Featuring Dr. Richard Bebb, MD, ABIM, FRCPC

Video Title: Diabetes And The Link To Erectile Dysfunction Duration: 2 minutes, 4 seconds

So, as a patient you have a lot of power to decrease your personal risk of erectile dysfunction.

At the same time, you’re actually decreasing your risk of heart attack and stroke because it’s the same risk factors. Again, the blood pressure, the diabetes, the cholesterol, smoking, and a certain degree your family history and certain medications that may increase your risk.

So, it’s been said, and it’s an important concept, that the penis in many ways is an early warning device that you’re at risk for a heart attack. If you’ve developed erectile dysfunction or you’re starting to lose your erectile function, yes, there are medications to treat that and we want the public to partake of that if they wish to do so, but at the same time they’ve always gotta ask, why is this happening to me? What is it about my body that has allowed the erections to stop being reliable?

The answer may be I have to stop smoking, I’ve had high blood pressure that I’m thinking of taking pills and I haven’t yet. The fact that you’re losing your erection is a warning that it’s hurting your vascular system; it’s damaging those blood vessels inside the penis.

Perhaps you have high cholesterol you weren’t aware of. Perhaps you haven’t seen a physician for many years and you’ve got high blood sugars, you’ve actually got diabetes, and the fact that your erections are not working is a clue.

So, an addition to those other risk factors for erectile dysfunction includes some metabolic causes such as low testosterone, which is an uncommon but significant issue, depression can be an issue, drug side effect can be an issue.

So again, go in and address these issues with your primary care practitioner, get therapy for it, but also ask why is it this has developed and is there something I should be doing with my lifestyle to help improve my health?

Presenter: Dr. Richard Bebb, Endocrinologist, Victoria, BC

Local Practitioners: Endocrinologist