Impotence Link To Painkiller

Ukmedix has learnt of new research that points to a greater incidence of erectile dysfunction in men who have taken the class of painkillers called non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs or NSAID's for short. The research showed that irrespective of the reason for using them the NSAID's significantly increase the chance that older men will suffer from impotence.

The research was complicated for it was necessary to establish not only if the drugs were causing the ED but also if the actual illness that the drugs were being taken for had any connection to the erectile dysfunction. For example some research has shown that arthritis and ED are linked but it may be that the drugs like NSAID's that are often prescribed to arthiritis sufferers could be the real cause of the impotence.

The study that was carried out in a leading University in Finland claims to be the first to serious examine the link between erectile dysfunction and the use of NSAID's. Over 1100 men over 50 and under 70 with good erectile function in 1994 were questioned and asked about their erectile function as well as the medications that they were using for various ailments and they were then questioned 5 years later.

The results were significantly telling with an erectile dysfunction figure of 3.5% for those not using the NSAID's and much higher figure of 9.3% for those men who used the NSAID's on a regular basis. Most of the men used the NSAID's for arthiritis and when the figures were examined to see the link between ED and arthiritis alone. The researchers concluded that no matter what the original reason for using the NSAID's if you were are regular user of them you would double the chance of getting erectile difficulties and if you were simply an arthiritis sufferer but not a NSAID useer the chances of getting ED went up by a smaller figure of 30%.

Some examples of NSAID's that are commonly known are ibuprofen found in Nurofen and naproxen.