Tuesday Aug 20, 2013 (foodconsumer.org) -- A new study published in the American Journal of Physiology: Regulatory, Integrative, and Comparative Physiology suggests that eating a Western diet high in sugar and saturated fat and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids can lead to the development of erectile dysfunction and regular physical exercise can help prevent the medical condition.

Christopher Wingard and colleagues at East Carolina University conducted the study and found rats on a Western diet experienced erectile dysfunction and  exercised regularly prevented the animals eating a Western style diet from developing erectile dysfunction and coronary artery disease. 

For the study, a group of rats were fed a diet which was similar to the Western diet, high in sugar and almost 50% calories derived from fat, for 12 weeks.  As controls, another group of rats were fed a standard healthy diet for the same period.

Half of the rats in each group exercised five days a week, running on a treadmill.

At 12 weeks, the researchers anesthetized the animals and assessed erectile function by electrically stimulating the cavernosal nerve to cause an increase in penile blood flow resulting in an erection.  Also they examined how the rats' coronary arteries would respond to agents that would relax the arteries and maintain blood flow to the heart.

Rats that ate the Western diet but stayed sedentary developed erectile dysfunction and coronary arteries responded to relaxing agents poorly.  In contrast, those who ate the same diet but exercised were able to function normally.

Rats that ate the healthy chow exercising or not did not develop either erectile dysfunction or coronary artery dysfunction.

The study suggests the Western diet can induce erectile dysfunction, but physical exercise can help overcome the medical condition and a healthy diet helps maintain erectile function and prevent coronary artery disease without resorting to physical exercise. (reporting by david liu)