Applause]When you put off going to your doctor you might miss silent killers like high blood pressure and high cholesterol our insider dr daniel martinez says this could affect more than just your heart here’s why men’s sexual health is really multifactorial so a lot of things go into allowing a man to have a good sex life and so many of the men that will come to see me initially because they’re having difficulty having intercourse or some other sexual dysfunction a lot of them have not gone to see their primary care their gastroenterologist their dentist but of course because sex is so important the initial I tend to be on the front line they come and see me for that and I say well have you gotten your blood pressure checked have you checked your blood sugar have you checked anything at all have you gone to a doctor in the last 10 20 30 years and it’s amazing how many guys will say no I haven’t are they almost shocked when you send them back we’re like we’re going to start from zero yeah I I think once I explain it to them right they have that aha moment and say oh my gosh I did this to myself right um so yeah some will be a little bit anti me pushing them back or I don’t push them back I still treat them but I tell you you need to see your primary care you need to see a gastroenterologist need to see a cardiologist you may need to see an endocrinologist um and once I explain some you’d be amazed at how many patients are willing to do that now let’s start talking about erectile dysfunction or ed so what is the condition and how common is it so erectile dysfunction is a condition where a man is unable to either maintain or achieve an erection that’s rigid and sustainable enough for the entire section of course this is something that every man at some point in the life will experience in some way shape or form and what is the common cause of this again multifactorial there really is no single common cause you can have anything from high blood pressure diabetes cardiac disease atherosclerosis medication side effects surgeries and of course psychogenic so psychological issues as well there’s a number of reasons why men could have issues with their erections and that’s a long list dr martinez now are can it be reversed it can be reversed in the sense that you can treat it um of course if a man comes in and let’s say they’re having trouble in the bedroom and maybe secondary to their high blood pressure control the high blood pressure all of a sudden yes they may see an improvement in their erections unfortunately this is the importance of men going out should be going out there to getting checked getting their physical every year because sometimes you get to a point where things are irreversible now erectile dysfunction is important to bring up with your doctor because it could reveal other health issues as dr martinez mentioned we have a video that explains how e.d may be a sign of heart disease let’s take a look you could call the penis a barometer for a man’s health if barometer pressure goes down that indicates that storms are coming when the penis and erectile function declines that can also mean that other storms in your health are around the corner as well these storms or problems can happen in organs that are made up of tissues similar to that of the penis it has endothelial cells which are kind of blood vessels and it has smooth muscle these same types of cells are found in other organs in your body so in your heart and your brain and your kidneys male clinic urologist dr landon trost says erectile dysfunction can precede issues like heart disease stroke and diabetes so it does give you an early warning indicator and suggests that in some cases it’s worthwhile to seek further evaluation although it’s the last thing a man might want to discuss dr trost says e.d is one of the first things he should bring up with his doctor it’s very very common and it could be a signal there’s a storm approaching interestingly enough you know that doctor yes I do you guys would study together okay I want to go over the causes again of erectile dysfunction because I think it’s very important to bring up and the first one being anxiety and depression sure anxiety depression can cause erectile dysfunction when somebody gets anxious they produce hormones that will help them survive a stressful situation these are our fight-or-flight hormones of course we’re not prepared to have sexual intercourse let’s say if somebody comes up to you puts a gun in your head to your head or tries to rob you you mean that’s not an ideal time right well I guess some for some people it may be they may get a kick out of that so anxiety and depression this performance anxiety of course is one of the major factors diabetes you’re talking about at least 10 years earlier you’re going to be diagnosed erectile dysfunction about three to five times risk increased risk of developing erectile dysfunction certain medications does not mean that the patient can stop the medications because usually what you’re treating can also cause erectile dysfunction and or worse but many medications will have that as a side effect low testosterone are very controversial and very hot topic nowadays but can also it’s part of the fact of why a man cannot get an erection of course lifestyle choices smoking drug use too much alcohol use things like that why is low testosterone a hot topic well it’s very controversial nowadays I think we live in a society that is obsessed with testosterone if you open the newspaper local newspaper go to the sports section you’re going to see about 10 different places you can go to get testosterone replaced right and so yes it is part of the reason why a man may have sexual dysfunction but it’s not the cure to sexual dysfunction okay now it is american heart month so I want to really focus on a couple of things first of all diabetes men with diabetes are two to three times more likely to suffer from erectile dysfunction than those without diabetes so why this connection why have you had more diabetes you’re more prone to ed diabetes melodies would call fibrosis okay so this fibrosis this scarring that somebody will develop in the actual erectile tissue of a man’s penis will destroy their blood vessel will destroy the muscle of the actual smooth muscle the actual corpora which is the part of the penis that fills up with blood and so diabetes is incredibly important it’s something that you should treat that you should control because if you don’t you’re gonna end up with many other health problems the primary one we’re talking about today is of course erectile dysfunction so one of the things you also mentioned at the start of the show was your blood pressure your blood pressure numbers can also affect if you have erectile dysfunction or not how absolutely same same the exact same concept so blood pressure high blood pressure can cause vascular disease it can cause issues with the arteries and the veins and the smaller arteries arterials and venules of your actual penis and so if you have high blood pressure that can also damage some of the architecture infrastructure that somebody has within the penis to be able to give them an erection now medications are sometimes used to treat high blood pressure are diuretics or beta blockers so what exactly are these medications and why are they linked to ed is this something that’s very common and asked by patients so these medications are commonly used to treat hypertension high blood pressure is one of the things they can be used to treat we know that these medications carry as a side effect erectile dysfunction it does not mean that the patient should stop it if they’re starting to experience erectile dysfunction because worse than the erectile dysfunction that they’re experiencing as a side effect from the medication if they don’t treat it that high blood pressure can cause heart attack stroke and other things which then of course you cannot have sex with that either right now overall would you say it could have it could indicate that you have heart disease if you have ed is that an indicator yes erectile dysfunction can be used as an indicator for a man should be going to get checked because the arteries within the penis are much smaller in diameter than what they have in the heart so the same plaque that builds up in the heart you can have build up in the penis and so that may be the first signs of hey you know what they may have a cardiac event they may have an issue they should go get checked out because most of them may come to me for the sex issues but they haven’t gone to get checked for anything else are they almost shocked when they find out that they have their ed is linked to some sort of heart condition that they may have again I think with the appropriate counseling many of them are very open to going and get checked once I explain to them hey listen you may have something worse than just erectile dysfunction here you need to go get checked because this can ultimately lead to maybe even your death if you’re not careful so with good counseling I think most patients will be willing to go get checked and if you’d like to learn more from dr martinez you can watch the rest of that interview but downloading the health channel app