The European Society for Sexual Medicine has been researching the erectile dysfunction link with heart disease that is well known about these days and that has been confirmed by many independent studies.

The new finding is that almost 2/3rd's of men with heart disease were suffering from erectile dysfunction before their first serious heart trouble or cardiovascular event. The research also shows that over 50% of the men with heart disease had made no contact with a doctor or health professional before their heart trouble and thus the chance of getting to the root of the problem and possibly checking for erectile dysfunction had not been available.

The researchers said that if men have serious erectile dysfunction issues they could also be suffering from serious heart problems to and therefore they should get medical help to check all the likely causes of erectile dysfunction. Many doctors see the lack of erectile function as an early warning signal for a heart problem and this should be addressed as well as the erectile dysfunction itself.

Incredibly the men that had been suffering from erectile dysfunction had on average been suffering from it for five whole years and had not been to see anyone to get help. In all for the research over 200 men who had suffered from some sort of heart problem were asked to volunteer to attend Cardiac Rehabilitation Centres across the UK. Another 170 men were also asked to help with the research and were used as a control group. These men had no history of heart disease. The men with the heart disease had either suffered from myocardial infarction, a stroke, transient ischemic attack, or had been positively diagnosed with cardiovascular disease or angina.

The researchers underlined the importance of maintaining healthy heart for good erectile function and for a good sex life and also advised men to be aware that their diminishing sexual function may have more to do with bad and unhealthy lifestyles than with anything else. Figures show that as may as 4 million men may be erectile dysfunction sufferers but many of them never come forward and see a doctor.