Booster Shots

Oddities, musings and some news from the world of health.

| Main |

More sex, less erectile dysfunction

5:02 PM, July 2, 2008

Lonely hearts may have one more thing to worry about — erectile dysfunction.

Crunching data from a five-year study of 959 men ages 55 to 75, Finnish researchers found that men with no signs of erectile dysfunction, who had sex once a week or more, were less likely to later develop erectile dysfunction than men who had sex less often. In fact, men who reported having intercourse fewer than once a week at the beginning of the study had twice the incidence of ED than those who had sex more often.

They also found that participants who reported less than one morning erection a week had 2.5 times the risk of later developing erectile dysfunction compared with those who experienced two to three morning erections.

The researchers adjusted for factors typically associated with erectile dysfunction, including age, excess weight, smoking and certain medical conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and depression.

The study appears in the July issue of the American Journal of Medicine.

-- Janet Cromley

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c630a53ef00e5539e709d8834

Listed below are links to weblogs that referenceMore sex, less erectile dysfunction:

Comments

I think that is called "use it or lose it"!

Post a comment
If you are under 13 years of age you may read this message board, but you may not participate.
Here are the full legal terms you agree to by using this comment form.

Comments are moderated, and will not appear until they've been approved.

If you have a TypeKey or TypePad account, please Sign In





ADVERTISEMENT


Our Bloggers
Tami Dennis, who takes the word "skeptic" to previously uncharted territory, is the Times' Health and Science editor. She's adamant that pitches promoting awareness days, weeks or months are, by their nature, non-stories. And, because she's an adult, she refuses to use words like "veggies," "tummy" and "yummy."
Rosie Mestel, deputy Health and Science editor, studied genetics before abandoning flies, fungi and DNA for health/medical writing. Her hero is the biologist Ernst Haeckel, whose jellyfish paintings inspired snazzy chandeliers. Her favorite toast-spread is Marmite, a British delicacy made of yeast extract. Her least-favorite word is "millenniums."
Melissa Healy is a staff writer for the Health section reporting from Washington D.C. Healy's a veteran of The Times' National staff, having covered the Pentagon, Congress, poverty and social welfare, the environment, and the White House before shifting to Health in 2003. She writes frequently about mental health and human behavior, about federal health policy, prescription medication and ethics in medicine. More wonk than wellness freak, Healy chooses to believe in the health benefits of coffee and wine, and considers water a better work-out medium than beverage.
Karen Kaplan covers genetics, stem cells and cloning. She and colleague Thomas H. Maugh II comprise about 25% of the unofficial MIT-Alumni-in-Journalism Club, and she is proud to have taken more math (5) than English (0) courses in college. Her contributions to Booster Shots will, she hopes, appear more frequently than postings to her mommy blog.
Thomas H. Maugh II has been a science and medical writer at the Times for 23 years. Before that, he was on the staff of the journal Science for 13 years. He has bachelor's degrees in English and chemistry from MIT and a doctorate in chemistry from UC Santa Barbara.
After a brief stint as a sports writer, Shari Roan turned to health journalism and has covered the topic for The Times for 18 years. She is the author of three books and the mother of two daughters, both teenagers who refer to her as a "health freak." She likes to jog, watch baseball and is very happy that dark chocolate contains some health benefit.
Jeannine Stein writes about fitness, sports medicine and obesity for the Health section. She’s a gym rat from way back and never met an elliptical trainer she didn’t like. Well, maybe one or two. She tempers exercise with a steady diet of reality television because she believes it’s all about balance.