CrossFit’s Camille Leblanc-Bazinet: ‘I’m Glad I Don’t Have a Thigh Gap’

 

This week, some 50,000 people are set to swarm the StubHub Center in Carson, Calif. They’re not coming for a soccer tournament or a Taylor Swift concert, but for a chance to see more than 500 athletes vie for the title of “Fittest on Earth.” Yep, we’re talking about the 2015 Reebok Crossfit Games. No longer just a cultish workout fad, CrossFit is a full-fledged sport complete with fan favorites and a live broadcast on ESPN.

Last year, Camille Leblanc-Bazinet took home the title of “Fittest Woman on Earth.” This year will be the 26-year-old Canadian’s sixth time competing in the event. Over the previous five years, she’s placed in the top 10 four times. To say she’s a fierce competitor is an understatement, and she’s definitely one to watch (again) this year.

Health chatted with the former gymnast and chemical engineering student (she graduates next fall) about what training for the CrossFit Games is really like, body image, and more.

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What is a typical day like for you leading up to the Crossfit Games?

Normally, I start to change my routine about two months out. My day is always the same. I wake up at 8:30, eat a big breakfast, stretch. I normally eat three to four eggs, a cup of sweet potato, a cup of blueberries, and 12 to 15 almonds.

Then, 10 a.m. is my first workout: weightlifting and conditioning. Then I rest and recover, and eat lunch: always 3 ounces of meat like chicken, with kale or spinach, between 12 to 15 almonds or other nuts, and a cup of sweet potato or cup of blueberries. Every meal is the same pretty much; I’ll just change the fruit.

I do more training from 2 to 4 in the afternoon. After that, I eat dinner. And sometimes I end the day with one more final session, about an hour of cardio, like running.

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What got you into CrossFit?

I used to play rugby before I got into CrossFit. The girls’ team practiced at same time as the guys. And a lot of the guys were using CrossFit-type of workouts to do conditioning. At some point they challenged me to come try, and that was it. I was hooked.

Before that, though, I was a gymnast. I also played volleyball, soccer, and I’ve been skiing since I was about 4 years old.

You’ve said that CrossFit changed how you saw yourself. What do you mean by that?

I think body image is something that affects everybody as they grow up. I used to think beauty was a certain thing—you have to be skinny and look this way or that. Just growing up, but also starting CrossFit made me realize that trying to fit into this mold wasn’t worth it. I don’t care if I fit in. I just want to be respected.

To be honest, to be a part of a community where what you look like doesn’t matter is awesome. [CrossFitters] value you a lot more by your actions more than anything else. And that put a lot of things into perspective for me.

In anything you do in life, you should never be focusing on the wrong thing. If you focus on hard work and being a nice person, it’s funny how things just start to fall into the right place.

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Then it’s safe to say you think CrossFit is a sport that’s very welcoming to women?

Yes! CrossFit is one of the best things to ever happen to women in the way we view women in the world of fitness. It’s not about what you look like, it’s about functionality. It’s the first time where function comes first and aesthetic comes next. It used to always be about what you look like, and within this community at least, it’s not like that. I think this is so empowering for every woman of every age. When I was young, I wish I had that. I’m so glad I don’t have any thigh gap!

Finally, are you worried about defending your title this year?

Nope. [Laughs] I’m looking forward to competing and showing off all the hard work. With this, it’s like we work every day. We already filmed the movie, now it’s time to play the movie!

RELATED: 7 Things to Know Before Trying CrossFit

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Neurotic People See Faces in Things

There are many ways to divide the “types of people in this world” in two, but here is one of my favorites: The people who easily see faces in inanimate objects, and the people who usually do not. This tendency to spot hidden faces in random patterns has a name — pareidolia — and it’s the subject of some new research out of Japan, which found that neurotic types are more likely to see, say, a menacing face in a plastic barricade.

Scientists at the NNT Communication Science Laboratory in Tokyo showed their study volunteers a sheet of paper flecked with random dots, asking them what, if any, shapes they saw, reports Moheb Costandi, a neuroscientist turned journalist writing for Brain Decoder. Before the connect-the-dots task, all the volunteers took a survey to assess their personality types and current moods. After analyzing their results, the researchers found that people who scored higher in neuroticism, and those who were in negative moods, were more likely to have found faces in the dots.

