Sound waves could significantly improve sexual activity in men whose severe erectile dysfunction has not responded well to drug treatments, a new study has found.
Researchers employed a technique similar to that used to break up kidney stones to shock the penis into life with low-intensity waves.
So-called 'extracorporeal shock wave therapy' has been found to improve blood flow to the heart by inducing blood vessel growth, so experts speculated that such waves might also improve circulation to the penis.
An earlier study showed shock wave therapy benefited men with mild to moderate erectile dysfunction (ED).
But the new study's findings suggest the therapy could also be used to treat ED patients who don't respond well to conventional treatment.
However, the study was small, involving only 29 men, and the results may have been due to a placebo effect, so more work is needed to validate the findings, the researchers said.
Participants filled out a questionnaire to assess their sexual function.
Scores ranged from six to 30 - with ratings lower than 10 indicating severe ED and those from 26 to 30 indicating normal erectile function.
The men, whose average age was 61, were given 300 shocks over a period of three minutes on five points along the shaft of the penis during each session.
There were two sessions per week for three weeks, then three weeks off, and then another three-week treatment period. No men reported pain or adverse side-effects during treatment.
Participants began taking ED drugs one month after the last treatment.
The average score at the beginning of the study was 8.8. Two months after the treatment stopped, the average increased 10 points.
For many men, this means the difference between being able and being unable to have sex said study researcher Ilan Gruenwald, associate director of the neuro-urology unit at the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel.
Eight men achieved normal sexual function.
On average, men started to see a benefit three weeks after treatment.
Dr Andrew Kramer, a urologist at the University of Maryland Medical Center, who was not involved in the study, said the results were counter-intuitive given that sound waves used in kidney stone treatments are designed to be destructive.
'It's like saying, take your penis and hit it with a hammer a couple of times,' Kramer said.
The researchers acknowledged their work is preliminary, but, given their results, they said they hope others in their field remain open-minded about the therapy.
The study was published online October 18 in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.
2011年10月31日星期一
2011年5月18日星期三
Researchers Find New Ties Between Kidney Stone Risk, Treatment And Diet, Statins And Body Fat Distribution
A series of studies that examine the relationship of diet, obesity, nutrition and statin medications were presented to media at a special press conference during the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA).
Total Caloric Intake Modulates Risk for Urinary Stones in Women: Results from The Women's Health Initiative (#2139): While obesity is loosely tied to the risk of kidney stones, researchers in this study from the University of California, San Francisco attempted to discover the exact causal relationship. They found that modifying total daily caloric intake may be an important measure in the reduction of stone disease. The researchers used data from the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study and identified 78,551 participants who were included based on data related to diet, body mass index (BMI) and occurrence of symptomatic stone disease. Even when adjusted for obesity, total caloric intake conferred an independent risk of stone disease, suggesting that regulating the total number of calories ingested daily may play a significant role in risk reduction for stone disease in obese and overweight people.
Diet, Vegetarianism and Urolithiasis (#2146): Researchers from the Cancer Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK, found that meat-heavy diets may be associated with an increased risk of developing kidney stones and that a high intake of fresh fruit, fiber and certain minerals may reduce risk. The team studied 50,617 participants in the Oxford arm of the International Agency for Research on Cancer's European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) Project. 202 participants were diagnosed with kidney stones during the follow-up period. Regression analysis was used to examine the association of diet with risk after stratification by sex, method of recruitment and region of residence, and adjusting for smoking and drinking alcohol. Compared to those with a high meat diet, the incidence rate of stones was .71 for moderate meat eaters, .52 for low meat eaters and .52 for fish eaters and vegetarians. Diets with high intake of fresh fruit, and those high in fiber, magnesium, iron and potassium, were associated with a reduction in stone disease. There was no association found with vegetable consumption, calcium or vitamin C.
The Effect of Statin Medications On Urinary Stone Formation: A Ten Year Review of the Armed-Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application (AHLTA) Database (#2233): Attempting to clarify the exact cause of kidney stone formation, a team of researchers from the University of California, San Francisco investigated the relationship between hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol and triglycerides) and kidney stones, as well as the impact of statin medications (typically used to treat high cholesterol) on stone formation. Patient records from the AHLTA database were used; 57,320, (36,341 male) were identified with hyperlipidemia. 32,386 patients (20,063 male) were prescribed statin medications including 1,030 (724 male) who developed a stone. While confirming the relationship of urinary stone disease with hyperlipidemia, the researchers found that the use of statin medications was associated with a reduction in risk of stone disease; the effect was seen more prominently in females.
Total Caloric Intake Modulates Risk for Urinary Stones in Women: Results from The Women's Health Initiative (#2139): While obesity is loosely tied to the risk of kidney stones, researchers in this study from the University of California, San Francisco attempted to discover the exact causal relationship. They found that modifying total daily caloric intake may be an important measure in the reduction of stone disease. The researchers used data from the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study and identified 78,551 participants who were included based on data related to diet, body mass index (BMI) and occurrence of symptomatic stone disease. Even when adjusted for obesity, total caloric intake conferred an independent risk of stone disease, suggesting that regulating the total number of calories ingested daily may play a significant role in risk reduction for stone disease in obese and overweight people.
Diet, Vegetarianism and Urolithiasis (#2146): Researchers from the Cancer Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK, found that meat-heavy diets may be associated with an increased risk of developing kidney stones and that a high intake of fresh fruit, fiber and certain minerals may reduce risk. The team studied 50,617 participants in the Oxford arm of the International Agency for Research on Cancer's European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) Project. 202 participants were diagnosed with kidney stones during the follow-up period. Regression analysis was used to examine the association of diet with risk after stratification by sex, method of recruitment and region of residence, and adjusting for smoking and drinking alcohol. Compared to those with a high meat diet, the incidence rate of stones was .71 for moderate meat eaters, .52 for low meat eaters and .52 for fish eaters and vegetarians. Diets with high intake of fresh fruit, and those high in fiber, magnesium, iron and potassium, were associated with a reduction in stone disease. There was no association found with vegetable consumption, calcium or vitamin C.
The Effect of Statin Medications On Urinary Stone Formation: A Ten Year Review of the Armed-Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application (AHLTA) Database (#2233): Attempting to clarify the exact cause of kidney stone formation, a team of researchers from the University of California, San Francisco investigated the relationship between hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol and triglycerides) and kidney stones, as well as the impact of statin medications (typically used to treat high cholesterol) on stone formation. Patient records from the AHLTA database were used; 57,320, (36,341 male) were identified with hyperlipidemia. 32,386 patients (20,063 male) were prescribed statin medications including 1,030 (724 male) who developed a stone. While confirming the relationship of urinary stone disease with hyperlipidemia, the researchers found that the use of statin medications was associated with a reduction in risk of stone disease; the effect was seen more prominently in females.
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