Researchers of a new study found that working out can help prevent erectile dysfunction caused due to diet.
As obesity continues to be a major concern in the United States, the disorder has also spread to other parts of the world, mainly because people today have adopted the western diet. The western diet is high in calories and rich in sugar content, causing weight gain.
Obesity is known to cause many health issues, including erectile dysfunction. Researchers and health experts are yet to determine ways to prevent these related problems, other than lifestyle changes.
In a new study, researchers from East Carolina University conducted a 12-week experiment on rats to see how a person's diet can cause erectile dysfunction and ways to prevent such an occurrence. The rats were divided into two groups. One group was put on a "junk food" diet high in sugar and with nearly half its calories from fat. The other group was fed a healthy diet. One half of both groups were made to exercise regularly while the other remained sedentary.
At the end of the study researchers electrically stimulated the cavernosal nerve of the rats to produce an erection and also measure the rats' coronary arteries to see how they responded to agents that would relax them and maintain blood flow to the heart, an indicator of heart health.
Researchers found the in the "junk food" diet group, the rats that worked out were able to avoid heart problems and erectile dysfunction even when they ate high calorie, high sugar food. However, the sedentary group experienced erectile dysfunction. In the healthy eating group, rats were able to avoid erectile dysfunction, irrespective of whether they worked out or not.
"The finding that exercise prevents Western diet-associated erectile dysfunction and coronary artery disease progression translates to an intensively active lifestyle throughout the duration of the 'junk food' diet," the authors said in a press release. "It remains to be seen if a moderately active lifestyle, or an active lifestyle initiated after a prolonged duration of a sedentary lifestyle combined with a 'junk food' diet is effective at reversing functional impairment."
Further studies are yet to be conducted on whether exercising can help keep away such disorders even if the Western diet is consumed for long duration.
The article titled "Exercise Prevents Western-Diet Associated Erectile Dysfunction and Coronary Artery Endothelial Dysfunction: Response to Acute Apocynin and Sepiapterin Treatment" was published in the online edition of the American Journal of Physiology.
