Category — Erectile Dysfunction News

High cholesterol isn’t a disease, but if you have it you’re at risk for some serious health conditions.

High cholesterol can manifest with or without symptoms. And the No. 1 danger of this condition is that it clogs arteries, resulting in a condition called atherosclerosis, which reduces blood flow and increases the risk of heart attack or stroke.

But the reduced blood flow caused by high cholesterol also has been linked to sexual disorders.

Dr. Michael Krychman, the executive director of the Southern California Center for Sexual Health and Survivorship, said high cholesterol causes fatty deposits that clog blood vessels leading to the pelvic area. Men with high cholesterol sometimes end up with erectile dysfunction because they are not receiving enough blood flow to the penis, he explained.

“As soon as a man presents with erectile dysfunction, we begin measuring cholesterol and blood pressure,” he said.

Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance found throughout the body that is carried in blood particles called lipoproteins. An excess of cholesterol can lead to a complete blockage of the coronary artery, which will trigger a heart attack.

High cholesterol and its blood flow-restricting mechanisms long have been viewed as a factor in male sexual dysfunction but only recently emerged as culprits in female sexual disorders, Krychman said.

“In the past we used to think if a woman is having sexual problems, she’s frigid, and she needs to go home and have a glass of wine and relax,” Krychman said. “However, there is emerging data associating underlying medical causes with female sexual dysfunction.”

In women, the fatty deposits from high cholesterol may impact lubrication, causing painful intercourse and a lowered libido, said Krychman, who also is director of sexual medicine at Hoag Memorial Hospital.

Men and women who believe high cholesterol may be affecting their sex lives should consult a physician to rule out other causes, Krychman said.

Once cholesterol is determined to be the problem, doctors usually advise patients to seek dietary and lifestyle changes, such as eliminating saturated fat (found in fatty meat and eggs) from the diet, quitting smoking and increasing exercise.

If necessary, doctors may recommend a cholesterol-lowering medication, Krychman added.

Sex sells. I suppose this is why the results of a study entitled “Sildenafil Treatment of Women with Antidepressant Associated Sexual Dysfunction” were reported with great enthusiasm around the world after they were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Jama). Yet the study is interesting for a number of reasons.

Sildenafil was originally sold as Viagra. Despite its success in treating men, there has been no equivalent drug for women. In the UK, there is only one licensed drug, Intrinsa, which is used in specific circumstances for female libido problems after gynaecological surgery.

The lack of a “female Viagra” highlights questions over the broader issue of “female sexual dysfunction”. While men with sexual problems frequently respond to drugs, female sexual problems tend to be more complex and far less amenable to pharmacological treatment.

Indeed, as the British Medical Journal noted in 2003, when female sexual dysfunction as a disorder was mooted at an “international consensus development conference” on the subject, 18 of the 19 authors had “financial interests or other relationships with a total of 22 drug companies”. The obvious concern was that the potential for profit was being put higher than the likely benefit to women.

The latest Jama research seems to have found a use for sildenafil in women. Or has it? The women in the trial were experiencing “sexual dysfunction” as a side effect of taking medication – in this case antidepressants.

In order to take part in the trial, the women had to be sexually active before they became depressed, but to have experienced sexual problems for just four weeks – a relatively short space of time.

So how much difference did sildenafil make? When its effect was compared to that of a placebo, there was no difference in the women’s ratings of their desire or arousal and only a small, if statistically significant, effect on orgasm. Forty-three per cent of the women on sildenafil experienced headaches, and both groups had similar scores for depression at the end of the eight-week study.

The logic of using one drug to treat another one’s side effects may sound perverse, but it is frequently applied in the world of medicine. The issue is making sure that each is properly justified.

http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/300/4/395
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/326/7379/45

Margaret McCartney is a GP in Glasgow.

Want to keep your sex life and your bicycle? New research reveals that men should consider buying a noseless seat.

A innovative study published in this month’s issue of the Journal of Sexual Medicine examined if noseless bike seats would be effective against erectile dysfunction and groin numbness caused by traditional bicycle seats with a protruding nose extension.  The research revealed that men who switched from regular bike seats to noseless saddle seats had improved penile sensation and a reduction in erectile dysfunction (impotence).

Results from this research may be useful for all male recreational cyclists to alleviate perineal discomfort, potential erectile dysfunction and maintain sexual health.

