After examining the medical information of more 220,000 men from three studies, researchers at the University of Exeter and the University of Oxford (United Kingdom), claim to have found sufficient scientific evidence to affirm that diabetes is a cause of erectile dysfunction.
Of the 220,000 men, 6,000 experienced erectile dysfunction.The research has wanted to respond to the latest findings that ensure that erectile dysfunction has a genetic cause and goes further by raising the possibility that leading a healthier lifestyle can help reduce risk.
Published in the "American Journal of Human Genetics", the study was conducted with data from the United Kingdom Biobank, the Estonia genome center of the University of Tartu and Partners Healthcare Biobank.Thanks to the last generation genetic analyzes, researchers have been able to deepen more than ever in the complex correlations between diabetes and aspects such as body weight.Thus, they have seen that having a genetic predisposition to type 2 diabetes was related to erectile dysfunction, providing evidence that diabetes can be a cause of erectile problems.
Until now, there have been few clinical trials on diabetes that have associated an improvement in erectile dysfunction as a result of better glucose control.This limits the conclusions that can be extracted about whether diabetes treatment can have an impact on the risk of erectile dysfunction.
healthier life
«Erectile dysfunction affects at least one in five men over 60, but so far little has been known about its cause.Our article has seen that the predisposition to type 2 diabetes is linked to erectile dysfunction.This may mean that, if people can reduce their risk of diabetes through healthier lifestyles, they can also avoid the development of erectile dysfunction, ”says Anna Murray, from the University of Exeter and the main co -author of the study.
Erectile dysfunction affects at least one in five men over 60 years
In this sense, Michael Holmes, from the University of Oxford, and one of the main authors of the study, affirms that its results are "important, since diabetes can be prevented and, in fact, now a 'remission' can be achievedof diabetes through weight loss.as has been demonstrated in recent clinical trials ».Holmes believes that the information obtained is relevant, "especially taking into account the growing prevalence of diabetes."
Jonas Bovijn, author of the study and professor at Oxford University concludes."We know that there is observational evidence that links erectile dysfunction and type 2 diabetes, but so far there has been no definitive evidence that will demonstrate that the predisposition to type 2 diabetes causes erectile dysfunction."