Erectile Dysfunction and Impotence Are Common
Impotent? You’re No Different
You are not alone. All over the world, millions of men are going through the same thing you are: erectile dysfunction (ED). Research has shown that ED occurs more frequently as men age. Other studies have pinpointed the causes of ED, such as diet, medications, occupation, lifestyle, and health conditions. At present, there are hundreds of treatments for ED. Plus, tissue engineering is moving closer to finding a real cure for ED.
The United States is one of those nations leading ED research and treatments. Since impotence is a global condition, other countries have joined the bandwagon. So what is the state of impotence in other countries? What has research in other regions contributed to the pool of knowledge about battling ED? Here we discuss a few scientific publications and their progress on ED research.
In 2002, the Sao Paulo Medical Journal published a study on the prevalence of ED in southeastern Brazil. Their methodology involved distributing questionnaires to willing respondents by mail, at the same time being discreet about the identities of the men. From their results, the prevalence of ED in the region is 45.9%. They further detailed the prevalence by categorizing them by degree of ED. There were 33.9% of the respondents who had minimal ED, 8.5% with moderate, and 3.5% with complete ED. Read more
Treatments and Cures for Erectile Dysfunction
Don’t Feel Down, There’s a New Cure in Town
A man’s ability to have sex is greatly affected by impotence. It is a condition in which an erection cannot be achieved or sustained, due to physical and psychological factors. Nearly 70% of cases of men with erectile dysfunction (ED) attribute it to problems such as diabetes, multiple sclerosis, kidney disease, chronic alcoholism, or heart disease. Other causes found out were severe damage to the cavernosal nerves of the penis which may follow after surgery for bladder or prostate cancer. Also, when a person experiences injury to the penis, spinal cord, bladder, or pelvis, it may possibly lead to ED.
Research performed in the Children’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, may have found a solution to repair damaged nerves and give hope of a cure against ED. Tissue engineering has made it possible to grow organs in the laboratory for transplanting to patients who need them. According to the study, while the body of a penis can be grown artificially under lab conditions, it still needs a functional set of nerves before it works properly. In order for the penis to regain sexual function, the damaged nerves can either be regrown from cells and given a new life, or regenerated.
The experiment involved cutting the cavernosal nerves of the penises of 90 rats. At the area where the nerves were damaged, a graft was attached. The graft may be from nerves from other parts of the rat’s body, or from collagen, which is an elastic protein comprising connective tissues in the body. The graft was properly constructed to follow the shape of a nerve, which will allow new nerve cells to regenerate over it. The graft will serve as a scaffold to support the growth of new nerve cells, and eventually heal the initial damage done. The findings of the study were presented to the American Urological Association. Read more