Men who experience erectile dysfunction at a young age — from 40 to 49 — are two times more likely to develop heart disease compared to men without erectile dysfunction, according to a new Mayo Clinic study.
Overall, researchers found that men with erectile dysfunction have an 80 percent higher risk of heart disease compared to those without erectile dysfunction.
“The highest risk for coronary heart disease was in younger men,” says Jennifer St. Sauver, Ph.D., one of the researchers on the study, which was published in the February 2009 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings. The results suggest that younger men and their doctors may need to look at erectile dysfunction as a harbinger of future risk of coronary heart disease — and take appropriate steps to prevent it, says Dr. St. Sauver.
“The importance of the study cannot be overstated,” writes Martin Miner, M.D., in an editorial in the same issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings. The results “raise the possibility of a ‘window of curability,’ in which progression of cardiac disease might be slowed or halted by medical intervention,” writes Dr. Miner, who practices at the Men’s Health Center, Miriam Hospital, Providence, R.I.
Below is a link to an edited youtube video with Dr. St. Sauver.
Never thought that people at 40 or 49 could be called young. But the video is helpful.