Published: Dec 5, 2014
By Crystal Phend, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today
Cardiovascular
Med Diet May Help Heart in Erectile Dysfunction Patients
Published: Dec 5, 2014 | Updated: Dec 5, 2014
The Mediterranean diet may protect the heart and vasculature in erectile dysfunction patients, a small study suggested.
Cardiac ultrasound of men with diets that least closely matched that vegetable-, olive oil-, and fish-heavy dietary patternshowed significantly more impaired ventricular and vascular structure and performance, Athanasios Angelis, MD, of Hippokration Hospital at the University of Athens, and colleagues found.
Men with a low score of 20 or less on the 55-point Med-Diet Score had significantly higher left ventricular mass, left ventricular mass index, and ratio of early filling to early diastolic mitral annular velocity (E/E’ ratio) as a measure of diastolic function compared with others.
Aortic stiffness and intima-media thickness were also inversely correlated to the Mediterranean diet adherence score, they reported at the EuroEcho-Imaging meeting in Vienna.
“The formation of atheroma, the stiffening of the arteries, and the poor functioning of the heart can eventually lead to a cardiac event,” Angelis said in a statement. “Our findings suggest that adopting the Mediterranean diet can improve the cardiovascular risk profile of patients with erectile dysfunction and may reduce their chances of having a heart attack or stroke. This needs to be tested in a larger study.”
His group’s study of 75 men was a single, nonrandomized look at men’s hearts and self-reported diet and thus couldn’t determine causality or longitudinal effects.
Other than Med-Diet Score, major cardiovascular risk factors did not differ among the groups divided by Mediterranean diet adherence score.
The associations remained significant after adjustment for age.
The researchers provided no information on relevant relationships with industry.
From the American Heart Association:
Primary source: EuroEcho-Imaging
Source reference: Angelis A, et al “Atheromatosis, arteriosclerosis and deterioration of cardiac structure and performance in erectile dysfunction patients; a pivotal contribution of the mediterranean diet in cardiovascular health” EuroEcho-Imaging 2014; Abstract P185.