Erectile dysfunction and heart disease – one problem pulls the other?
There is link between erectile dysfunction and heart disease. ED problem is also connected with lethal outcome in patients. The sufferers belong to both groups: patients diagnosed with heart disease before and the ones who have never had cardiovascular problems.
Australian National University conducted a research under the guidance of Emily Banks. It was published in PLOS Medicine.
The research has shown that there is link between ED and a risk of heart disease. Though the other study has revealed the connection of erectile dysfunction and cardiovascular problems, this study showed the dependence of future disease from the level of ED severity. In other words, the possibility of severe heart disease and fatal outcome is higher when erectile dysfunction is severe.
During investigation more than 95 thousand men over 45 have been studied. As a result, strong correlation was revealed between the severity of ED and heart problem. More than 65 thousand men with some heart disease and more than 29 thousand men with cardiovascular disease participated in this study.
On the next stage of the study that continued for 2.2 years 7855 patients were taken to the hospital with heart disease. There had been 2304 lethal cases already by the end of the period that lasted for 2.8 years. The patients died of heart disease.
The researchers made the conclusion that men who are diagnosed with severe erectile dysfunction without CVD face higher risk of hospitalization because of cardiovascular disease. The likeliness of fatal outcome increases by 93% in comparison with the patients without ED.
Men with cardiovascular disease and severe condition of erectile dysfunction have 64% higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease and 137% bigger possibility of mortality.
Cardiovascular health director Rob Grenfell who works in Australia's Heart Foundation concluded that results of research are informative and make men with ED apply to cardiologist to check the heart.
This valuable study revealed the important data that make us focus on the necessity to look for inner causes of ED problem. People should regard erectile dysfunction in relation to CVD occurrence.
Besides, they made emphasis on the fact that ED is not the cause of heart problems. Both ED and CVD occur as consequences of underlying causes, for instance, atherosclerosis.