In some societies, the big belly is a sign of wealth and status. In the western world it's just what it is: a warning signal of the metabolic syndrome, an association of diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and heart disease.
But a new research made by a team led by Dr. Steven Kaplan, professor of urology at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, shows that waist circumference has a strong correlation with the incidence of erectile and ejaculatory issues and an enlarged
prostate.
"We know that there is an increasing relationship between components of the metabolic syndrome and male pelvic health and it is becoming very clear that when you have multiple components of the metabolic syndrome you can bet that you will have components of pelvic dysfunction, which we would define as sexual dysfunction and voiding dysfunction.", said Kaplan.
Kaplan's team made the research on a group of 88 subjects (average age, 62.4 years) with mild or severe untreated voiding symptoms, who were assigned in groups by waist circumference: 30-36 inches (75-90 cm), 36-40 inches (91-100 cm), and over 40 inches, to check if waist circumference predicted prostate volume, the degree of pelvic dysfunction (LUTS, erectile dysfunction, ejaculatory dysfunction) and other symptoms of the metabolic syndrome.
"Prostate volume, PSA, voiding symptom score, erectile dysfunction, and ejaculatory dysfunction all increased as waist size increased. The results were simply remarkable. They even surprised us. We have no doubt, at least from this cohort of patients, that increasing waist circumference is associated with worsening male health -- voiding and sexual function.", Kaplan said.
A bigger waist circumference had already clearly been linked to a higher vulnerability to developing hypertension, coronary artery disease, and type II diabetes. "This study shows that obese men, particularly those with other features of the metabolic syndrome, are at increased risk of pelvic dysfunction and can be "easily diagnosed" by measuring waist circumference.", said Kaplan.
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