Aspirin, ibuprofen linked to erectile dysfunction

Thursday, April 14, 2011 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Tags: aspirin, erectile dysfunction, health news

(NaturalNews) A new study published in The Journal of Urology says that men who regularly take over-the-counter (OTC) non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) like ibuprofen and aspirin are more likely to develop erectile dysfunction (ED) than men who do not take the drugs. The study counters the widespread public notion that it is safe to take NSAIDs regularly to treat pain, and it is also a sobering wake-up call to the dangers of flippant NSAID use.

The observational study involved the examination of over 80,000 health records of men between the ages of 45 and 69. After adjusting for control factors like age, race, ethnicity, smoking status, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, high cholesterol, and body mass index, the research team found that regular users of NSAIDs were 140 percent more likely to develop ED than non-regular users. And men who took NSAIDs three times a day for more than three months were 240 percent more likely to develop ED than other men.

"This study is a great example of how we work to understand the safety and effectiveness of what we recommend for our patients," said Steven J. Jacobsen, MD, PhD, senior author of the study, epidemiologist, and director of research for Kaiser Permanente Southern California. "We went into this study thinking we would find the opposite effect: that NSAIDs would have a protective effect because they protect against heart disease, which is also linked to ED."

The notion that NSAIDs protect against heart disease, however, has actually been debunked in numerous studies. A study published in the journal Drugs and Therapeutics Bulletin (DTB) found that aspirin is not effective at preventing heart-related death in "at risk" cardiovascular disease patients (https://www.naturalnews.com/028710_aspirin_he...). And a 2005 study published in the journal Circulation linked NSAID use to causing heart attacks, not preventing them (https://www.naturalnews.com/020036.html).

Besides causing ED, NSAIDs are also linked to killing thousands of people every year. One report states that roughly 2,500 Britons die every year from stomach bleeding caused by NSAIDs (https://www.naturalnews.com/028510_NSAIDs_ibu...).

Sources for this story include:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-...