Potent Treatment Strategies to Address Men’s Sexual Health
May 09, 2014
Story at-a-glance
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Men with chronic premature ejaculation may benefit from
pelvic exercises, commonly used to treat incontinence. Men
achieved a more than fourfold increase in stamina by the end
of the three-month pelvic exercise program
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Erectile dysfunction can be successfully addressed through
lifestyle alterations involving weight management, proper
diet, increasing your activity levels, avoiding alcohol, and
improving your sleep
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Among men with heart disease, 75 percent also have problems
with erections. In fact, impotence can be an early warning
sign of coronary artery disease. A heart-healthy lifestyle
is therefore imperative
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Ensuring your testosterone and human growth hormone levels
are optimized—through high-intensity exercise and
intermittent fasting—can go a long way toward boosting your
libido and sexual performance
By Dr. Mercola
Healthy sex cannot be underestimated as a factor for reducing
stress, bolstering self-esteem, and fostering feelings of intimacy
and bonding between partners. This goes for both men and women,
although men tend to be encouraged to use sexual-enhancement drugs
like Viagra when their virility starts to peter out.
An estimated 30-40 percent of adults experience a lack of
interest in sex for at least several months in any given year.1
The reasons for low libido are complex and run the gamut from stress
and other emotional difficulties to physical problems, including
erectile dysfunction.
Most men, however, really do not need drugs to address such
issues. What they probably DO need is a lifestyle adjustment. Your
sexual health has a lot to do with your lifestyle, and a variety of
all-natural strategies can be helpful in this area.
Pelvic Exercises Can Address Premature Ejaculation
For example, according to recent research presented at the
European Congress of Urology in Stockholm, men with chronic
premature ejaculation can benefit from pelvic exercises,2
commonly used to treat incontinence. According to the American
Urological Association, premature ejaculation affects about one in
five American men below the age of 60.
Forty men between the ages of 19-46 were included in the study.
All had lifelong premature ejaculation, defined as ejaculation
occurring within one minute. The men were instructed to perform
pelvic exercises three times a week for 12 weeks; 20 minutes per
session. As reported by the featured article:3
“At the start of the study, the men's average time to
ejaculation was about 32 seconds. That improved to almost 2.5
minutes -- a more than fourfold increase -- by the end of the
three-month pelvic exercise program. Only five men in the study
had no significant improvement...”
The exercises are similar to, but a bit more complex than regular
Kegel exercises. More women than men might be familiar with the term
“Kegel exercise,” or “Kegel squeeze.” It’s performed by drawing your
lower pelvic muscles up and holding them up high and tight.
The action you’re performing is similar to trying to stop
urinating in the middle of the flow. This can help to strengthen
your pelvic floor muscles. The pelvic exercises used in this study
were designed to re-educate to either contract or lengthen,
on demand.
According to lead researcher Dr. Antonio Pastore, you need at
least 12 sessions’-worth of training to learn the proper techniques.
Ideally, you’ll want to see a trained pelvic rehabilitation
practitioner. For an online directory of practitioners, see the
Herman and Wallace Pelvic Rehabilitation Institute’s website.4
Impotence Can Be Reversed Through Simple Lifestyle Changes
Erectile dysfunction, another increasingly common problem among
men, can be successfully addressed through lifestyle alterations
involving weight management, proper diet, increasing your activity
levels, avoiding alcohol, and improving your sleep. All of these
factors contribute to impotence, according to recent research
published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.5,
6
It’s well worth noting that among men with heart disease, 75
percent also have problems with erections. In fact, impotence can be
an early warning sign of coronary artery disease,
since your penis is more sensitive to slow-downs in blood flow than
your heart. In addition, men with high blood pressure, elevated
cholesterol, diabetes, and smoking are substantially more likely to
have trouble getting erections. As reported by Health24:7
“Erectile dysfunction and low sexual desire is often
linked to the development of heart disease. The researchers
discovered that a large proportion of men were able to naturally
overcome erectile dysfunction with heart-healthy changes – no
pharmaceutical help necessary... What's the connection between
impotence and heart health?
‘An erection is a hydraulic event dependent on the
dilation of blood vessels that carry blood to the penis,’
explained [lead author Dr. Gary] Wittert... ‘Although other
issues such as nerve damage and hormone abnormalities can also
lead to erectile dysfunction, the failure of the blood vessels
to dilate properly is one of the more common causes,’ Wittert
said. ‘This is an early abnormality in the pathway to more
serious heart disease’...
One expert said the study carries valuable lessons for
men worried about their sexual health. ‘As we get older, there
are some natural things we just can't change. The message from
this study is, don't get a prescription, but get exercise. Get
rid of the fat. Work on the depression,’ said Dr. David Samadi,
chairman of the department of urology at Lenox Hill Hospital,
New York.”
Heart-Healthy Strategies That Will Promote Sexual Health
The following list summarizes the key lifestyle strategies you’ll
want to incorporate in order to protect your heart and improve your
sexual function.