The study tracked 90 bicycling police officers from 5 metropolitan regions in the United States.  The officers were evaluated using traditional saddles and then again after six months of using the noseless bicycle seat.  The noseless saddle seat reduces contact pressure in the perinieal region by cradleing the buttocks and providing freedom in the front.

Before switching seats, 82% of the 90 officers reported penile numbness while cycling.  After switching to the noseless saddle seats, only 27% reported numbness in the groin.

The findings show that use of the noseless saddle resulted in a reduction in saddle contact pressure in the perineal region and significant improvement in penile tactile sensation.  Use of the noseless saddle also resulted in significant increases in erectile function as assessed by the initial evaluation, but there were no significant changes to penile rigidity during sleep.  Officers who reported erectile dysfunction before switching saddles saw an improvement in the longevity of their bedroom encounters.

Most bicycle police officers were able to effectively use no-nose saddles in their police work, and 97 percent of officers completing the study continued to use the no-nose saddle afterward.

Researchers concluded that No-nose saddles are a useful intervention for bicycling police officers alleviating pressure to the groin and improving penis health. Different saddle designs may require some re-learning of ‘how to ride a bicycle,’ but the health benefits to having unrestricted vascular flow to and from the penis and less penile numbness is self-evident.

Erectile dysfunction and impotence affects more than 100 million men worldwide, and more than 600,000 men aged 40 to 69 years seek care annually in the United States. Effective and reliable therapy with PDE-5 inhibitors (such as viagra and cialis) is driving more men to seek treatment. Given the increasing use of the Internet to seek health care information and the social stigma of erectile dysfunction, the Internet is being increasingly used by men seeking erectile dysfunction treatment. However, the safety of these Internet prescription systems is appropriately being questioned because of lack of oversight by state regulation and the lack of perceived safety with the current face-to-face system.

In the August issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, researchers from Utah and several colleagues compare the relative safety of two systems — an online prescribing service versus traditional physician consultation — for patients seeking medication to treat erectile dysfunction.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the safety of a US-based, state-regulated Internet system vs a multispecialty primary care system for prescribing phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE-5) inhibitors for erectile dysfunction.

The Internet is rapidly becoming an important platform for health care communications. This technological advance is driven by the delivery of health care from single to multiple physicians, by direct-to-consumer advertising that empowers patients to make their own health care decisions, and by greater public demand for rapid delivery of health care information.

Unsurprisingly, the increase in demand for electronic health information has evolved in association with direct-to-consumer advertising of pharmaceuticals, which has led the public to seek Internet prescribing. However, prescribing via the Internet has resulted in legal, professional, confidentiality, and safety breaches that threaten public safety.⁴ In response to e-medicine prescribing, the health care industry has appropriately raised serious concerns about the safety of prescribing over the Internet.

The researchers randomly selected 1,000 patient medical records from patients seeking ED treatment from Jan. 1, 2001 to Dec. 31, 2005. Half (500) of these patients used the online prescriber (the e-medicine group), and 500 consulted a physician (the traditional medicine group) for treatment.

Phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE-5) inhibitors were chosen for this study for several reasons. This drug class is safe and effective for erectile dysfunction, regardless of etiology, with clear contraindications. Further, recommendations for using the drug have been generally established by expert opinion, rather than by evidence, leading to variance in prescribing.

Using statistical analyses, the researchers compared the safety of both approaches — e-medicine versus traditional medicine — in treating patients who have ED. The safety comparisons looked at a number of criteria, including prescription appropriateness, how often the prescribers used a diagnostic tool called the International Index of Erectile Questions (IIEQs) and the level of patient education provided by prescribers.

Evaluating both systems for these safety criteria, the researchers concluded that the e-medicine system “outperformed the traditional system in most of the safety variables tested.” One area the e-medicine system appeared to excel was patient education. The authors noted that 100 percent of the e-medicine clients received written manufacturer product information, and 75.2 percent of e-medicine clients received tailored electronic messages. In comparison, study data showed that no medication instructions were recorded for 51.8 percent of patients who received prescriptions via a traditional physician consultation.

CONCLUSION

A state-regulated e-medicine system was shown to be similar to a traditional multidisciplinary primary care system for all safety end points in prescribing PDE-5 inhibitors. The e-medicine system outperformed the traditional system in most of the safety variables tested. Additional studies of e-medicine vs traditional medicine systems are needed to confirm our results.

