It’s always best to start off an article with a contemporary reference and, as of now, we have the perfect answer to the question, What is longer than an erection? The victory of Isner over Mahut at Wimbledon. Now we have the humor out of the way, we can get to the more important question whether erectile dysfunction is a symptom of diabetes and heart disease. One of the traps you can fall into is assuming there’s nothing seriously wrong with you if erections stop appearing or fade rapidly into the night. This is a kind of self-deception. You decided you did not want to go see a doctor. This was just too embarrassing. The internet is wonderfully anonymous. Everything will be great again once the little blue pills arrive. Well, you need to think again. Adding to the already impressive pile of evidence comes some new research out of Australia which followed a big group of men over a period of years. It seems that men aged 20 and above who experience erectile dysfunction are twice as likely to have a stroke or heart attack than men whose sexual performance is normal. To give you just one set of age-related numbers: if men have a serious episode of erectile dysfunction at the age of 55 and above, 2% will have a stroke or heart attack within twelve months, 11% within five years. The risk is actually greater if you are younger.

Almost 90% of men diagnosed with diabetes have some degree of erectile dysfunction. Now turn this around. If you have erectile dysfunction you should always have the test for glucose levels. Should you have diabetes and fail to get treatment, the progress of the disease slowly destroys the nerve endings controlling erections. So, even though you may have some respite when you begin using the little blue pills, they will slowly lose their effect. If the damage is too serious, you will never have an erection again. There’s no current treatment to repair lost nerve endings.

No matter how you write this type of article, it always ends up alarmist. You know how it works. If you want to live a full and active life, get a check-up. But, no matter how much we might try to wish this inconvenient truth away, it is the truth. So, no pressure, then. If you have what seems to be a sequence of erection failures, you could go online and buy Viagra from one of the pharmacies. The prices are low. You avoid embarrassment. But that does you little good if, a short while later, you begin to experience chest pain. Viagra will keep you going. Diabetes, a stroke or heart attack will stop you in your tracks. This reluctance to have a check-up is self-defeating. Diabetes can be treated and all damage to nerve endings prevented. Similarly, there’s an excellent series of drugs available to reduce the chances of heart disease to zero so long as you start early enough. So no more hiding online with Viagra arriving in plain wrappers. Meet the challenge head on and enjoy sex into your seventies and beyond (that should be "infinity and beyond" given the arrival of Toy Story III).