| Working out is good
medicine for avoiding impotence,
study shows By Adam Marcus
Exercise is Nature's Viagra
HealthSCOUT Reporter MONDAY, Aug. 28 (HealthSCOUT) Forget Viagra.
Men who take the time to get off the couch and break a sweat are more
likely to work up a sweat in bed.
Boston-area scientists say middle-age men who burn at least 200
calories a day exercising - the equivalent of walking two miles
briskly - greatly reduce their chances of impotence.
Exercise is most likely an erection-friendly pastime because it
boosts overall cardiovascular health, says Henry Feldman, an impotence
expert at the New England Research Institute in Watertown, Mass., and
a co-author of the study, which appears in the latest issue of the
journal Urology. "The same things that are good for your heart
will also be good for erections, or vice versa," Feldman says.
Roughly half of men ages 40 to 70 have at least modest trouble
achieving erection, experts say. While the causes of impotence are
many, and range from physiological to emotional, evidence suggests
that the condition is more common in men with poor circulation.
In the latest work, the researchers followed nearly 600 men over
age 40 who had no complaints of erectile dysfunction when they started
the study.
More than eight years later, 17 percent of the men had developed
impotence. Those who smoked, were obese, or drank heavily at the
beginning of the study were more likely to report erection problems at
its end. Yet men who quit smoking, lost weight and stopped drinking
during the period didn't seem to improve their likelihood of having
normal erections.
Physical inactivity was also associated with erection problems, the
researchers found. But men who began exercising regularly during the
study, or who did so throughout, cut their risk of becoming impotent.
The effect was greatest for men who got the most vigorous exercise,
those who burned at least 200 calories a day working out. They cut
their risk of impotence in half compared to men who didn't exercise at
all.
Dr. Jobe Metts, a urologist at the Medical University of South
Carolina in Charleston, says the newest findings "make sense" in light
of the overarching importance of general health for avoiding erectile
dysfunction. "I think it's long been suspected that many of the kinds
of common health problems" like obesity, smoking and a sedentary
lifestyle aggravate the risk of impotence, Metts says. "It's a hard
thing to prove, but it's been pretty well indirectly shown"
What To Do:
While quitting smoking might not stave off impotence, starting is a
good way to bring it about. Studies show that cigarettes, cigars and
even second-hand smoke all raise the risk of erectile dysfunction,.
To learn more about erectile dysfunction, check the
Doctor's Guide
and
Penis-Health - Advice and Aids
Also try this consensus report from
National Institutes of Health
Copyright © 2000 Rx Remedy, Inc.
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