VIRILITY. According to most dictionaries, it's a word synonymous with manliness; one used to refer to the very essence of all things society regards male. By all accounts, virile men are blessed, showered with strength, forcefulness and sexuality. But what of those who aren't?

ACCORDING to Dr. Lance Webb, an American specialist who this week presented a series of public lectures on issues affecting health, male virility - or lack thereof - has become a growing concern in recent years, particulary among western society.

It's one of a number of health problems which he feels have recently increased as a result of the unhealthy nature of our environment and the manner in which we live as a society.

"Male virility is a major issue," he said. "It has grown into an epidemic within the United States where we're talking as many as one in every four or every six men will run into impotency problems. And it's beginning to show no respect for age. I have patients in their late teens, patients in their early twenties, who have that problem on a regular basis. It's showing up that early in life."

Male impotence, or erectile dysfunction, is the inability to achieve or maintain an erection of sufficient rigidity, making vaginal penetration and sexual intercourse impossible. It was once thought the problem was almost entirely psychological, but research has since shown that in more than 75 per cent of cases there is an identifiable medical cause.

"You're looking at blood flow," said Dr. Webb. "You're looking at a muscle that's different from a regular voluntary muscle. You're looking at the integrity and the health of arteries. When you have a male who reacts to life situations in a very stress-like manner, when you have a male eating the wrong kinds of foods, doing the wrong types of things and (participating in) what I call the 'Errors of Living,' then inevitably, you're going to have that type of problem. And that's what we're seeing.

"There's a correlation between unhealthy practices and the consequences they reap. So (impotence may be caused) by a myriad of practices - the kinds of things a male does, the environment he's subjected to and how he lives his life. All of that will contribute to that one bottom line."

The doctor said many of his patients came to him only as a last resort. Most, he added, would rather not admit to being anything less than a tiger in bed. "There's this problem that men in the western world have, this machismo thing. So they're the last ones that are going to show up in the office. Most often I'll have men come in very grudgingly because their wives have told them they have to go in. Or the man knows he's in trouble and comes as a last resort.

"There are some who come right out with it: 'Doc, help me out. I'm having erectile dysfunction syndrome. What am I to do?' Others are less straightforward: 'I just have a problem from time to time. My wife suggested I come in. Really, doc, I'm healthy.'

"And then, because they've all heard of Viagra, they'll ask if I have something Viagra-like that doesn't have the toxicity of Viagra. I'll have men literally purchase cases of certain hormones that we have manfactured or had manufactured which are very effective."

Dr. Webb was on the island through his affiliation with the AAS Bermuda Group, a Pan-African organisation with chapters all over the world. While here, he spoke at the Eden Project, an environmental exposition organised by the Bermuda National Trust, and presented two workshops at CedarBridge Academy - Correcting Children's Learning and Behavioural Disorders, and Male Virility.

"Within (our) organisation, there's a consortium of physicians," he said. "With tons of information flying over the Internet, it becomes difficult for people to discern what is truth and what is commercial hype.

"One of the reasons I'm here is to begin that whole dialogue so that when people hear information in the media or from a company that sells brand X, they're able to discern whether it's legitimate or not legitimate; so that they're able to work out on their own whether or not they should buy the product.

"Part of what (our society) tries to promote, is that if we're going to have a civilisation, it has to begin with the health of the people within that society. Ill-health will not give birth to a stable, civilised society." According to Dr. Webb, the medical community has documented a general decline in health in recent years, with erectile dysfunction only one example of how people are being affected. It's a challenge, he explained, which has a greater impact on society than the scar it might leave on a man's self-esteem.

"It can obviously cause a huge dwindle in the population," he said. "But outside of that, it can actually decrease the quality of the individual you're giving birth to. It's possible to genetically pass illnesses through damage to the sperm from teratogenic-type substances such as cigarette smoke. A teratogen is a particular kind of substance that will actually damage the DNA."

HE added: "So you will see some defective things occurring - whether it's mental, emotional or physical - to that offspring. What we're talking about is the quality of the testosterone. We're all interested in having our children have a better position, or career, or job. And that's fine and dandy. But you have to start with the quality of the individual that you bring into the world if you are fertile enough to actually do that.

"I have witnessed a drastic decline in the quality of health within our population and it's been illustrated through illnesses across the board. If you look at Type II diabetes - non-insulin dependent diabetes - you'll find it's not just 45 and 50 year olds who are suffering. Now we have children, now we have teenagers who have the same kind of ailment.

"We have auto-immune diseases which are striking children. We're having children born with cardiovascular diseases. We're seeing all types of genetic diseases, of congenital diseases, which are really degenerative. We're looking at individuals who are maybe seven or eight years old, but who have a health profile like a 68 year old. And we're not looking and seeing that one generation is separate from another. What we're looking at is a continuum. And that does not exclude male virility. That does not exclude low levels of testosterone in males. And that does not exclude prostate problems - which are a major issue for men of African descent."

Why prostate cancer affects men of African descent more than any other race is a riddle as yet unsolved. However, said Dr. Webb, stress could factor into the answer. "We can equate it to the number one cause of most illnesses, which is labelled as stress - how we react to challenges out there. And (men of African descent) have been challenged. But it also has to do with all that we have within our environment.

"There are tons of pollutants, tons of chemicals within our environment, known as hormone disrupters, and we're also subjected to some of the worse quality kinds of foods. There's no way our ancestors would have ever considered eating the bowels of a pig and yet we sell that as one of the most glorified types of soul foods."

Antibiotics injected into animals reared for human consumption, and products used to improve the quality of drinking water, compounded the problem, he added.

"That, within and of itself, (affects us) but (in the United States), people should also be concerned about the hormone disrupters found in the water. What they do is cause a tremendous imbalance and an overdose of certain types of hormones cause prostate cells to multiply. And, of course, you see an end product that can lead to cancer."

A cross-cultural study in Europe and the United States saw autopsies conducted on thousands of men with cancer cells found in the prostate tissues of so many that researchers deduced that anywhere between 92 per cent and 98 per cent of all men in the western world have some form of prostate cancer.

"The only difference between the male who gets the verdict and has to go in for surgery or radiation, versus the one who never feels the symptoms, is that prostate cancer is not a very aggressive type of cancer. It can stay encapsulated within that tissue for decades without any signs or symptoms."

The only way in which western society could hope to improve, Dr. Webb added, was by establishing an international benchmark based on healthy standards rather than those accepted as societal norms.

"We did cross-cultural studies and found that men on the African continent, not having been subjected to the western lifestyle, and men in Asia and South America, don't have (our) problems. A study conducted several years ago, which measured the testosterone levels of 60 to 80 year olds in Central and South African countries, and compared that to the testosterone levels in the United States, showed those (men in the) African countries had the levels of teenagers in the prime of their life in this country.

"What we need to do is set a standard. We need to say, here's what the blood pressure levels are like of men at this age who are very healthy, and have that as the worldwide standard instead of what is common in our own little sectors of the world. (The results) beg the question, 'What are they doing that we're not doing? What are we doing that we need to change'?"