Turkish researchers find that the best tool for predicting the effect of obesity in ED patients is the visceral adiposity index. VAI takes into consideration both physical and metabolic parameters.
Men who are obese or significantly overweight are far more likely to develop erectile dysfunction than men whose weight is within relatively normal parameters. However, determining how serious the threat is can be challenging.
While the body mass index, or BMI, has been the metric most widely used to determine who’s obese or profoundly overweight, recent studies indicate that it is not that reliable a gauge for obesity. That’s because the BMI lacks the ability to differentiate between muscle weight and fat weight. Some men who weigh more than normal for their stature are bodybuilders or weightlifters with low levels of fat on their body but high levels of muscle.
VAI ‘More Accurate’ Than BMI
Emerging as a more accurate predictor of ED risk among overweight men is the visceral adiposity index, or VAI, which more accurately diagnoses obesity as well as metabolic syndrome. The latter is a cluster of conditions, including obesity, that are commonly associated with the development of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.
While BMI assesses weight in relation to height, VAI takes into consideration additional factors, including waist circumference and blood levels of glucose, testosterone, triglycerides, and lipids (both low-density and high-density lipoproteins).
Broad Study Undertaken
In a recent study, previewed online in advance of publication in Andrologia, a Turkish research team laid out the findings from its evaluation of VAI as an ED-predictive tool.
The researchers recruited 298 study participants — 176 with symptoms of ED and 122 with no complaints of erection problems. Using the International Index of Erectile Function-5 (IIEF-5) as their metric, researchers evaluated both the ED group and the control group to confirm erectile function.
Laboratory and Physical Exams
Study participants underwent laboratory testing to measure fasting blood levels of glucose, testosterone, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and high-density lipoprotein (HDL). The research team also subjected study participants to physical examinations to determine their waist circumference, height, weight, and BMI.
As previously noted, VAI takes into consideration both physical and metabolic parameters. The Turkish researchers found that VAI numbers among men with ED were significantly statistically higher than in men with no complaints of erection problems. This led the Turkish research group to conclude that VAI is a more accurate tool for assessing the effect of obesity on ED patients.
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The treatment of choice for men with ED caused by insufficient blood flow to the penis is Viagra or one of the other oral ED drugs known as PDE5 inhibitors. These drugs temporarily optimize blood flow, allowing men who are no longer able to get and keep an erection on their own to regain near-normal erectile function for a finite window of time.
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