ED goes to the heart

ERECTILE dysfunction is almost as strong a predictor of heart disease as smoking or family history. Researchers studied 3,816 men with erectile dysfunction and 4,247 men with no dysfunction, and they tracked the incidence of angina, heart attack, arrhythmias, stroke and other heart problems over seven years. Men who reported erectile dysfunction before or during the study had a 45 per cent increased risk of a cardiovascular event compared with men who never reported the problem. "Erectile dysfunction is treatable," said Dr Ian M. Thompson, the lead author of the report and chairman of urology at the University of Texas Health Science Centre at San Antonio, the United States. "It may be the event that gets a man in to see a doctor. That patient should ask his physician: 'I used to smoke. My dad died of a heart attack. Now I have ED. Do I need further evaluation?' Then the doctor has additional responsibilities to think about cardiac illness as well."