Erectile Dysfunction: A Harbinger of Heart Trouble

Erectile Dysfunction: A Harbinger of Heart Trouble
Studies link this common problem with vascular disease

Few men may realize it, but if they're having problems achieving or sustaining erections, it may signal underlying heart trouble.

And now a growing body of research ties erectile dysfunction to vascular diseases, such as coronary artery disease.

"Erectile dysfunction is often a result of disease, explained Dr. Ian Thompson, professor and chairman of the Department of Urology at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. "People may perceive decreased blood flow to the penis as a less powerful, the weak construction, and that may actually be one of the first indicators of vascular disease."

One recent report found men with erectile dysfunction had poorer scores on exercise tests and other measures of coronary heart disease. They also have demonstrated significant coronary artery obstacles.

"Our study showed that men who were sent for testing to emphasize their doctor, the presence of erectile dysfunction is a strong predictor -- strong risk factor -- a large core of heart disease," said lead researcher Dr. R. Parker Ward, assistant professor of medicine and director of cardiology clinics at the University of Chicago Hospital.

"It was more risk than some traditional risk factors, we tend to ask questions about, as high blood pressure and high cholesterol," he added.

Ward study published last year in the Archives of Internal Medicine, involved men who were cardiologists nuclear test stress for the non-invasive determination of the severity of coronary heart disease. But even among men without heart symptoms of erectile dysfunction is a strong risk factor for future risk of heart attack, he said.

In the same journal issue, Dr. Steven A. Grover , and colleagues studied a group of 3,912 men from Canada, nearly half of them reported having erectile dysfunction in the four weeks prior to visiting their family doctors. Men cholesterol, glucose and blood pressure measurements were taken.

"When you calculated the global cardiovascular risk, [it] was directly linked to the probability that you have erectile dysfunction," said Grover, professor of medicine and epidemiology at McGill University Health Centre in Montreal. "And then there have been other studies that have shown that people who have erectile dysfunction, but rather to develop cardiovascular disease in the future."

Thompson and his colleagues provided the first substantial evidence links erectile dysfunction and the risk of subsequent development of heart disease in December 2005 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. But not recognized, as well as doctors and patients as cardiologists and urologists think it should be.

"Many men do not have doctors, Thompson explained. "They may not know what their blood pressure or their lipid profiles, or they may be smokers, and they may never have been advised to stop smoking or reduce their weight.

"We believe that if men with erectile dysfunction go to their doctors, it can interact with a physician to discuss other coronary risk factors," he said.

Erectile problems is not always the vascular nature. Sometimes Beda psychological or neurological and would not necessarily be associated with a higher risk of heart disease, Ward warned. Nevertheless, the study links erectile dysfunction (ED) and heart offers proactive approach is the best medicine.

"We as physicians should be asking about, and men should be reporting to their physicians, symptoms of ED, so it can be considered as we work to modify their risk -- treat blood pressure, cholesterol more aggressively, advise healthy lifestyle changes like exercise and healthy diet," he said.