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One
Third of Older Men Report Erection Problems Monday
August 4, 2003
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A third of older men have difficulty achieving an
erection and the problem only gets more common with age, new research indicates.
The good news is that there are many things men can do to reduce their risk of
erection problems. The
figures come from a survey of nearly 32,000 men, 53 to 90 years of age, who
participated in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. The results are
reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine. After
excluding men with prostate cancer, Dr. Constance G. Bacon, from Harvard School
of Public Health, and associates found that 33 percent of the men reported
erection problems in the previous 3 months. Moreover, for each decade beyond 50
years of age, overall sexual function, desire, and orgasm frequency decreased
sharply. Physical
inactivity and obesity had a lot to do with erection problems. Men who ran for
at least 3 hours per week or engaged in a similar amount of exercise were 30
percent less likely to have erection difficulties than men who barely exercised
at all. Similarly,
non-obese men were 30 percent less likely to develop these problems than obese
men, the researchers note. Other
"risk factors" for erection difficulties included smoking, drinking
alcohol, and watching television. "Despite
general clinical knowledge that conditions such as and diabetes affect sexual
function, we found that much of the erection difficulties among older men
occurred in those who were healthy," the authors note. If
it turns that the risk factors identified actually cause erection problems,
"preventive health messages might focus on behavioral steps to
maintain" erection function, "including avoidance of obesity, smoking,
and physical inactivity," they add. |