By David Liu, PHD

Saturday Oct 13, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- Taking certain antihypertensive medications indicated for treatment of high blood pressure can cause sexual function like erectile dysfunction, according to a report in Current Hypertension Reports.

Athanasios Manolis at Asclepeion General Hospital in Athens, Greece and Michael Doumas at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece say in their report that sexual dysfunction is found more often  in patients with high blood pressure.

This association may indicate that having high blood pressure may cause sexual dysfunction . But the authors say patients with high blood pressure who received treatment for hypertension were more likely to suffer sexual dysfunction than the patients who did not receive treatment, indicating that antihypertensive therapy per se can cause sexual dysfunction.

Actually, research has already shown that different antihypertensive drugs have different effects on sexual dysfunction in patients with high blood pressure.

Specifically, older antihypertensive medications such as diuretics and beta blockers can cause  erectile function while newer drugs  including nebivolol and angiotensin receptor blockers have neutral effects. 

Phosphodiesterase (PDE)-5 inhibitors like Sildenafil (Viagra) are effective at treating erectile dysfunction in patients with hypertension and can be safely used even when multidrug therapies are used. 

The authors warns "Precautions need to be taken with alpha blockers or patients with uncontrolled high-risk hypertension, while co-administration with nitrates is contraindicated."

High blood pressure in many cases can be easily treated following a modified lifestyle including a healthy diet.  Vitamin C, green tea, garlic and vitamin D may help control high blood pressure.

Millions of Americans live with high blood pressure - a condition that is linked to a variety of health conditions including coronary heart disease (coronary artery disease), heart failure, stroke, kidney failure, and other health problems, according to the U.S. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute.