For those regular readers of the Ukmedix Impotence News the following story will just confirm what we and they already know, and for those newcomers to the Ukmedix News this story may make them change their lifestyles. The Harvard School of Public Health in a Pfizer sponsored study has undertaken research that can show that obesity and smoking are clearly linked to a bigger risk of erectile dysfunction and also that with regular physical exercise you can significantly reduce the impact of erectile dysfunction. The Harvard School of Public Health claims that this is the first big scale study that has examined the connections between erectile dysfunction, obesity, smoking, alcohol and a lazy and inactive lifestyle.

The lead researchers from the The Harvard School of Public Health looked at over 22,000 healthy people from the age of 40 to 75 from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study that was set up in 1986 to look at diet and disease in men working as health professionals in America. The men selected all had good or very good erectile function as well as no serious disease or illness before 1986. The men were looked at over the years and it was noted that nearly 18% suffered from erectile dysfunction up until the year 2000. The study took into account in the results the fact that some of the men suffered from prostate cancer over the years and that the treatment would cause erectile dysfunction.

On evaluating the lifestyle questionnaires it clearly showed that smoking and obesity were linked to bigger chance of the onset of impotence among those men that were previously in perfect health and who had no problems with erectile function. The statistics also showed that regular physical exercise was linked to a strong reverse link with erectile dysfunction. The risk was evaluated and was it was found that there was a two and a half times greater chance of erectile dysfunction in men who did little or no exercise compared to the men who were slim and did half an hour of intense physical activity daily.

In the research program the definition of obesity was in accordance to WHO guidelines using a BMI of 30. Interestingly those men who drank alcohol on a regular basis did not suffer more from impotence. It was noted that erectile dysfunction and heart disease could be sharing the same health risk factors and it was hoped that the results would encourage men to diet and exercise not only for good erectile function but also for their hearts. Men seems to be far more concerned about their erectile function than they are about their hearts and this could be a big incentive for them to look after their health.