Costandi explains that the fact that neurotic people — who tend to be more tense, nervous, and emotionally unstable than non-neurotic people — seem to be predisposed for pareidolia is likely an evolutionary holdover: Their nerves put them on higher alert for threats, which may mean that they see danger where it actually isn’t. In this case, the researchers argue, that danger takes the form of a face. Same explanation applies to those in negative moods, though I’d also argue that once you start looking for faces in things, you kind of notice them everywhere.

This story originally appeared on ScienceofUs.com

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How to Recover From an All-Nighter

Why Lonely People Stay Lonely

Are You a Head Person or a Heart Person?

So Apparently There Are 4 Kinds of Introversion

At a Neurological Level, Narcissists Are Needy

What It’s Like to Remember Nothing From Your Past

Science of Us is a smart but playful window into the latest science on human behavior, with the goal of enlightening, entertaining, and providing useful information that can be applied to everyday life.

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Mental Illness Afflicts Many Juveniles in Jail

TUESDAY, July 21, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Hospitalization for mental health problems is far more common among kids behind bars than among children and teens in the general population, a new study finds.

Juvenile inmates also have longer hospital stays, which suggests they have more serious underlying mental health problems, according to the Stanford University School of Medicine researchers.

“We know young people in the juvenile justice system have a disproportionate burden of mental illness, but I was really surprised by the magnitude of the problem, because hospitalizations typically occur for very severe illness,” lead author Dr. Arash Anoshiravani, a clinical assistant professor of adolescent medicine, said in a university news release.

The researchers analyzed nearly 2 million hospitalizations of children and teens in California over the age of 15. They found that mental health disorders accounted for 63 percent of hospitalizations among juvenile inmates, compared to 19 percent for those not in jail.

The study was published online July 21 in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Mental health hospitalizations were more common among detained girls than boys. “If you just looked at girls, 74 percent of their hospitalizations were for mental illnesses. That’s pretty sobering,” Anoshiravani said.

Average hospital stays for mental health problems were longer for juvenile inmates than for youngsters not in jail — six days versus five days. The most common mental health diagnoses in both groups were depression, substance abuse and conduct disorders.

Many juvenile inmates’ mental health problems are the result of stressful and traumatic childhood experiences, such as being abused or witnessing violence, Anoshiravani said.

“They’re regular kids who have had really, really horrible childhoods,” he noted.

“We are arresting kids who have mental health problems probably related to their experiences as children,” Anoshiravani said. “Is that the way we should be dealing with this, or should we be getting them into treatment earlier, before they start getting caught up in the justice system?”

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about children’s mental health.

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Scientists Test Universal Flu Vaccine in Mice

TUESDAY, July 21, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Scientists report that a universal flu vaccine in mice protected the animals against eight different flu strains.

If the vaccine works in humans, scientists might not have to develop new flu vaccines every year, the researchers said.

The findings were reported July 21 in the journal mBio.

Currently, a vaccine is created each year to protect against the handful of flu strains that are predicted to be the most common during that flu season. And the vaccine makeup is determined months in advance so that manufacturers have time to make the millions of doses needed.

“The reason researchers change the vaccine every year is that they want to specifically match the vaccine to the particular viruses that are circulating, such as H1N1. If the vaccine is just a little bit different to the target virus, it is not expected to offer much protection,” explained lead investigator Dr. Jeffery Taubenberger, chief of the viral pathogenesis and evolution section in the laboratory of infectious diseases at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

“What we have done is design a strategy where you don’t have to think about matching the vaccine antigen to the virus at all,” Taubenberger said in a news release from the American Society for Microbiology.

The NIAID scientists developed a vaccine meant to protect against a number of flu strains. The vaccine protected 95 percent of mice against eight different flu strains, compared with 5 percent of mice that received mock vaccinations.

The vaccine was effective for at least 6 months and worked well in older mice. The latter finding is especially important because elderly people are particularly susceptible to severe illness from the flu, and current vaccines are less effective in seniors than in younger people, the researchers said.

“These initial findings are very positive, and suggest a promising and practical strategy for developing a vaccine with amazing, broad protection,” Taubenberger said.

However, results from animal studies frequently don’t produce similar results in humans. The team said it will test ferrets next, and then begin early human trials.

During the 2014-2015 flu season, the chosen vaccine was a mismatch for the strains that were circulating. So, it was only 18.6 percent effective against the predominant strain, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U.S. health officials have said they have ramped up next season’s shots for broader protection.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about flu vaccination.

