with impotence problems should seek
care as soon as possible, since both their impotence and the possible
threat of heart disorders can be counteracted with early intervention.
The first priority involves changes in life style, such as quitting
smoking, exercise, and altered diet, and then if these are insufficient,
medication for lowering blood pressure and blood fat and also pharmacological
therapy for treatment of the impotence as such.
"It's probably easier to get men to accept changes in their
life style if you can point out that they alleviate impotence, rather
than talking about the risk of a heart attack sometime down the
road. And there are studies that show that potency improves rather
quickly in those who quit smoking and lose weight," says Rasmus
Borgquist.
The notion that there is a connection between impotence and heart
disease was put forward in the mid 1980s. But this connection has
been studied seriously only in recent years.
"Today there is a greater interest in these issues, both among
the public and at drug companies," claims Rasmus Borgquist.
"On the one hand, several new drugs have appeared to combat
cardiovascular diseases and their risk factors, and, on the other
hand, potency drugs like Viagra,
Cialis, and Levitra have led many
more men to seek help for impotence."
There is still a certain "awkwardness factor" that makes
some patients reluctant to seek help, and some physicians are hesitant
to take up the matter. But in Rasmus Borgquist's experience, once
the physician has broached the subject, patients tend to respond
frankly.
Source : Medical News Today
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