POZ Community Forums
Meds, Mind, Body & Benefits => Research News & Studies => Topic started by: John2038 on November 15, 2011, 12:29:32 pm
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The use of multiple medications is associated with increased severity of erectile dysfunction, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published online in the British Journal of Urology International.
This study surveyed 37,712 ethnically diverse men from Southern California and found that men taking various medications are likely to have more severe ED. This was part of the California Men's Health Study, a multiethnic cohort of men ages 46 to 69 who are members of Kaiser Permanente in California.
Information about medication use between 2002 and 2003 was obtained from pharmacy records. This study looked at men who were taking more than three medications. Survey responses about ED were used to quantify its presence and severity. Of the men included in this study, 29 percent reported moderate or severe ED. In addition to the number of medications, ED was associated with older age, higher body mass index, diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension, depression, and being a current or past smoker. After taking these conditions into account, the relationship between multiple medications and ED persisted.
| Medications | Number of Men | Moderate ED |
| 0 – 2 | 16,126 | 15.9% |
| 3 – 5 | 10,046 | 19.7% |
| 6 – 9 | 6,870 | 25.5% |
| _> 10 | 4,670 | 30.9% |
The most common medications associated with ED include antihypertensives (beta blockers, thiazides, and clonidine) and psychogenic medications such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, tricyclic antidepressants, lithium, monoamine oxidase inhibitors, and any medication which can interfere with testosterone pathways.
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-erectile-dysfunction-multiple-medications.html
Not necessarly HIV
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seems obvious.
a person takes meds to deal with their health issues. taking more meds means you have more issues and are "less healthy". less healthy means less healthy all over and that could include sexual response
also not surprising, the most problematic meds for ED were ones that dealt with blood flow, testosterone, and mental state.
Not necessarly HIV
thank goodness HIV doesn't interfere with erectile function. ;)
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thank goodness HIV doesn't interfere with erectile function. ;)
If it did then the majority of us wouldn't be here lol!
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Despite it is tempteting to say illness is the cause and meds the consequence, the aim of this study is to measure the impact of the meds themselves. In others words, healthy people taking these medications (imaginary scenarios) would be at risks experiencing ED.
Sure, illness are linked to ED as well (kidney failure, liver cirrhosis, hypogonadism (http://goo.gl/QgzAE) -the most common, etc) but also: stress, too much iron in the body, smoking, etc.. and also, as concluded by this study, some medications.
Note
Interestingly, in the poz population, 40% of the men and 36% of the women had low zinc levels (http://goo.gl/DilYk). Zinc deficiency (*) being correlated (http://goo.gl/DilYk) with a lower serum testosterone levels. Despite inadequate production of testosterone is not a common cause of ED, when ED does occur due to decreased testosterone production, testosterone replacement therapy may reduce (http://goo.gl/mwZ8b) the problem .. Here also, the testosterone level, as with illness above, can lead to tempteting conclusions.
(*)For those tempted to take Zinc suplement, it has to be taken with copper (http://goo.gl/uz3eU); zinc competing with copper for uptake from the gastrointestinal tract; and over-zinc supplementation may lead to low copper levels, which can have deleterious effects on the cardiovascular system.
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healthy people taking these medications (imaginary scenarios) would be at risks experiencing ED.
unless they put healthy people on unneccesary medications (LOL obviously, since healthy people wouldn't need medications) I don't understand how that conclusion could be drawn. What seems clearer is that sicker people (ie people who need more medications because of their multiple illnesses or severity of illness) are more likely to suffer from ED. Plus according to this report, age have a large influence, along with certain types of medications (both which seem to be much more the causes of ED than the amount of medications being the factor)
It just seems this study has too many factors to really draw the conclusion that multiple medications themselves are a cause of ED. A more conclusive study to show that "multiple medications" might be a problem would be to look at something like HIV positive people who take 1 or 3 pill regimens vs 5 pill regimens. If mulitple medications are truly a factor then the 5 pill regimen should "cause" more ED than the 1 pill regimen. That kind of study would remove all the move obvious reasons like age, problematic health of the patients, or type of medications etc that are more likely to be the cause of the ED.
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From the study:
In addition to the number of medications, ED was associated with older age, higher body mass index, diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension, depression, and being a current or past smoker. After taking these conditions into account, the relationship between multiple medications and ED persisted.