See Here for Full Text Original Article: Safety of Prescribing PDE-5 Inhibitors via e-Medicine vs Traditional Medicine

In a study using laboratory animals, researchers found that medications commonly prescribed for erectile dysfunction opened a mechanism called the blood-brain tumor barrier and increased delivery of cancer-fighting drugs to malignant brain tumors.

Tests in rats showed two erectile dysfunction drugs — Schering-Plough’s Levitra and Pfizer’s Viagra — helped carry a chemotherapy drug past the blood-brain barrier, the team at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles said.

Viagra (sildenafil) and Levitra (vardenafil) are known as PDE5 inhibitors because they block an enzyme, phosphodiesterase5, which interrupts a series of biochemical events that cause the decreased blood flow of erectile dysfunction. This laboratory rat study, published online ahead of print in the journal, found that similar biochemical interactions in the small vessels of the brain play a major role in the blood-brain tumor barrier, which impedes delivery of anti-tumor drugs into brain tumors. PDE5 inhibitors were found to open the barrier and increase drug transport in this early animal study.

“We chose adriamycin for this study because it is one of the most effective drugs against brain tumour cell lines in the laboratory but it has very little effect in animals and humans because it is unable to cross the blood-brain tumour barrier,” neurosurgeon Dr. Keith Black, who led the study, said in a statement.

“The combination of vardenafil and adriamycin resulted in longer survival and smaller tumour size,” Black said.

Although the researchers exposed the laboratory animals to doses of sildenafil and vardenafil that are comparable to the dose range approved for erectile dysfunction in humans, there were no detectable side effects in the rats, and neither drug increased transport of tracers into normal brain tissue.

The experiments were conducted at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute and published in Brain Research.

Ten years have passed since the introduction of phosphodiesterase (PDE-5) inhibitors (Viagra followed by Levitra and Cialis) for the treatment of erectile dysfunction. Recently, while watching a televised soccer game with my children, I saw one of the “anniversary commercials.” I, like most parents, exhaled when I did not get any questions about “what exactly is erectile dysfunction?”

However, I began to wonder if Madison Avenue has trivialized a serious medical discussion.

A number of cancer treatments create ED, whether through surgery, radiation therapy or even chemotherapy. One need look no further than management of prostate cancer, bladder and rectal carcinoma, and the management of certain testicular carcinomas to see the scope of the problem. It is estimated that men who undergo prostate treatment, even with newer techniques, have at least a 50 percent risk of impotence. A recent study from Canada, which reviewed a large number of patients treated for rectal cancer, found an astonishing 32 percent of males reported impotence with another 52 percent reporting partial impotence.

Erectile dysfunction is a serious complication from the treatment of these cancers. Once past the initial threat of their diagnosis, patients frequently report ED as one of the most frustrating side effects. Part of this appears to stem from inadequate discussion between patients and their doctors concerning the risks for ED and the likelihood of recovery. This frustration is also seen in the partners of these men, and this spans all age groups; contrary to advertising, intimacy is not confined to the young. Studies have indicated up to half of men aged 70 or older are sexually active.

PDE-5 inhibitors represent the first major step in drug therapy for erectile dysfunction. Nevertheless, these drugs have a number of side effects and may not work at all in a substantial number of patients. Research continues in an effort to define other pathways for drug therapy. And the advent of less invasive surgery and more precise radiotherapy may diminish the risk of ED resulting from these treatments.

So what have we learned in the last decade about erectile dysfunction despite all the marketing sensationalism? Clearly, it is a far more common problem than we knew and it has a significant impact upon men and their partners’ quality of life. Where I hope we are going is that patients and partners share with their treating physicians a free and open discussion about ED as a potential side effect. These discussions are normal, healthy and reasonable. Understanding the risks for ED and the treatments available are the keys to realistic expectations.

Jan Dombrowski, M.D., is medical director and radiation oncologist at Pluta Cancer Center.

Hey, ladies, take a beat before you start pilfering those little blue pills.

That’s the word from Dr. Ira D. Sharlip, a San Francisco urologist and president of the International Society for Sexual Medicine.

Although it may be tempting to act on news that the drug sildenafil, sold as Viagra, may ease the sexual side effects of antidepressant medications, swiping your husband’s stash or turning to Internet sources could be disappointing — or even dangerous.

“Any woman or man who is taking nitroglycerin drugs cannot take Viagra, Levitra or Cialis; it could be fatal,” Sharlip said, referring to other brand-name erectile dysfunction drugs. “I wouldn’t in any way advocate self-medicating with a drug like Viagra.”

