Can diet improve the sexual function?

Sexual dysfunctions are a common problem. 152 million men in the world, over 35 million men in Europe and 1.5 million men in Poland suffer from this problem. Statistics on women suggest that every other woman has this problem. The majority of examinations done on men illustrate that risk factors of erectile dysfunction and cardiovascular diseases are the same and first of all they are: high cholesterol level, high triglycerides level, hypertension, diabetes, obesity and smoking. In the case of women, according to previous reports the results are similar. Moreover, the more risk factors the higher the probability that sexual dysfunctions will occur. Therefore, changing the lifestyle and diet is the main method for preventing and treating sexual dysfunctions as in the case of cardiovascular diseases. The Mediterranean diet is an antiatherosclerotic diet as it is rich in vegetables, fruit, seeds, nuts, whole grain products, fish and olive oil. Patients with the metabolic syndrome, which was a tangible cause of sexual dysfunctions, after using a diet typical of Mediterranean countries have improved in this sphere of life. At the same time an improvement of their lipid profile (decrease in total cholesterol, LDL and triglycerides and increase in HDL cholesterol) and blood glucose level and reduction of blood pressure and body weight were observed.