By Jimmy Downs

Wednesday Nov 28, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- It is commonly believed that erectile dysfunction is a sign of cardiovascular disease.  But a new study in Journal of Sexual Medicine suggests that the male sexual dysfunction (ED) has nothing to do with cardiovascular (CV) death from angina, heart attack or stroke.

J. M. Hotaling at Department of Urology, University of Washington in Seattle, Washington and colleagues  reported that erectile dysfunction is independently associated with cardiovascular events including angina, myocardial infarction, and stroke.  But the current study showed that it is not linked to cardiovascular death.

For the study, researchers analysed data collected from 31,296 men in Washington aged 50-76 who completed a questionnaire in 2000 to 2002 on use of supplements and diet, physical exercise, health status, and erectile dysfunction and found no association between ED and cardiovascular death after adjustment for other risk factors.

All participants were followed for an average 7.8 years during which 7,762 reported suffering erectile dysfunction and 486 men died from cardiovascular events.

Those who died were often older, single, having poor health, using hypertension medications, higher body mass index, smoking, having diabetes mellitus type 2, and having a family history of cardiovascular disease.  

After adjustment for age, marital status and education, men with erectile dysfunction were 23 percent more likely to die from cardiovascular events.  But after adjustment for known risk factors for cardiovascular disease including diabetes, treatment for hypertension or hyperlipidemia, family history of myocardial infarction/stroke, body mass index, and physical exercise, the association became non-existent.

The researchers concluded "In this community-based cohort, ED was not independently associated with an elevated risk of CV death. These data do not contradict prior data associating ED and CV events but rather suggest that ED may be a manifestation of other known risk factors for CV disease."