New research showing that taking sildenafil significantly improved the ability to achieve orgasm in women suffering from sexual dysfunction caused by antidepressants could be important in a country where 180 million prescriptions for antidepressants are filled each year, mostly for women, and sexual dysfunction is reported in between 30 percent and 70 percent of patients.

However, Viagra didn’t do much for boosting women’s dampened desire, the study showed.

That’s no surprise, Sharlip said. Erectile dysfunction drugs work the same in women as they do in men: by increasing blood flow to the genitals and relaxing the walls of vessels. They don’t directly affect sexual desire. And sometimes, it’s hard to separate the two.

“The percent of women whose sexual dysfunction is due to specific blood flow is very low,” Sharlip said.

Viagra’s effect in women has been disappointing, but a new small study finds those on antidepressants may benefit from taking the little blue pills.  Viagra doesn’t only boost men’s performance in bed, but as it turns out, women too can reap benefits from the magical pill to fight sexual dysfunction. Sexual dysfunction is a common side effect of antidepressants and a major reason why people stop taking medication for their depression. This is particularly problematic given that twice as many women as men are prescribed antidepressants but the most effective drugs used to combat sexual dysfunction in men are not approved for use in women, the authors wrote.

Researchers from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine found that women who took the erectile dysfunction drug sildenafil, a.k.a Viagra, had an improvement in sexual function versus women who took a placebo.  The research involving 98 premenopausal women found Viagra helped with orgasm. But the benefits did not extend to other aspects of sex such as desire, researchers report in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association.  The researchers said this is the first randomized controlled trial showing that there is a treatment for the sexual dysfunction women experience as a result of taking antidepressants.

“For women on antidepressants with orgasm problems, this may provide some wonderful relief,” said psychologist Stanley Althof, director of the Center for Marital and Sexual Health of South Florida in West Palm Beach, who was not involved in the study. “But it will not improve their desire or arousal.”

The new Viagra findings are based on an eight-week experiment. The 98 women were using antidepressants successfully but were having sexual problems. Their average age was 37.

The women agreed to attempt sexual activity at least once each week. Each time, they took a pill, not knowing whether it was Viagra or a matching dummy pill.

While 72 percent of the women taking Viagra reported improvement or stayed the same on an overall scale, only 27 percent of the women taking the placebo reported improvement or stayed the same.  Some of the women experienced headaches, flushing and indigestion but none of them withdrew from the trial because of side effects.

“These findings are important not only because women experience major depressive disorder at nearly double the rate of men and because they experience greater resulting sexual dysfunction than men, but also because it establishes that selective phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors [such as sildenafil] are effective in both sexes for this purpose,” the authors wrote in their study.

July 1, 2008 — Men hoping for some fireworks in their love life this Fourth of July may want to skip the burgers and beer at the barbecue and eat plenty of watermelon.  But according to recent studies, the juicy fruit may be better suited for Valentine’s Day. That’s because scientists say watermelon has ingredients that deliver Viagra-like effects to the body’s blood vessels and may even increase libido.  Watermelon may be a natural Viagra because the popular summer fruit is  in an amino acid called citrulline, which relaxes and dilates blood vessels much like Viagra and other drugs meant to treat erectile dysfunction (ED).

“We have known that watermelon has citrulline,” says Bhimu Patil, PHD, director of the Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center at Texas A&M University, College Station.  How could watermelon be a natural Viagra? The amino acid citrulline is converted into the amino acid arginine, Patil says. “This is a precursor for nitric oxide, and the nitric oxide will help in blood vessel dilation.”

“The citrulline-arginine relationship helps heart health, the immune system and may prove to be very helpful for those who suffer from obesity and type 2 diabetes,” said Patil. “Arginine boosts nitric oxide, which relaxes blood vessels, the same basic effect that Viagra has, to treat erectile dysfunction and maybe even prevent it.”

While there are many psychological and physiological problems that can cause impotence, extra nitric oxide could help those who need increased blood flow, which would also help treat angina, high blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems.

On hearing about the Texas finding, Irwin Goldstein, MD, editor-in-chief of The Journal of Sexual Medicine, was underwhelmed. Suggesting a man feast on watermelon to boost performance, he says, “would be the equivalent of someone dropping a beer bottle in Minneapolis, where the Mississippi River starts, and hoping to see it make an impact on someone in New Orleans.”

