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Scientists develop new cure for impotence
Wednesday , 13 Dec 2006

NEW YORK: Scientists in the US have developed a new treatment to cure impotence in a bid to give men total control over their love lives.

Many men who use drugs like Levitra and Viagra claim there is a lack of spontaneity, as sex has to be planned in advance by taking a pill.

Arnold Melman, a professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, and other researchers developed the new treatment after identifying a gene responsible for the condition, said the online edition of Daily Mail.

Thirty percent of impotence cases have psychological reasons, but the remaining 70 percent are physical. Heart disease and diabetes are two of the biggest causes in the middle-aged and elderly.

"One of the attractions of the new drug - Maxi K - is that men have just two injections a year and do not have to worry about taking pills. They can just forget they have a problem," the researchers said.

Melman said: "The existing impotence drugs can have side effects, such as making men feel dizzy. But so far we have found none with gene therapy.

"The initial trial took 11 impotent men - two of who were able to have intercourse for six months after having their gene therapy jab."

"It would have worked for all 11 patients, but initially we had to give a combination of low doses and high doses becauseuse this was a phase-one safety trial, principally looking at the safety of the therapy," the researchers said.

The two men for whom it worked had the highest doses of the drug(Levitra or Viagra). The new treatment could become available in less than five years.