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The Dreaded ‘Dad Bod’ Is Real

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, July 21, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Dads-to-be take heed: The so-called “fatherhood effect” means that first-time fathers will likely have a growing waistline to go with their growing family, a new study finds.

The findings stem from what the study authors call one of the first research projects to look at how fatherhood affects weight. The conclusion: men gain an average of between 3.5 to 4.5 pounds after the birth of their first child.

And you thought it was just mothers who had to deal with unwanted baby weight.

“We know becoming a dad is a time when men’s priorities and responsibilities change,” said study lead author Dr. Craig Garfield, an associate professor in the department of pediatrics and medical social sciences at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “More dads are more involved with their children than ever before.”

“Now, we were not able in this study to determine the cause of the increase in BMI [body mass index] or weight,” Garfield added. “But I speculate that it is changes in lifestyle that may be the cause. New eating habits, different foods and portions in the house, sleep changes, less time for exercise and activity perhaps may be part of the issue.”

Garfield and his colleagues reported their findings in the July 21 issue of the American Journal of Men’s Health.

To explore weight gain among new dads, the study team analyzed male weight gain patterns with information gathered by the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The review covered roughly 20 years and tracked more than 10,000 American men as they aged from adolescence (starting in 1994) to their early 30s, at which point many had become new fathers.

The researchers determined that becoming a dad for the first time was associated with a measureable increase in weight, whether they lived with the child or not. The finding held up even after the researchers accounted for potential influences such as a man’s age, marital status, income, educational history, sedentary habits (such as TV watching or computer use), and daily activity routines.

First-time dads standing 6 feet tall were found to gain about 4.4 pounds if they lived with their child, and 3.3 pounds if they didn’t live with their child.

Conversely, men who didn’t become fathers during the study period experienced a weight loss of 1.4 pounds, the study authors said.

Garfield said the findings clearly indicate that “becoming a father affects men’s health.”

So what can a new father do to avoid the prospect of the dreaded “dad bod”?

“It is important for dads to realize they are role models for their children,” Garfield said. “So if a dad is looking to get out and shed a few pounds, take your child with you. Show them how much you enjoy being active. Show them how to make good diet and nutrition choices as you go out in the world. Dads and children can get healthier together.”

That advice was seconded by Lona Sandon, a registered dietitian and assistant professor of clinical nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

“Major life events that carry with them new responsibilities, new habits and new schedules are often associated with weight gain,” she noted. “That can mean marriage, having kids, the stress of taking care of an elderly parent, or the stress of losing a job in midlife.”

“So if that means that a man finds himself becoming less active, then he should try to consume smaller portion sizes, because a drop in activity means a drop in caloric need,” Sandon added. “Dads should also try not to fall into the trap of consuming what we call ‘kid’s foods’ — like chicken nuggets. These kinds of foods may be fast and easy, but they’re not good for either the parent or the child, so they’re best avoided.”

She also urged new fathers to “find ways to be active with the new child.”

Jogging strollers are a good option, Sandon said. “You tend to see them more with mothers than dads, but dads can use them, too,” she said. “And kids should really be getting at least an hour a day of recreational physical activity. So dads should make sure to regularly take their kids out for some fresh air. It’s a win-win for both parent and child.”

More information

Learn more about maintaining a healthy weight at the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

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Women Descend Into Alzheimer’s at Twice the Speed of Men: Study

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, July 21, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Women with mild thinking and memory problems — known as mild cognitive impairment — deteriorate twice as fast mentally as men with the same condition, according to new research.

Mild cognitive impairment isn’t severe enough to interfere with daily life, but it is linked to higher odds of developing Alzheimer’s disease or another type of dementia, the researchers said.

“Our findings do suggest greater vulnerability in women with mild cognitive impairment stage, which is more severe than normal memory loss and is an intermediary stage between aging and dementia,” said lead researcher Katherine Lin, a clinical research scholar at Duke University in Durham, N.C.

Several factors may account for this increased vulnerability among women, Lin added. Women may be genetically predisposed to developing more plaque in the brain, which is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s, or perhaps there is an as-yet-unknown genetic cause, she said.

To determine the reasons, gender-specific research into Alzheimer’s disease needs to become a priority, Lin said. “Potentially, Alzheimer’s prevention trials could test treatment effects separately by gender,” she suggested.