“To say that watermelon is Viagra-like is sort of fun,” says Goldstein. “But to even vaguely hope that eating watermelon will alleviate ED is misleading.”

“The vast majority of Americans produce enough arginine,” adds Goldstein, medical director of Alvarado Hospital Medical Center, San Diego, and clinical professor of surgery, University of California San Diego School of Medicine. “Men with ED are not deficient in arginine.”

Though arginine is required to make nitric oxide, and nitric oxide is required to dilate blood vessels and have an erection, “that doesn’t mean eating something that is rich in citrulline will make enough arginine that it will lead to better penile erections,” Goldstein says.

“Watermelon may not be as organ specific as Viagra,” Patil said, “but it’s a great way to relax blood vessels without any drug side-effects.”

The benefits of watermelon don’t end there, he said. Arginine also helps the urea cycle by removing ammonia and other toxic compounds from our bodies.

Citrulline, the precursor to arginine, is found in higher concentrations in the rind of watermelons than the flesh. As the rind is not commonly eaten, two of Patil’s fellow scientists, drs. Steve King and Hae Jeen Bang, are working to breed new varieties with higher concentrations in the flesh.

In addition to the research by Texas A&M, watermelon’s phyto-nutrients are being studied by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service in Lane, Oklahoma.

As an added bonus, these studies have also shown that deep red varieties of watermelon have displaced the tomato as the lycopene king, Patil said. Almost 92 percent of watermelon is water, but the remaining 8 percent is loaded with lycopene, an anti-oxidant that protects the human heart, prostate and skin health.

“Lycopene, which is also found in red grapefruit, was historically thought to exist only in tomatoes,” he said. “But now we know that it’s found in higher concentrations in red watermelon varieties.”

Lycopene, however, is fat-soluble, meaning that it needs certain fats in the blood for better absorption by the body, Patil said.

“Previous tests have shown that lycopene is much better absorbed from tomatoes when mixed in a salad with oily vegetables like avocado or spinach,” Patil said. “That would also apply to the lycopene from watermelon, but I realize mixing watermelon with spinach or avocadoes is a very hard sell.”

No studies have been conducted to determine the timing of the consumption of oily vegetables to improve lycopene absorption, he said.

“One final bit of advice for those Fourth of July watermelons you buy,” Patil said. “They store much better uncut if you leave them at room temperature. Lycopene levels can be maintained even as it sits on your kitchen floor. But once you cut it, refrigerate. And enjoy.”

Having regular sexual intercourse may help prevent the development of erectile dysfunction (ED) and impotence. New research published in the July 2008 issue of The American Journal of Medicine reports that scientists have found that men who had intercourse more often were less likely to develop erectile dysfunction and impotence.

The study was conducted over a course of five years with 989 Finish men aged 55 to 75 years. The assessment was based on the 5-item version of the validated International Index of Erectile Function. Men with erectile dysfunction at entry were excluded from the analysis. Researchers found that men who had intercourse less than once per week at baseline had twice the incidence of erectile dysfunction versus those who had intercourse at least once per week. The researchers concluded that the risk of impotence and ED was inversely related to the frequency of intercourse.

Mitigating factors such as age, chronic medical conditions (diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, cerebrovascular disease and depression), body mass index and smoking were included in the analysis of the data.

Men who had sexual intercourse less than once per week had an incidence of erectile dysfunction of 79 cases per 1000. Men who had intercourse once per week hand an incidence of 32 cases per 1000 and the rate dropped to 16 per 1000 for men who had sexual intercourse 3 or more times per week.

The researchers concluded that, “Regular intercourse protects against the development of erectile dysfunction among men aged 55 to 75 years. This may have an impact on general health and quality of life; therefore, doctors should support patients’ sexual activity.”

Reference: “Regular Intercourse Protects Against Erectile Dysfunction: Tampere Aging Male Urologic Study” by Juha Koskimäki, MD, PhD, Rahman Shiri, MD, PhD, Teuvo Tammela, MD, PhD, Jukka Häkkinen, MD, PhD, Matti Hakama, ScD, and Anssi Auvinen, MD, PhD. It appears in The American Journal of Medicine, Volume 121, Issue 7 (July 2008).

The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) has confirmed it is considering whether to include Viagra in its list of banned substances in international sports after indications that athletes are using the anti-impotence treatment to improve performance.

