Erectile dysfunction (ED) is one of the major sexual problems among men all over the world. In fact, an estimated 18 million men over the age of 20 years old have ED in the United States. According to the National Institutes of Health, around 5% of 40-year-old men experience ED on a long-term basis. However, according to scientists from the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center discovered that having an active lifestyle in men would incur higher sexual function scores.
The cross-sectional study was published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine on March 20 and the results show that higher sexual function scores were significant only to men who had at least 18 METS hours of activity weekly which is equivalent to about 2 hours of high intensity exercise like swimming, running, and other activities, 3.5 hours of moderate exercise and 6 hours of light exercise.
According to Adriana Vidal, senior author of the study as reported by Mail Online, "This study is the first to link the benefits of exercise in relation to improved erectile and sexual function in a racially diverse group of patients."
To land to their findings, the researchers collected data and analyzed them from 295 male veterans with an average age of 62 years old. They reported their activity levels which were categorized as sedentary, mildly active, moderately active and highly active. Aside from that, they also reported their sexual functions in terms of ability to have erections, orgasms and even the quality of their erections.
Medscape reports that the medial erectile function score was 53.4 and a 100-point scale created from the Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite sexual assessment. In the study, however, scores had increased significantly with physical activity. In the sedentary group, they had 33.4 while those in the highly active group got 70.0.
There are many noted limitations of the study including lack of data on possible confounders like socioeconomic status and medications.
The researchers noted, "Although these factors limit the interpretation of our results, the level of exercise associated with better erectile/sexual function is comparable with that of previous population studies examining the association between exercise and erectile dysfunction."