The results of her study were scheduled for presentation Tuesday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, in Washington, D.C. Data and conclusions presented at meetings are usually considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

Dr. Luca Giliberto, an Alzheimer’s investigator at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, N.Y., offered another theory: “Women may have better cognitive reserve than men — that is, more connections between brain cells,” Giliberto said.

Because of this greater mental reserve, it’s possible that women may start declining later than men, but progress faster once the fall-off begins, he said. In addition, Giliberto said there might be a hormonal component to the speed of decline, perhaps associated with estrogen levels.

For the study, Lin and colleagues collected data on 400 men and women with thinking and memory problems who took part in the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. Participants were in their mid-70s at the start of the study.

In up to eight years of follow-up, the thinking and memory of women deteriorated twice as fast as in men, according to a standard test called the Mini Mental State Examination. On that test, the rate of mental slippage in men was 1.05 points a year, in women 2.3 points annually.

For men and women with a specific gene mutation — called the ApoE4 Alzheimer’s risk gene — the rate of mental decline was even faster, the researchers said.

Dean Hartley, director of science initiatives at the Alzheimer’s Association, agreed that more research is needed to understand gender discrepancies related to Alzheimer’s, which is the most common form of dementia.

Hartley said that women make up 75 percent of those who develop Alzheimer’s disease. “We also know that 75 percent of the caregivers are women, so women are carrying a big burden,” he said.

Women live longer than men. By the time they start having memory and thinking problems, they are at a later stage in life and that might account for the faster decline, Hartley said. It’s also possible that biological differences between the sexes are at work, he added.

“The Alzheimer’s Association is looking at these differences because it might affect how we need to treat these people,” he said.

More information

The U.S. National Institutes of Health outlines the warning signs of Alzheimer’s.

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Change in ‘Pap’ Test Rules Linked to Drop in STD Testing

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, July 21, 2015 (HealthDay News) — A major change in Pap test guidelines introduced in 2009 may have had an unintended consequence: Some young women are missing out on screening for chlamydia — a common sexually transmitted disease that can cause infertility if left untreated.

That’s according to a small, new study that discovered chlamydia screening among 15- to 21-year-olds plummeted after national guidelines were changed to discourage routine Pap screening for cervical cancer before age 21, because of evidence that showed it did not benefit young women.

Those guidelines have nothing to do with chlamydia — a bacterial STD that infects nearly 3 million Americans each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But researchers suspect that as fewer young women got Pap tests, chlamydia screening also fell by the wayside.

However, the CDC and other groups advise all sexually active women younger than 25 to get an annual chlamydia screening test.

Yet in the new study, researchers at the University of Michigan saw a precipitous drop in chlamydia screening at five outpatient clinics connected to the university.

Experts stressed that the pattern does not necessarily reflect what’s going on nationwide.

In fact, there’s evidence that the national rate of screening for chlamydia has inched up in recent years, said Dr. Gale Burstein, who chairs the committee on sexually transmitted infections for the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine.

“This is just one center, and can’t be seen as reflecting what’s going on nationally,” said Burstein, who was not involved in the study.

However, she added, it’s likely that similar trends have happened at other medical centers.

Burstein said young women should be aware of the chlamydia screening guidelines, and if they haven’t been tested, they should talk to their doctor.

Screening is vital, Burstein said, because chlamydia usually causes no symptoms. It’s easily cured with antibiotics, but if left untreated, the infection can cause pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility in some women.

So why did chlamydia screening drop at the clinics in this study? It seems that providers there were in the practice of “coupling” chlamydia screening with Pap testing, said lead researcher Dr. Allison Ursu, of the university’s department of family medicine.

Of roughly 1,600 young women seen at the clinics from 2008 to 2009, more than 500 were given chlamydia screening tests.

But from 2011 to 2012 — after the Pap test change — only 37 young women underwent chlamydia screening, Ursu’s team reports July 20 in the Annals of Family Medicine.

“It was surprising,” Ursu said. “We saw that decrease despite the fact that young women were making the same number of office visits. So there were just as many opportunities to screen for chlamydia.”

The university has since taken steps to make sure all clinics are up to speed with the guidelines on chlamydia screening, Ursu said. She added it would make sense for other institutions to look at their own screening patterns, and make changes if needed.

