Erection problems are a canary in a coal mine and could signal major health issues in a few years
Falling flat in the bedroom could mean trouble out from under the sheets too.Erectile dysfunction (ED) affects millions of men, both young and old, with between 30 and 50 million experiencing difficulty getting and keeping an erection — in fact, one expert told The Post we’re headed for an “epidemic of erectile dysfunction.”But being in a not-so-hard place could mean more than a dissatisfying sex life — trouble rising to the occasion could signal some serious health issues in the future, too.Getting hard is more complex than just feeling attracted to someone — it involves coordination among your brain, nerves, blood vessels and hormones.So going soft doesn’t necessarily mean you’re not into it.Blood flow issues could be to blame, stemming from hardened arteries, smoking, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.And that means your inability to rise to the occasion could be a clue that something bad is brewing for your health.“ED is what I call a canary in the coal mine for systemic vascular and metabolic disease,” Justin Houman, assistant professor of Urology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, told The Post, describing it as “an early warning signal from the vascular system.”“That’s why we say ED precedes cardiac events by an average of three to five years.
It’s a window of opportunity, not just an inconvenience,” he said.Several conditions are strongly linked to erection issues, according to Houman, including:The link is especially strong for heart disease and diabetes.In fact, he said, men with ED have roughly a 44% higher risk of developing heart disease compared to men without it.“An erection is fundamentally a vascular event,” he explained.
“It requires healthy arterial blood flow, nitric oxide signaling, and compliant blood vessels.“The penile arteries are small,” he went on.“So when systemic vascular disease begins silently damaging blood vessels throughout the body, the penile arteries show symptoms first, often ye...