Every extra hour on the computer increased the risk of impotence in men
The authors of a new study - a group of medical professionals from China - said they have obtained substantial evidence of a causal link between sitting at a computer outside of work and the risk of erectile dysfunction.
Urologists from the Naval Medical University Hospital in Shanghai, China, conducted a study using Mendelian randomization to test the association between sedentary lifestyle in leisure time and erectile dysfunction in men. The specialists reported about the results in an article published in the scientific journal Andrology.
Impotence, or erectile dysfunction, that is, the inability to achieve and maintain an erection sufficient for a full-fledged sexual intercourse, by 2025 will suffer about 320 million men in the world. In Russia, according to medical experts, every second man over 50 already has problems with potency.
The causes of development can be both physical and psychological: in the first group - trauma, postoperative period, hormonal disorders, medications, narrowing of blood vessels going to the penis, against the background of atherosclerosis, diabetes, hypertension or high cholesterol; in the second - depression and stress. The use of alcohol, drugs (such as marijuana) and smoking cigarettes can also lead to the development of impotence.
Scientists continue to look for factors affecting the risk of developing such dysfunction. Among them is a sedentary lifestyle. It has already been linked to erectile problems in several earlier epidemiologic and observational studies. But according to the authors of the new paper, it is difficult to interpret the previous results.
This time, for Mendelian randomization based on the use of genetic information, they included data from more than 200,000 men in a two-sample analysis. Urologists tested how a sedentary lifestyle in their free time (TV watching, computer use, and driving) correlated with erectile dysfunction, levels of sex hormones (total and bioactive testosterone, estradiol, follicle-stimulating and luteinizing hormones, and prolactin), biomarkers of endothelial function (C-reactive protein, E-selectin, and matrix metalloproteinase-7), and depression and anxiety. To assess the association, the researchers applied the inverse variance weighting method and sensitivity analysis.
According to the results, a higher risk of impotence was significantly associated with a higher predisposition to use a computer in their free time: every 1.2 hours of such leisure time predicted an increased 3.57 times the probability of getting erectile problems.
At the same time, medics failed to get evidence that watching TV or driving also increases the risk. They also found no correlation between sitting at a computer and depression, anxiety, levels of C-reactive protein, E-selectin, matrix metalloproteinase-7 or sex hormones other than follicle-stimulating hormone (in which case the risk was 0.29 times higher).
"Prolonged recreational computer use increases the likelihood of erectile dysfunction, which may be associated with decreased levels of follicle-stimulating hormone, which regulates the sex glands. But the role of endothelial dysfunction and psychological problems in the development of impotence cannot be underestimated. Moderate physical activity can help to correct the situation", - summarized the scientists, emphasizing that the final cause-and-effect relationship can be established in further studies.