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# Statin therapy may help prevent erectile dysfunction?
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/statin_ed_042720140949/
- Published: 2014-04-27T10:48:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T16:13:11.000Z
- Description: A meta-analysis of 14 trials found statin therapy raised erectile function scores by about 3.2 points, a significant gain that the authors say exceeded what improved lifestyle or testosterone produced. The effect appeared in a third to half of men previously on PDE5 drugs.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Drug, Health News, #vivvo-import

Sunday April 27, 2014 (Foodconsumer.org) -- A new study released in 2014 Journal of the American College of Cardiology suggests that taking cholesterol-lowering statin medications can improve erectile function or prevent some cases of erectile dysfunction in men with chronic diseases like diabetes mellitus type 2 and atherosclerotic disease.

Statins have been prescribed frequently to prevent heart disease in people with comorbidities like diabetes mellitus and atherosclerotic disease. Older men who have these diseases often suffer erectile dysfunction.

John B. Kostis and Jeane M. Dobrzynski at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick New Jersey USA conducted the meta-analysis of 14 trials (11 randomized and three observational) of the effect of statin therapy on erectile dysfunction (ED).

The analysis revealed that statin therapy increased the International Inventory of Erectile Function (IIEF) by 3.2, which is significant. An analysis of the randomized trials also showed IIEF was increased by 3.4 among those who received statin medications.

The improvement of IEDF with statin therapy was found in about one third to one half of those who were previously treated with phosphodiesterase inhibitors and the efficacy was found greater than that induced by improved lifestyle or testosterone.

Phosphodiesterase inhibitors are drugs or sustances that act on one of the five subtypes of the enzyme phosphodiesterase (PDE). Drugs that inhibit PDE5 include sildenafil (Viagra), tadalafil (Cialis), vardenafil (Levitra), and the newer udenafil (Zydena) and avanafil (Stendra and Spedra). These drugs are used primarily as remedies for erectile dysfunction. The current study suggests that statin therapy can improve erectile function in a significant number of patients on these medications.

The study concluded that statin medications can clinically significantly improve erectile function as measured by IIEF.

Long term statin therapy can cause muscle pain or other side effects. While statins can effectively lower cholesterol, they are not cost-effective in people without prior heart conditions. Alternatives, which are as effective as statins, include red yeast rice. (David Liu)