Exercise can improve sex life, heart function

A small study has found that moderate, regular exercise can help boost sexual function in men with heart failure. Erectile dysfunction, a common occurrence in men who have had chronic heart failure, may be relieved by exercise, rather than using Viagra and other drugs for impotence, which can have side effects and dangerous interactions with heart medications. In the study of 59 men with chronic heart failure, half of the men were assigned to participate in an exercise program that included riding on a stationary bicycle and stretching three times a week. At the end of the eight-week study, the men who did not exercise did not experience any improvement in heart failure symptoms or sexual function, while those who did exercise showed an increase in oxygen uptake during exercise and experienced improvement in several measures of sexual function, including the quality of their erections. The researchers suggested that improvement in sexual health was probably due to improved blood-vessel function.

International Journal of Cardiology, May 2005