Doctors have been urged to ask male patients one simple question that a study suggests could save the lives of many men.Erectile dysfunction has been found to have a strong association with cardiovascular disease and researchers say asking patients about
Doctors have been urged to ask male patients one simple question that a study suggests could save the lives of many men.
Erectile dysfunction has been found to have a strong association with cardiovascular disease and researchers say asking patients about it is a cheap and safe alternative to traditional screening methods.
The report, which was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, examined whether erectile dysfunction is an accurate predictor of future problems such as heart attack and stroke.
And the researchers found that even adjusting for age and the risk factors identified by the Framingham Heart Study (cholesterol, smoking, high blood pressure), men with erectile dysfunction still had a 40% increased risk of cardiovascular problems.
The study followed 1057 men aged 40 to 70 for an average of 12 years.
Although adding erectile dysfunction to the Framingham standards didn’t improve the prediction of future cardiovascular problems, the researchers said simply asking a patient if he has erectile dysfunction has no cost and no risk.