- Eat a heart-healthy diet. Key dietary
considerations include avoiding sugar, fructose, grains, and
processed foods if you are insulin and leptin resistant. It
doesn't matter if they are conventional or organic, as a
high-sugar diet promotes insulin and leptin resistance, which is
a primary driver of heart disease. Eat a healthful diet of whole
foods, ideally organic, and replace the grain carbs
with:
- Large amounts of vegetables
- Low-to-moderate amount of high-quality protein (think
organically raised, pastured animals).
- As much
high-quality healthful fat as you want (saturated and
monounsaturated). Most people need upwards of 50-85
percent fats in their diet for optimal health. Good
sources include: avocados, coconuts and coconut oil, butter
made from raw grass-fed organic milk, raw dairy, raw nuts,
organic pastured egg yolks, and grass-fed meats.
- Exercise regularly. Be sure to incorporate
high intensity interval training (HIIT), as this type of
exercise promotes your body’s natural ability to optimize
hormones like
testosterone and human growth hormone (HGH)—both of which
are important for sexual performance and male vigor.
Weight training also helps boost testosterone naturally.
- Try intermittent fasting. An effective
strategy for enhancing weight loss and promoting both
testosterone and HGH release is
intermittent fasting. It helps boost testosterone by
improving the expression of satiety hormones, like insulin,
leptin, adiponectin, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1),
cholecystokinin (CKK), and melanocortins, which are linked to
healthy testosterone function, increased libido, and the
prevention of age-induced testosterone decline.
- Optimize your vitamin D levels, ideally
through appropriate sun exposure as this will allow your body to
also create
vitamin D sulfate — a factor that may play a crucial role in
preventing the formation of arterial plaque that is linked to
erectile dysfunction. Vitamin D also increases levels of
testosterone, which may boost libido. In one study,8
overweight men who were given vitamin D supplements had a
significant increase in
testosterone levels after one year.
- Get plenty of
high-quality, restorative sleep.
- Learn to deactivate stress. Stress can
dampen your libido and make sex the last thing on your
mind (a catch-22, since sex will help to reduce your stress
levels significantly). Taking control of your emotions by
learning the Emotional Freedom
Technique (EFT) can help in this area. EFT is a
psychological acupressure technique that can help you
effectively address your stress-related thoughts, leaving you
feeling calmer and more able to face your challenges, whatever
they may be, so you’re able to focus on more enjoyable pursuits.
- Avoid medications, as many can
cause or exacerbate impotence. Top offenders include
antidepressants (SSRIs and tricyclics), 5-alpha-reductase
inhibitors (used to treat
enlarged prostate), antihistamines, opioid painkillers
(Vicodin, Oxycontin, and Percocet), blood pressure medications,
and others.
Other Natural Alternatives That Can Help with Sexual Dysfunctions
Addressing lifestyle factors like diet and
exercise should be at the
top of your list if you’re experiencing any kind of sexual
difficulties. That said, there are a few natural alternatives that
can be helpful, in addition to the basics listed above. This
includes (but is not limited to) the following:
- Panax ginseng and Maca root
have been used for centuries as libido-boosting tonics.
- L-arginine. This amino acid has a
beneficial influence on blood vessel health, which indirectly
can benefit erectile dysfunction by improving cardiovascular
function. It appears to help with erectile dysfunction by
enhancing the action of
nitric oxide, which in turn helps relax your blood vessels,
including those supplying blood to your penis. As blood vessels
in your penis dilate, it increases blood flow, which helps
maintain an erection. (This is also how drugs like Viagra work.)
It’s not a magic potion in and of itself, however. Some studies
have found its effectiveness alone is on par with a placebo. But
several studies have concluded that L-arginine in combination
with other herbs is a remarkably effective treatment for mild to
moderate ED.
- L-arginine combined with pycnogenol (a plant extract
from the bark of a French maritime pine tree) provided
“significant improvement in sexual function in men with ED
without any side effects,” according to one study.9
- The combination of six grams of L-arginine with six
milligrams of yohimbine was found to be “a promising
addition to first-line therapy for ED,” according to a pilot
study published in the journal European Urology.10
In combination with yohimbine, it’s also been found to
increase sexual arousal in postmenopausal women with sexual
arousal disorder.
- Choline and vitamin B5 supplements. The
neurotransmitter that triggers the sexual message, in both men
and women, is acetylcholine (ACH). With too little ACH, sexual
activity goes down. One way to safely and effectively enhance
ACH levels in your body is to take choline supplements
(1,000-3,000 mg) and vitamin B5 (500-1,500 mg).
Kick Your Sex Life Into Gear Without Pills
Ensuring your hormone levels (including testosterone and human
growth hormone) are balanced and optimized will go a long way toward
boosting your libido and sexual performance. Again, high intensity
exercise and intermittent fasting are the two most effective ways to
do this. Certain pelvic exercises have also been found to be helpful
for men experiencing premature ejaculation.
Do keep in mind that a heart-healthy lifestyle, summarized above,
is paramount for treating impotence, as erectile dysfunction is
actually an early warning sign of impending heart disease. Again,
about 75 percent of men with heart disease also have problems
achieving or maintaining an erection. Besides boosting your sexual
health, you’ll also reach a whole new level of overall health that
can add years to your life.
© Copyright 1997-2014 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.
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