Professor Wingard is optimistic about this research

Research done on animals shows that the use of Statins may have an immediate beneficial effect on the erectile function of men who suffer from metabolic syndrome. It is well known that if you have a good healthy heart you are likely to have good erectile function and that metabolic syndrome can impact negatively on your heart. The researchers believe that they have identified a specific protein which could be causing the erectile dysfunction in men who suffer from this metabolic syndrome illness.

Metabolic syndrome comes with symptoms of hypertension, Type two diabetes and often obesity all of which have been shown by many research projects to independently increase the likelihood of a man suffering from erectile dysfunction. Obviously if you suffer from all three of these the likelihood of suffering from erectile dysfunction is considerable.

Professor Christopher J. Wingard from the Brody School of Medicine who authored the study examined hundreds of reports that showed that Statins which were used to lower cholesterol in patients who suffered from metabolic syndrome appeared also to improve erection quality even before the levels of cholesterol in the patients went down. Following on with more research done on rats it was also shown that the Statins seemed to have a positive action on reducing erectile dysfunction and appeared to reduce the effects of vascular constriction which is linked with metabolic syndrome.

It was also thought that the Statins were having an effect on inhibiting the function and lowering the amount of a protein called Rho-kinase which has previously been identified as a possible reason why men suffer from the vascular constriction in the smooth muscle of the penis.

While Professor Wingard is optimistic about this research and submitted it to a conference of the American Urological Association not everybody shares his views. Dr. Arnold Melman based at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine said the results were "very preliminary" and that there had been no clear evidence that statins may be used to specifically treat erectile dysfunction.