Is impotence due to hypertension?

Dear Doctor: Is it true that high blood pressure can cause impotence?
Jason

Dear Jason: Hypertension, a condition of abnormally raised blood pressure, principally causes problems to blood vessels, eyes, heart, kidneys and brain.

Erectile dysfunction or impotence may result from problems affecting blood vessels (including hypertension) that, if not controlled over a long time, may harden blood vessels, denying them dilation that helps improve blood supply to the penis to cause erection.

Hypertension is sometimes associated with diseases such as diabetes that are well known to lead to erection problems by damaging blood vessels and nerves.
Thus, impotence may be a symptom of another condition that may also be causing hypertension.
Medications including those for treating hypertension such as Aldomet and Inderal can also lead to impotence.

Impotence can also result from perpetual anxiety that surrounds any chronic illness, but especially hypertension, which is feared to cause death during sex. One may therefore be afraid to engage in intercourse, hence developing erection problems.

Erectile dysfunction (impotence) can sometimes be a clue to undiagnosed and uncontrolled high blood pressure. It is necessary to have regular medical examinations which can detect hypertension early to avoid related impotence.

Dear Doctor: I have a problem of pimples on my lower abdomen which have persisted for five years. I visited several medical practitioners but couldn’t get rid of the problem.

Nathan
Dear Nathan: Acne, often referred to as pimples, affects oil glands associated with hair on the face, outer ear, back, and chest and anogenital areas. Acne usually affects youth.
Pimples in the pubic area commonly occur because the openings of type of sweat glands called the scent glands have been blocked and eventually infected.

Being covered most of the time, the pubic area does not allow free air movement resulting in too much heat and sweat hence being softened and easily infected, thus pimple formation.

People who use abrasive soaps, wash too much or those who have poor personal hygiene, pregnant women, teenagers undergoing hormonal changes, or those with hormonal imbalances, are some of those who get the pimples.

Other people suffer pimples in the pubic area when they shave and damage skin around the pubic hairs or because the hair is curly so that when it is cut, it grows back into the skin damaging it and resulting in the pimples. If this is the case, one should avoid shaving or if they have to, should use a curved pair of scissors to cut hair short.

Sometimes STD Venereal warts (HPV) can also be mistaken for pimples. Please visit your doctor for review.

Moving from one doctor to another may instead cause you to take longer to get cured. Meanwhile, it is necessary to maintain good pubic hygiene by keeping the pubis dry, avoiding reuse of towels or wearing clothes without washing them first.

Dear Doctor: Whenever I eat vegetables, beans and cucumber, I pass a lot of gas yet I was advised to eat them because I suffer constipation and I am diabetic. What can I do?

Samson Bazarra

Dear Samson: Fruits and vegetables contain fibre that is not digested by our intestinal digestive juices.

Fibre’s ability to hold onto water eases constipation. However, since it is not digested, it will reach the big intestine where it will be fermented by colon bacteria releasing a lot of gas that has to be passed.

Beans are made up of complex carbohydrates called oligosaccharides (those containing more than one sugar unit; raffinose, stachiose, and verbicose) which are also not digested by the juices and are thus broken down by colonic bacteria to produce gas as well.

Since you are diabetic, it is likely that your medication (such as Glucophage) could also be giving you too much gas.

Much as this gas may cause bloating and embarrass one when publicly passed, one should not avoid taking vegetables and fruits because the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.

However, you need to take in fibre slowly and increase water intake to lessen the gas. Soaking and rinsing dry beans before cooking is also recommended.