Guys, Lower Your Heart Disease Risk & Improve Your Erections

NBC has been presenting the London 2012 Olympic Games for the past few days now.  Admit it: you've been glued to your big screen TV or entranced by www.nbcolympics.com watching the competition.  Whichever the case may be, isn't it ironic that most of us are sedentary while we celebrate our countries' finest examples of physical fitness?  As it turns out, our lifestyle is directly related to our risk of heart disease.  For most of these young & extremely healthy athletes, heart disease is way off in the distance.  And if they can continue some manner of physical activity, their risk will be substantially lower than yours & mine.

Well, I've been pointing out the proof in the pudding w/numerous studies demonstrating how physical activity lowers our all-cause mortality.  But apparently that's not enough motivation.  So I'd like to point out a review article published last November in the Archives of Internal Medicine directed at male readers (and those whose partner(s), friends & family members are male) in which the authors concluded that lifestyle modifications to reduce cardiovascular risk factors improve sexual function in men w/erectile dysfunction.  Use of statins to lower cholesterol also led to improvements in sexual function.

The authors arrived at their conclusions after evaluating 740 participants from 4 countries in 6 clinical trials over a period of time ranging from as short as 8 weeks to as long as 2 years.  Of note, they objectively quantified sexual dysfunction with the validated International Index of Erectile Dysfunction (IIEF-5) questionnaire (full index in PDF).

However, it should be noted that this meta-analysis demonstrates one of those statistically significant but not necessarily clinically significant results.  For instance, while 4 points' change is clinically significant, the sum of lifestyle & medication to reduce CV risk resulted only in a statistically significant 2.7 point improvement.  When analyzed separately, lifestyle alone led a 2.4 point improvement while medication (statins) led to a 3.1 point improvement, both statistically significant but not necessarily clinically so.  

In comparison, phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE-5) inhibitors typically lead to a 7-10 point improvement, clearly consistent w/their clinical benefit.  But it should be noted that CV risk reduction improved ED even in those not response to PDE-5 inhibitors.  Better yet, there are no side effects from diet, exercise & maintaining an active lifestyle, all of which can be "used" in conjunction w/nitrates, something which can't be said for the popular oral medications.  And let's not forget to factor in cost savings (or expenditures), too!

Bottom line: don't just sit there, do something (whether you're watching the Olympic games, NFL, NBA, NASCAR, MLB, whatever)!

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