It appears interesting that 2 of the world’s most intellectual and scientifically productive minds commented often about the relevance of sexual function and its potential problems. Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832) was not only a writer and scientist who independently discovered the human intermaxillary bone in 1784 and the first who formulated a theory of plant metamorphosis, but many of Goethe’s artistic works such as Faust or the Venetian Epigrams do contain a relatively heavy sexual content, since he saw sexuality in general as a topic that merited poetic and artistic depiction. A few hundred years earlier than that, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), the epitome of the Italian Renaissance stated: “The penis does not obey the order of its master, who tries to erect or shrink it at will, whereas instead the penis erects freely while its master is asleep. The penis must be said to have its own mind, by any stretch of the imagination.” Since then, researchers have determined the penis isn’t quite as independently minded as da Vinci observed hundreds of years ago, but is largely under the control of the central nervous system and its function as a sexual organ is highly dependent on vascular properties. In spite of the appreciation of sexuality as essential in human life and the attempts to understand the pathophysiology of dysfunction by these and several other extraordinary minds, the acceptance of sexual problems, in men as well as in women up to this day and therefore, the intuitive search for scientific answers continues to be blurred by an overwhelming lack of comprehension. Sexual Dysfunction in Cardiac Rehabilitation Patients Is Much More Than Simply an Epiphenomenon and Needs More Study Ernst R. Schwarza and Biing-Jiun Shenb
