ALCOHOLISM, SMOKING CUT ACTIVE SEX LIFE (SPREAD, SEPT 29, 2010)

A PROFESSOR of Medicine at the School of Medical Sciences of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Sciences, Prof. J.W. Acheampong, has cautioned men against excessive alcoholism and smoking if they do not want to lose their sexual life.
He pointed out that smoking and excessive drinking were causing erectile dysfunction otherwise known as impotency in many men with its associated social and psychological problems to the victims and their partners.
Prof. Acheampong, who was speaking in Kumasi at the launch of “Big Ben”, a herbal dietary supplement specially formulated for men, said statistics on erectile dysfunction in Ghana was scary.
The last one, which was conducted by Mr Emmanuel Akaba of Pfizer during the introduction of Viagra in the country about 10 years ago put the figure at 500,000.
However, global statistics indicate that one in every 10 men in the world has erectile dysfunction.
In the United States of America, 30 million men suffer from erectile dysfunction.
Smokers have a higher likelihood of erectile dysfunction. Men who smoke more than one pack per day have a 50 percent higher chance of impotency than non-smokers the same age.
The likelihood of erectile dysfunction increases with age: 39 per cent at age 40, and 65 per cent over the age of 65.
However, Prof. Acheampong indicated that healthy men could be sexually active even at the age of 80.
He noted that a number of men suffering from impotency were unwilling to talk about their problem or seek treatment, thus resulting in the underreporting of erectile dysfunction.
He, however, urged men to get the courage to talk to their doctors since the problem could be treated.
Sexual life, he said, was important to every man but regrettably some men did not adhere to what was needed to protect it.
He also urged people suffering from erectile dysfunction to avoid self-medication since it could create additional medical problems for them.
Prof. Acheampong described Big Ben as a medically proven adjuvant for maintaining male sexual performance.
Prof. Kwame Sarpong of the KNUST noted that sexual impairment was both medical and social problem.
He, therefore, urged men not to keep such issues to themselves but discuss them with their partners and doctors.
Giving the pharmaceutical analysis of the drug, Mr Addy Kwaku Martin, Marketing Executive of 1st African Page Limited, the importers of Big Ben dietary supplement, said all the ingredients in the supplement had passed the Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) test and had, therefore, met the approval of both the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) and the Ghana Standards Board.