Diabetic men can boost sexual health through weight loss

Men living with the various types of diabetes who experience difficulties with their sexual health may be able to combat them by losing weight. According to the New York Times, approximately 75 percent of diabetic men experience erectile dysfunction in some form due to reduced blood flow or nerve damage brought on by their disease.

The news source reports that losing weight even in small amounts - such as 5 percent of overall body weight - can help facilitate considerable improvements in the sex lives of men with diabetes. This was confirmed in a study conducted at the University of Adelaide in Australia.

For the study, researchers spent eight weeks examining 31 obese men who were suffering from Type 2 diabetes. The men were split into 2 groups and placed on separate diets, with 19 on a 900-calorie diet and the remaining 12 on a plan reducing their average caloric intake by only 600 calories.

Both groups of men experienced success in lowering their rates of erectile dysfunction, even those who lost less weight. The improvements observed remained for 12 months after the initial trial.

The National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse states that men with diabetes are two to three times more likely to experience erectile dysfunction than those without the condition.