Wada believes sildenafil (Viagra) enhances athletic performance, particularly in high-pollution locations such as Beijing and London. The agency tracks the use of drugs that enhance sporting prowess and is to conduct research into the medicine, which can boost blood flow to the lungs.

DRUG testers around the world have noticed a curious coincidence. Whenever there is a drug bust for illegal steroids or growth hormone involving athletes, another drug that is legal, and very popular, is nearly always at hand….Viagra.

Viagra (Sildenafil) is intended to alleviate erectile dysfunction (male impotence) but from a scientific standpoint, whether it also enhances athletic performance is unclear. WADA is currently conducting research into the drug but results are not expected until next year - the drug is currently not an illegal substance in world sport.

As well as boosting the blood supply to muscles - helpful in sprinting - the drug may also enhance endurance, especially when competitors are breathing in polluted conditions or at high altitudes.

That Viagra has the nickname ‘Vitamin V’ in sporting circles is an indication of its popularity and experts say Viagra and a similar drug, Cialis (tadalafil) are regularly found in the urine samples of male competitors.

A 2006 study in the Journal of Applied Physiology found using Viagra improved the times of some cyclists but it did not significantly enhance performance at sea level.

A key factor in Viagra is its ability to increase blood flow. Its active ingredient, sildenafil citrate, cause the blood vessels to relax, which improves blood flow from the heart and increases oxygen to the muscles.

Two incidents recently illustrate this trend. In the US, the New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens was reported to have kept a supply of Viagra in his locker at the baseball stadium. In Italy, Gerolsteiner team cyclist Andrea Moletta was suspended last month from Italy’s biggest bike race following a search of his father’s car which discovered syringes hidden in toothpaste tubes as well as Viagra pills.

Drug testers also believe some athletes may be taking Viagra to help increase the effectiveness of other drugs. Or is it that Viagra is being used to offset the debilitating side effect of impotence, brought about by injecting steroids?

Wada updates its list of prohibited drugs annually and could add Viagra before the Games in London in 2012.

Poor Nebraskans seeking treatment for erectile dysfunction may soon be turned away by state government.

State officials are proposing state Medicaid rules be changed so that the insurance program does not pay for penile implants.

State Medicaid director Vivianne Chaumont said the change is consistent with a federal rule, approved in 2006, that barred the federal government from spending Medicaid dollars on erectile dysfunction drugs including Viagra. Nebraska followed suit a few months later and changed its rules to keep state Medicaid money from being spent on the drugs.

The federal government will still help pay for penile implants in states that choose to continue covering the procedure under their Medicaid plans.

“The decision was made not to cover the drugs, so it’s … a good idea to have particular procedures for prosthesis not covered as well,” Chaumont said.

Medicaid is meant to pay for the medical necessities of needy people and “sex is not medically necessary,” she said.

Unlike other, current proposals in the state to reduce coverage for dental services, eyeglasses and hearing aids, among others, removing erectile dysfunction from the Medicaid list is not meant as a cost-cutting measure.

Three Nebraskans have had penile implants paid for by Medicaid since 2003, with Medicaid picking up $11,705 of the costs, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.

The exact cost to the state could not be figured, spokeswoman Marla Augustine said, but the state normally funds 40 percent of Medicaid. The federal government pays the rest.

Dr. Ira Sharlip with the American Urological Association said the proposed rule change is unfair to poor men who can’t afford the treatments and raises issues of gender equity.

The condition, he said, can be “devastating psychologically,” leading to depression and marital problems.

“It is not logical to me or seem fair to deny poor people from having access to safe and not very expensive treatments,” said Sharlip, a professor of urology at the University of California in San Francisco.

A substantial percentage of men with erectile dysfunction have it as a result of prostate cancer. He compared that link to women who have their breasts removed as a treatment for breast cancer.

Federal law requires many insurers who pay for mastectomies to also pay for breast reconstruction, Sharlip said.

Nebraska is not required to cover breast reconstruction under its Medicaid program, but does so anyway.

“At the very least, to provide for gender parity, men who have ED as a result of prostate cancer should be provided treatment under Medicaid,” Sharlip said.

Chaumont, who moved to Nebraska about a year ago to take her current position, said she didn’t know why the decision was made to cover breast reconstruction under Nebraska Medicaid but added that it didn’t strike her as unreasonable.

“I don’t think breast cancer has anything to do with sexual dysfunction or sexual impotence,” she said.

Asked why it is important to cover breast reconstruction, she said that doing so “is in line with other insurers.”

