ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION: YOUR PERSONAL DRUG ASSESSMENT
If you’re wondering what medicines to avoid, there is no simple answer. Many drugs can affect the capacity for erections and sexual response. But if you are suddenly experiencing sexual problems, you can do some detective work on your own. And one of the first places to look is inside the medicine cabinet. Don’t overlook drugs that are supposed to treat body parts unrelated to sexual function.
It was painful heartburn and the overdosing of Tagamet that brought George to my office. Wanting instant relief from his discomfort, and finding no help with the recommended dosage, the fifty-two-year-old man doubled the number of tablets. And although he felt better, he was now experiencing another problem. Suddenly, he could no longer sustain an erection. He thought he was going through “andro-pause,” the so-called male menopause.
It didn’t take long to determine what was causing George’s ED. It was the massive dosages of Tagamet. However, we also needed to find out what was giving him such intense gastric problems. A simple blood test revealed the presence of an alarmingly high amount of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) bacteria. Typically acquired in childhood, H. pylori has been implicated in ulcers, cancer of the stomach and upper intestine, as well as a host of gastrointestinal ailments. George’s stomach distress was being caused by a previously undiagnosed and therefore untreated peptic ulcer—not heartburn. While the Tagamet helped to reduce some of the harsher and more uncomfortable symptoms of his ulcer, it also gave him ED.
I switched George to Prilosec, a powerful acid reducer not known to be associated with ED in combination with an effective antibiotic to knock out the H. pylori. After thirty days, George was symptom and medication-free. His ulcer, as well as his erection problem, were gone.
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