The first long-term dietary trial demonstrating that the Mediterranean diet conferred benefit on both prevention (56% relative risk reduction) and deterioration of sexual dysfunction in both men and women with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes, is published. Maria Ida Maiorino, of the Division of Endocrinology and metabolic diseases at Second University of Naples, Italy, and colleagues confirms “in adults with type 2 diabetes, a Mediterranean-style dietary pattern may improve the inflammatory milieu and cardiovascular risk; both these effects being beneficial to achieving improvement of sexual dysfunction in people with diabetes.”

Maiorino and colleagues analyzed data from the Mediterranean diet and Type 2 Diabetes (MEDITA) study, a two-arm, single-center randomized trial, investigating the long-term effect of a Mediterranean diet on both incident erectile dysfunction and female sexual dysfunction in people with type 2 diabetes and the combined incidence of sexual dysfunction with worsening of sexual function in those participants with sexual dysfunction at baseline.

Researchers randomly assigned participants to a Mediterranean diet (n= 108) or a low-fat diet (n = 107), with a mean follow-up of 8.1 years. Participants completed sexual function questionnaires (International Index of Erectile Function and the Female Sexual Function Index) at baseline and every 6 months. There were no between-group differences in sexual function at baseline in men or women.

Over follow-up, those assigned to a Mediterranean diet were less likely to develop erectile dysfunction (HR = 0.44; 95% CI, 0.191) or female sexual dysfunction (HR = 0.44; 95% CI, 0.191) vs those assigned to a low-fat diet .Secondary outcome was also lower in the Mediterranean diet group; the HR for new erectile dysfunction and deterioration of preexisting erectile dysfunction was 0.41 (95% CI, 0.21-0.83) vs. the low-fat group; HR for new female sexual dysfunction and deterioration of preexisting female sexual dysfunction was 0.5 (95% CI, 0.25-0.99). Those in the Mediterranean diet group also lost more body weight over follow-up vs. the low-fat group (–0.98 kg).

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