Erectile dysfunction is the best predictor of male cardiovascular risk and can provide a two- to three-year heart attack warning, British researchers say.
Dr. Geoffrey Hackett, a urologist at the Good Hope Hospital in Birmingham, England, says he sees patients referred with erectile dysfunction after a heart attack, only to hear that they had developed erectile dysfunction two to three years before -- a warning sign ignored by primary care physicians.
It is well known that erectile dysfunction -- a symptom of vascular disease in the smaller arteries -- doubles the risk of heart disease, Hackett says. In addition, erectile dysfunction in type 2 diabetes has been shown to be a better predictor of the risk of heart disease than high blood pressure or high cholesterol.
Erectile dysfunction is still treated as a recreational or "lifestyle issue" rather than a predictor of a serious health problem, Hackett says in an article in the British Medical Journal.
"Continuing to ignore these issues on the basis that cardiologists feel uncomfortable mentioning the word 'erection' to their patients or that they may have to deal with the management of a positive response, is no longer acceptable and possibly, based on current evidence, clinically negligent," Hackett says in a statement.
