NEW YORK: People should immediately consult a doctor if they are suffering from erectile dysfunction or impotence because they may face the risk of developing heart diseases, studies indicate.

Previous studies have already shown that people who have erectile dysfunction are, in fact, more likely to develop cardiovascular disease in the future. One of the new researches that connect erectile dysfunction to cardiovascular diseases like coronary artery disease looked at a group of 3,912 Canadian men, nearly half of whom reported having erectile dysfunction in the four weeks prior to visiting their family physicians.

The scientists revealed their findings after taking the men's cholesterol, glucose and blood pressure measurements.

"When you calculated a global cardiovascular risk it was strongly associated with the probability that you had erectile dysfunction," said Steven Grover, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at McGill University Health Centre in Montreal. "A man could perceive decreased blood flow to the penis as being a less strong, a weaker erection, and that may actually be one of the first indicators of blood vessel disease," said Ian Thompson, an expert in urology.