Jan. 24, 2006 - 18:12 MST

THINK ABOUT

Professor Paul Campos of Colorado University at Boulder, Colorado has an article in today's Rocky Mountain News which brings out things I have been pondering. In full:

DYSFUNCTIONAL OR JUST AGING ?

"A couple of years ago, as my father and I watched a telecast of an NFL playoff game, we were bombarded with commercials for erectile dysfunction drugs. Every one included the tag line, "Ask your doctor if Viagra (or Cialis or Levitra) is right for you." After about the tenth one, my father, a retired physician, exclaimed wilth exasperation, "How the hell am I supposed to know if Viagra is right for you?"

"This comment pointed toward a couple of truths. First like most any other doctor, my father's knowledge of the pharmacological effects and potential risks of an erectile dysfunction drug would be limited to what a pharmaceutical company sales representative had told him about that drug."(The notion that your doctor "knows" something as immensely complex as the field of medicine is as misguided as the idea that your lawyer knows "the Law.")

"The more important truth implied by his comment was the point that, when considering whether whether something is "right for you," the scientific information available on the subject is probably a minor consideration. After all, there is surely at least one other person whose opinion on the matter ought to be far more critical than your doctor's."

"Indeed, the concept of what counts as a disease or a dysfunction is in many ways a product of social and economic factors, as well as the definitions of medical science -- or rather, the latter definitions are to a great extent driven by the former factors, rather than simply being objective scientific observations."

"This is especially true in the case of something like erectile dysfunction. The phrase itself was invented fairly recently, to replace the old term "impotence." This was done in part because of the negative metaphorical connotations of the old word, but also because "erectile dysfunction" sounds more like a treatable medical condition."

"Once something that was formerly considered merely another fact of life has been transformed into a medical condition, that is, a kind of disease, the boundaries of that disease tend to get defined by cultural and economic considerations. What is now called erectile dysfunction descrilbes a much broader range of physiological outcomes than were covered by the old term impotence, which signified that a man was more or less completely incapable of engaging in sexual intercourse."

"Now "erectile dysfunction" has come to meanwhat was formerly known as "low sex drive." In other words, older men who notice that their interest in, and performance of sexual activities is not as enthsiastic or frequent as it was when they were 25 -- which is to say almost all older men -- are being encouraged to think of themselves as having a syndrome or disease. (Another, obviously problematic, market for these drugs consists of young men who wish to be able to have sex while drunk").

It may well be that for most of the men who make up the target market for erectile dysfunction drugs, the only "disease" they are suffering is that they are getting older. Yet it is clearly in the interest of many economic actors, and most especially in the pharmaceutical industry, to transform as many of the natural processes of aging as possible into diseases."

"Indeed, the makers of the the three major erectile dysfunction drugs, concerned about what they perceive as relatively slow growth in a market that produced "only" about $3 billion in sales last year, are launching ad campaigns to make more men aware that, contrary to their previous self-perception, they may be suffering from erectile dysfunction."

"What they (and we) are really suffering from is considerably harder to cure."

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It appears to me that we have become a nation (and perhaps world) of worshippers of the abilities of youth. We want to be able to run as fast, jump as high, and go for longer periods of endurance as we did when we were in our 20s. And of course many of us wish to be as (or more) handsome and the ladies chase youthful beauty as well.

From personal experience it easy for me to see that age does have its effects, none of which gives me superman capacities. Also noted is that people with heart problems who take certain prescription medications, diabetic men and others suffering from geriatric disorders (wear and tear for one) do not have the blood flow capacity to do that thing that we once did, like we did years ago.

Rather than chase the will-o-the-wisp of sexual athletic performance I prefer to enjoy life as it comes, do what is possible and not fret and throw money at the industry to make me as I once was. That cannot happen as I see it, a losing battle to regain the powers of youth, for me it is anyway.

Mr. Campos puts it out on the line and gives us something to THINK ABOUT . . . . . . . . .

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