Even though the U.S. chlamydia screening rate has been creeping up, it’s still far from optimal, Ursu noted. Fewer than half of sexually active women younger than 21 are being screened, based on data from private and public health insurance plans.

There is no reason for chlamydia screening to be linked to Pap tests, Burstein pointed out.

“It does not take an invasive pelvic exam,” she said. “It can be done with a urine test or a vaginal swab that you take yourself.”

That knowledge, Burstein said, may make young women more comfortable with asking their doctors about chlamydia screening.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has an overview on chlamydia.

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Doctors May Play Big Role in Antibiotic Overuse: Study

MONDAY, July 20, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Doctors, nurse practitioners and other health care workers who prescribe drugs may be helping to drive the overuse of antibiotics in the United States, new research suggests.

Experts have long warned that using antibiotics for illnesses for which they are useless — viral infections, for example — helps foster resistance by germs to these potentially lifesaving drugs.

In the new study, a team led by Dr. Barbara Jones, an assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Utah, looked at data on more than 1 million patient visits for acute respiratory infections at 130 VA medical centers across the United States between 2005 and 2012.

According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, acute respiratory infections include the common cold, bronchitis and ear infections — many of which are caused by viruses.

However, Jones’ team found that antibiotics were prescribed in more than two-thirds (68 percent) of clinic visits for these infections. In fact, prescriptions for antibiotics for these cases actually rose by 2 percent during the eight years of the study, the Utah team said.

There was also wide variation in the prescribing of antibiotics by doctors and other health care staff. At the high end, 10 percent of health care providers prescribed an antibiotic for 95 percent or more of their patients with a cold, bronchitis or other acute respiratory infection.

At the low end, 10 percent of health care providers prescribed antibiotics for 40 percent or fewer of their patients.

“We were able to see that even if Dr. A works just down the hall from Dr. B they may practice medicine very differently,” Jones said in a university news release.

The study also found a 10 percent increase in the proportion of broad-spectrum antibiotics (macrolides) prescribed, even though guidelines now recommend against them as a first line of defense for most respiratory infections.

The habits of individual health care providers accounted for 59 percent of the variation in how often antibiotics were prescribed, while differences in practice among clinics accounted for 28 percent, and differences in practice among hospitals accounted for 13 percent.

The findings suggest that differences between health care providers are a significant factor in antibiotic prescribing, more so than differences between patients or between practice standards at hospitals and clinics.

Health care professionals “all receive similar training, but we can practice differently. The extent of this variation has been hard to measure in the past,” Jones said.

“We’d like to use this research to start a conversation among providers and patients about antibiotic prescribing for [acute respiratory infections], and share the approaches of providers who are prescribing antibiotics less frequently with those who may be prescribing too often,” she said.

The findings were published July 20 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about antibiotics.

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Many Older Women Have Active Sex Lives, Study Finds

By Maureen Salamon
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, July 20, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Nearly six in 10 women over the age of 60 who are in committed relationships are sexually active, new research shows.

“I wasn’t necessarily surprised by the proportion of older women who are sexually active, but maybe others might be,” said study author Dr. Holly Thomas, an assistant professor of medicine at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

“People assume as women get older, they automatically become sexually inactive and sex is not as important to them,” she added, “which isn’t necessarily the case.”

The study, analyzing more than 2,100 U.S. women ranging in age from 28 to 84, consisted mostly of women in their 50s and 60s. It found that women in their 60s and 70s had sexual satisfaction levels similar to women in their 30s and 40s.

The research is published in the July/August issue of the Annals of Family Medicine.

According to U.S. Census figures, the percentage of the American population aged 65 and older rose from 4.1 percent in 1900 to 13 percent in 2010, and it’s projected to reach nearly 21 percent by 2050. Research has increasingly focused on various aspects of this growing population, and the new findings are consistent with prior research focusing on older women’s sexual activity levels, Thomas said.

Expanding on regional research completed several years ago, Thomas and her team focused on a national sample of women who answered an array of questions about sexuality in a questionnaire. They found that 62 percent of respondents reported being sexually active in the previous six months.

Of those aged 60 and older with a committed partner, 59 percent were sexually active. Those romantically partnered were eight times more likely to be sexually active than those without a partner, but 13 percent of sexually active women did not have a steady romantic partner.

