Glaucoma linked to impotence
Blood flow impeded
Canadian researchers have uncovered new evidence of an unusual link between two seemingly divergent maladies: an eye disease that is one of the most common causes of blindness — and impotence.
Men with glaucoma are more than two and a half times more likely to have erectile dysfunction than those without the condition, other factors being equal, suggests a newly published study from the University of British Columbia.
The reason for the little-known association between such distinct ailments remains largely a mystery. But the University of British Columbia ophthalmologists hypothesize that changes to blood vessels caused by inflammation may be behind both problems.
“It’s surprising,” said Dr. Frederick Mikelberg, a UBC ophthalmology professor and co-author of the study in the Journal of Glaucoma. “It is a scientific curiosity.”
Glaucoma involves damage to the optic nerve, which transfers imagery the eye sees to the brain. Untreated, it can lead to blindness. Treatment can halt its progress but not reverse existing symptoms. The disease affects an estimated 400,000 Canadians.
Earlier research done by the UBC group and by a Taiwanese team examined large health databases and hinted at a link with erectile dysfunction. Mikelberg and his colleagues decided to look at the issue in a more exacting way, analyzing questionnaires on ED filled out by 60 glaucoma patients, and 67 eye-clinic patients who did not have the condition.
They found that glaucoma sufferers were 2.58 times more likely than the others to have erectile dysfunction. Almost 40 per cent had ED. And as the severity of glaucoma increased from patient to patient, so did the severity of the impotence problem.
The UBC researchers theorized chronic inflammation of blood-vessel walls undermined blood flow and contributed to both problems.