Dear Pharmacist,
My wife and I have always had a healthy sex life but lately, I’m not to able take care of matters. It is affecting our relationship badly. My physician prescribed Cialis which works, but I don’t want to rely on medicine at my age! According to blood tests, I still have high cholesterol, so I have to keep taking my statin drug which I’ve taken for 7 months. What should I do?
–R.T., Sanibel, Florida
Answer: Your medicine might be hampering your bedroom bliss. Getting an erection requires healthy circulation. When blood flow is impaired to the heart, it’s called angina. When it’s impaired to the penis, it’s called “erectile dysfunction” or ED. These two conditions often go hand-in-hand because they are a problem of circulation, but physicians often treat them separately. In come the blood-thinners and sex pills. They get the job done, however, they don’t fix the problem of clogged pipelines and poor blood flow. The underlying disease progresses until you have a heart attack or a stroke.
If you have ED, assume (until proven otherwise) that you have mild heart disease or pre-diabetes, even though the problem area is in your jeans. The focus of testing should be to rule out those conditions using micronutrient and hormone panels offered by SpectraCell, Genova or Metametrix labs. Conventional blood tests won’t paint a full picture of hormones such as cortisol, DHEA, testosterone, estradiol and progesterone. Statins makes sexual matters worse because they are drug muggers for testosterone hormone. You need a little T to get to the big O. Ladies do too.
A 2010 study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine will shock you. The research from 3,484 men demonstrated that “Statin therapy might induce an overt primary hypogonadism and should be considered as a possible confounding factor for the evaluation of testosterone levels in patients with erectile dysfunction.” Your statin drug reduces cholesterol, and therefore reduces testosterone levels. This crashes sex drive crash, and could lead to shrinking testicles. As your cholesterol numbers decline (and your doctor gets very happy), your interest in lovemaking flops (and your wife becomes very unhappy). Who to please?
Losing weight will help tremendously because it improves blood flow and helps balance hormones. Many guys your age have a little (or sometimes rather protuberant) spare tire around the belly. If that’s the case, lose it. The more fat cells you have, the more estrogen you have. Estrogen causes water retention and high levels are tied to hundreds of diseases, including cancer. Furthermore, high estrogen causes low testosterone, relatively speaking and as you just learned, you need testosterone to woo your beloved.
Did You Know?
Qnexa is a new anti-obesity drug that is coming to market soon. It’s really a combination of two drugs already on the market, phentermine and topiramate.
Suzy Cohen, has been a licensed pharmacist for over 30 years and believes the best approach to chronic illness is a combination of natural medicine and conventional. She founded her own dietary supplement company specializing in custom-formulas, some of which have patents. With a special focus on functional medicine, thyroid health and drug nutrient depletion, Suzy is the author of several related books including Thyroid Healthy, Drug Muggers, Diabetes Without Drugs, and a nationally syndicated column.
