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Exercise and erectile dysfunction.

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Lifestyle vs magic pills.

Pic: Ad for magic pills.
I was downtown a couple days ago and saw light-blue pfizer ads for viagra on all the buses and trams. Heavily disguised, of course, cos it's illegal to advertise prescription drugs to the general public, over here ("pfizer" "you can talk about erection." "certainerections.fi").

It's like, argh.

Given these ads, guys have even more performance pressure, which is sure to affect their performance.

Let's think about the idea of magic pills for all our troubles for a while. Viagra for floppy guys is a very good example of this sort of non-thinking.

Most men who have trouble getting it up are elderly, don't exercise all that much, and either are already on heart meds or are getting there.

It's precisely these folks who'll die when they overstrain, having sex with the help of viagra. Not the best of strategies, Pfizer, where your customers suddenly stop buying your products - sudden death, ahhah, I kill myself, ahhah again, I'm so funny.

If you're not elderly, and if you exercise, sleep enough, make sure you're not overstressed, eat well and regularly, don't booze too much, and still can't get it up, get help. And no, I don't mean viagra.

I've seen mentions of 1.5 hours of exercise 2-3 times a week being more effective than viagra, but couldn't find the article. (Any of you know details for that study?)

Instead, I found this German study, very nice, that measured the effects of pelvic floor -specific exercise (kegels are good for guys, too) vs. the effects of Viagra vs. the effects of placebo. Now I realize that most of you don't read German, but for those who do, the study is here, as a pdf, or here, as a google-cache html.
Executive summary: exercise the pelvic area regularly (daily? 2-3 times a week? They didn't specify in the study report) (specifically, exercise the muscle between the testes and the anus) and your erectile performance is up by 80 % (74 % for viagra, 16 % for placebo). And your hardness is improved (48 % of exercisers, 0 for the others).

That's quite interesting. See, exercise actually gets to the cause of the problem, while popping a pill will lead to long-term trouble as you make the underlying problem worse.

And that's why herbalists dislike magic pills, no matter what the color. No, we prefer powdered reindeer horn any day. At least that won't kill you.


... on another note, never say that researchers don't have a sense of humor.

Comments

Constrict anus 100 times a day to goodbye depression!

Now,now. Everyone knows that the most popular form of American excercise is swallowing. It's just our way to share our disorders with the rest of the world.

'course, other very popular exercise modes also include lifting your hand from the table to your mouth, and moving from the sofa to the fridge and back...

As I was skimming one of Rosemary Gladstar's books earlier, it dawned on me that those cases of infertility which can be aided by improved nutrition/rest form a parallel to the ED example in this post.

Others?
Maybe proton pump blockers for heartburn? I'm not an herbalist, I'm a first-year pharmacy student.

A lot of female infertility stems from "Syndrome X", that is, hyperinsulinemia. Add magnesium, zinc, B6, E, fish oils, and cut out simple carbs (potatoes, rice, bread, pasta, sugar) and you're pretty much fertile. And have lowered the risk for adult onset diabetes by a couple orders of magnitude.

Yep, Viagra's not for everyone. A recent survey in England showed that among ED sufferers of at least 55 years of age, vacuum pumps are still the preferred treatment. ED drugs are simply overhyped monsters that may have applications, yes, on temporary basic for heart maintenance and even erection maintenance, but one shouldn't make Viagra a habit.

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