A hearing on the proposed rule change is scheduled for July 10.

A new survey of 1,000 men aged over 40, commissioned by Eli Lilly and Company Limited (Lilly UK) as part of a new erectile dysfunction awareness campaign, 40over40, reveals that just over 10% of men in their early 40s are aware that ED strikes regularly in the fourth decade even though evidence suggests that 40% of men aged 40 or over have some form of ED.

Additionally, most men were unaware that erection problems could be a warning sign that they may have a more serious condition; less than a fifth of all the men surveyed knew that ED could be a sign of underlying, organic heart disease or other potentially serious conditions, despite evidence of such a link in 80% of cases (in men of 70). In fact, three times as many survey respondents in their 40s rated hair loss ahead of losing their erections as a major health concern.1

Further, the survey shows that less than one fifth of men have visited their GP in the last 12 months, and that men in their 40s are likely to put off visits to their GP until they consider their symptoms to be long-term or worsening. But these men can be optimistic about finding a solution; 95% of ED cases can now be treated by the healthcare professional once reported. Continue Reading—>

Viagra is just another pill in the medicine cabinet these days, one of three on the market to treat the once all-but-unmentionable problem of erectile dysfunction. But 10 years ago last week, when government regulators approved it for sale, Viagra Continue reading–>

A billboard offering “longer lasting sex” to advertise a remedy for male sexual dysfunction has been ruled offensive and in breach of advertising standards. In a decision released yesterday, the Advertising Standards Authority upheld 38 complaints Continue reading–>

Many millions of men worldwide experience erectile dysfunction. Male sexual dysfunction was estimated to have affected 152 million men in 1995. It is now predicted to reach 322 million men by 2025. Although the ability to develop and sustain an Continue reading–>

Somehow, the impotence drug Viagra has become a hot issue in the Republican primary race for governor. First, Treasurer Sarah Steelman alleged that U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof supports wasteful spending because he voted for a bill that would allow Continue reading–>

The politics of taxpayer-funded erectile dysfunction medication will hit the southwest Missouri airwaves today. State Treasurer Sarah Steelman will begin airing a TV ad in the Springfield and Joplin markets attacking Republican gubernatorial opponent Continue reading–>

IT is advertised as a healthy sweet, but a dangerous substance has been found in ‘Mentalk’ candy.

The Singapore Health Sciences Authority (HSA) laboratories issued an urgent alert yesterday after detecting the potentially fatal chemical, aminotadalafil, in the candy.

It is believed that the candy is sold through the Internet , and possibly through multi-level marketing.

Aminotadalafil is chemically similar to tadalafil - an ingredient of the anti-impotence drug Cialis.

Health Ministry Pharmaceutical Services Division warned that consuming the candy may result in heart failure and depression apart from loss of sight on its prolong use or by taking it at a higher dose.

Although Tadalafil has been confirmed safe for the treatment of erectile dysfunction, the safety profile of its analogue, in contrast, has never been tested and it appears to be a new chemical entity which has never been detected, the division said in a statement.

Mentalk is marketed for the following conditions:

* IMPROVES OUR IMMUNE SYSTEM
* EXCELLENT SEXUAL PERFORMANCE
* OBESITY
* LETHARGY
* URINAL DISABILITY
* BLOOD CIRCULATION
* NOCTURIA
* FATIGUE
* ARTHRIST
* INCOMPETENCE
* SKIN AGING
* COLD-AVERSE

Viagra - the little blue pill celebrating its 10th birthday - continues to pack a potent punch, and not only in the bedroom. It and other erectile dysfunction drugs have become ingrained in pop culture and, as a result, may be changing how a nation of men thinks and acts on issues of health.

Viagra, developed by accident by scientists at Pfizer Laboratories, was first approved for use by the US Food and Drug Administration on March 27, 1998. Since then, 35 million men have popped a Viagra. It’s unclear how many men are getting prescriptions for ED drugs from a physician, versus buying pills from one of the plethora of Internet sites that advertise them. Either way, they’re being bought and used. In 2007, combined sales of Viagra, Levitra and Cialis totaled more than $3 billion. Viagra also is now approved for treating pulmonary hypertension.

Two other oral drugs, Cialis and Levitra, joined the lucrative ED market five years later, promising to do the job even better and for longer than their trailblazing counterpart.

Stats on ED:

• Thirty million men in the United States have erectile dysfunction, according to an estimate reported this month, and the number is expected to double by 2025.