Thomas said the results suggest that for women, being connected to one person is more important than having sex for the sake of sex.

“It seems for a lot of women in this age group, whether they have a romantic partner is a big contributor to whether they’re sexually active,” she said. “Also, we assume that sex goes downhill as we get older, but these findings suggest women are maintaining sexual satisfaction as they get older.”

However, since 13 percent of sexually active respondents were not in committed relationships, Thomas noted that “we shouldn’t look at a woman who’s not married and 60, and assume she’s not sexually active.”

Lynnette Leidy Sievert, a board member of the North American Menopause Society, praised the new research for continuing to spotlight sexual activity among older women.

“It has to be publicized every couple of years to counteract the stereotype that women over a certain age don’t enjoy or want sexual activity,” said Leidy Sievert, who is also a professor of anthropology at University of Massachusetts at Amherst. “I think we just have to keep putting it out there, and I think these studies are important to say that women remain sexually active.”

The results also indicated that among women who were sexually active, age wasn’t related to higher sexual satisfaction. Instead, sexual satisfaction was linked to higher satisfaction with their relationship, better communication and prioritizing the importance of sex.

“It’s good to see that menopause is not nearly as important [to sexual satisfaction] as their relationship with the person they’re having sex with,” Leidy Sievert said, “because menopause is blamed for so many things.”

Thomas said she hopes physicians will use the information to be more proactive in asking older female patients about sexual activity.

“It’s something doctors should be doing,” she said. “A lot of women actually want to talk about sex with their doctor but may feel they can’t. But if physicians are aware that a lot of these women are sexually active and interested in maintaining a healthy sex life, they can bring it up.”

More information

The U.S. National Women’s Health Network offers strategies on staying sexually active after 60.

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Impotence Linked to Risk of Type 2 Diabetes

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, July 20, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Men who experience impotence may face twice the risk of undiagnosed type 2 diabetes compared to men without such sexual problems, a new study suggests.

“This effect was more significant among middle-aged men 40 to 59 years old,” said lead researcher Dr. Sean Skeldon, a resident in family medicine at the University of Toronto in Canada.

“The probability of having undiagnosed diabetes increased from one in 50 in men without erectile dysfunction, to one in 10 in men with erectile dysfunction,” Skeldon said.

It’s important to note this study only found a link between impotence and type 2 diabetes. It didn’t prove a cause-and-effect relationship between the health issues.

The report was published in the July/August issue of the Annals of Family Medicine.

For the study, Skeldon’s team collected data on more than 4,500 men 20 and older who took part in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2001 to 2004.

The researchers looked at the association of erectile dysfunction with undiagnosed high blood pressure, high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes in that group.

The investigators didn’t find any link between having trouble achieving or keeping an erection and undiagnosed high blood pressure or high cholesterol.

But they found that the prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes was 11.5 percent in men with impotence compared to about 3 percent among men without the disorder. In men aged 40 to 59, the rate of undiagnosed diabetes was 19 percent in men with erectile dysfunction compared to 3 percent in those who didn’t have erectile troubles, the study found.

Erectile dysfunction is a risk factor for future heart disease, Skeldon said. Unlike diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol, which typically have no obvious symptoms, impotence is something men recognize as a problem, he said.

“Men with erectile dysfunction should see their doctors to ensure they are properly screened for diabetes,” Skeldon said. “Doing so may help prevent heart disease down the road. Conversely, doctors should ensure that they perform the proper screening for men with erectile dysfunction.”

Dr. Joel Zonszein, director of the Clinical Diabetes Center at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, said, “Usually, erectile dysfunction is not an early complication of diabetes — it’s a late complication caused by changes in nerve function.”

These findings indicate that men with erectile dysfunction may have had undiagnosed diabetes for an extended time, he added.

However, men with impotence who are at an early stage of diabetes may have another medical problem having nothing to do with their diabetes that led to the erectile dysfunction, Zonszein said.

Zonszein said doctors are often lax in asking their patients about their sexual health. “In clinical practice we don’t get a good history of erectile dysfunction,” he said.

Doctors should get a history of sexual function, because erectile dysfunction can be a sign of undiagnosed diabetes, Zonszein explained.

“Diabetes is not a benign disease,” he said. “We have to make the diagnosis early and we have to treat diabetes early and aggressively.”

More information

For more about erectile dysfunction and diabetes, visit the American Diabetes Association.

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