You can't make this up

Check out the headline/story and then the byline. This actually ran in the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/09/AR2007030901859.html

Getting to The Heart Of ED
Sexual Problems in Men Are Often Tied To Vascular Disease
By Ben Harder
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, March 13, 2007; HE01
There are plenty of reasons for men to keep their hearts healthy, but one hits below the belt: Our sex lives may depend on it. More than one in six men nationwide says he sometimes or always has difficulty with erections, according to a study published last month in the American Journal of Medicine. And poor cardiovascular health is often to blame.
Another way of viewing the problem is that more than 18 million U.S. men older than 20 have erectile dysfunction, or ED -- at least according to one definition. (More on that in a moment.)
"In an earlier era, [ED] was thought to be more of a psychological issue than a physical one," said Elizabeth Selvin, the Johns Hopkins University epidemiologist who led the new study involving about 2,100 men selected to form a cross section of male America. "We're realizing now that a huge proportion of ED cases reflect vascular disease."
Urologist Christopher S. Saigal of the University of California at Los Angeles, who reported a similar frequency in a separate study published last year in the Archives of Internal Medicine, agreed, saying, "ED is a manifestation of what's happening in the rest of the cardiovascular system."
Together, the two studies provide the most comprehensive look to date on the prevalence of ED. Indirectly, the studies also offer further evidence that lifestyle changes, such as weight loss, regular exercise and smoking cessation, may offer an alternative to drug treatment.
In the normal male sexual response, sensory or mental stimulation causes blood to fill the corpora cavernosa, a pair of tubular structures that run the length of the penis. The relaxing of smooth muscle tissue helps trap blood in the organ, sustaining an erection.
Normal aging is thought to play a role in ED, perhaps by helping to make tissues less efficient in transporting blood. Of men 70 and older, 70 percent report having erectile dysfunction, compared with just 5 percent of 20- to 39-year-old men, Selvin found in her study.
Other problems can compound the effects of age: Alcohol abuse, certain drugs (many antidepressants, antihistamines and blood pressure medications) and nerve damage from prostate surgery, for example, can all interfere with erections.

 

Next week, I.P. Freely reports on advances in prostate care.

 

Has anyone seen Mike Hunt?

 

You think they hired the guy just to write that story?

 

I would get a subscription to the Post if that turned out to be the case!

 

http://www.benharder.com/ (SFW)

 

Soon to be held up by Leno.

 

Heywood Jablome has just moved to the vice beat.