• Erectile dysfunction often appears in combination with other chronic health conditions. About half of men with diabetes and about half of those with heart disease also have ED, UCLA urologist Christopher Saigal and his colleagues reported in 2006. More than a third of men with high blood pressure have ED, they found.

• Researchers have also found that men with ED often have diabetes, heart disease, and other medical problems. A large study published last year found that 20 percent of men with ED had diabetes compared with 7.5 percent of the men who didn’t have ED. In many cases, those ailments haven’t yet been diagnosed when the man seeks out Viagra or another treatment for his sexual problem.

Continue Reading —>

Have baseball players found a loop-hole in the war against performance enhancing drugs?

Roger Clemens was one of many professional athletes who used Viagra to boost his performance on the field, according to a published report. Clemens, whose claims he never took steroids are under federal investigation, has apparently discovered the benefits of another performance-enhancing drug sweeping the sports world - Viagra.

According to the report, athletes use the erectile dysfunction drug because it helps build endurance at high altitudes; it delivers oxygen, nutrients and performance-enhancing drugs to muscles more efficiently; and it counteracts the impotence that can be a side effect of testosterone injections. In athletic circles, Viagra is often referred to as “Vitamin V”.

Researchers at the University of Miami, Tufts University and Marywood University in Scranton, Pa., are trying to determine if Viagra - officially known as sildenafil citrate - aids training and improves performance. Anecdotal evidence suggests it does.

A 2006 study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, scientists using trained cyclists at high altitudes as test subjects found the drug had a similar effect on the lungs as it did on the penis, improving blood flow and moving more oxygen to muscles. But the researchers discovered that these improvements occurred largely because some people achieve major gains with sildenafil at altitude while others improve much less or not at all. The responders improved 39% in the time trial performance at altitude compared to their performance at altitude with a placebo. Some in the responder group improved as much as 45%

Those findings echoed a 2004 study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Scientists discovered improved pulmonary and cardiac performance in Viagra-fueled mountaineers at Mount Everest’s base camp, 17,600 feet above sea level. It was found sildenafil reduced high blood pressure and improved the transport of oxygen in the blood in both situations.

Bodybuilders, weightlifters and other athletes have turned to Viagra because they believe it helps dilate blood vessels and delivers oxygen, nutrients and steroids to various muscle groups more efficiently.

The drug is so widely used for off-label purposes that it has drawn the attention of anti-doping officials and law-enforcement agencies in the United States and beyond. The wildly popular lifestyle drug is legal and not banned by Major League Baseball or other leagues. Clemens violated no drug-testing rules by using the drug. Continue Reading —>

Two new studies say that erectile dysfunction (ED) may be a warning sign of diabetes, as well as a warning of approaching cardiovascular disease. In the case of both diabetes and cardiovascular disease, the concern is that ED is a symptom of impeded blood flow that can later lead to heart attack or stroke. But men with diabetes face a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease than men who have ED alone, suggest two studies published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

In diabetics, it turns out, ED may be even more of a red flag than it is in other men. Two new studies published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology suggest that men with both diabetes and erectile dysfunction face a greater cardiovascular risk than men with erectile dysfunction alone.

Diabetes experts in the U.S. caution that erectile dysfunction is just one of several complications of diabetes that should serve as a warning flag for dangerous cardiovascular problems.

What interpretations did the researchers draw from these results?

The researchers conclude that there is an association between erectile dysfunction and new cardiac events in men with type 2 diabetes. They say that erectile dysfunction is a “surrogate marker” for future heart problems. Continue Reading—>

Indo-Asian News Service Johannesburg: An official in the South African health ministry has alleged that the largest amount of fake and illegally manufactured copies of the sex tablet Viagra that is smuggled into the country originates in India.

Viagra was developed by Pfizer and there is still no legal generic equivalent for the pills used by men with erection problems. Pfizer said the illegal copies also came from China, Pakistan and Russia, with ingredients that posed great risk to users.  “Pirated Viagra worth about 1.7 million rands (about $23,000) was recently found at the Lebombo border post between South Africa and Mozambique,” said Matthew Moodley, director of legal services at Pfizer South Africa.

One of the options that make up the rest of the market is Indiagra, an Ayurvedic equivalent to Viagra. Indiagra is sold here by Maltiherb, a company that specialises in a range of Ayurvedic medicines imported from India and repackaged here before being sold to dealers.    Continue Reading—>