A healthy sex life is important for any man, regardless of age. If you’re healthy and have equally healthy erections, keeping it that way should be a priority. For men who have problems achieving and maintaining an erection, improving overall health can have restorative powers.
From watching what you eat to avoiding things you already know are unhealthy, keeping your whole body in good condition is the best thing for guarding your erection health.
Here are 5 things you can do to preserve strong erections, or help regain what you once had:
Eat Right, and Get Enough Exercise
You don’t have to be Ironman. Just eat sensibly. Get out there and move around to keep your cardiovascular system in shape.
Being overweight and leading a sedentary life can lead to so many health problems. Those problems can have a direct effect your erection health.
Strong muscles and bones reduce your risk of injury. And back injuries can cause erection dysfunction. A strong heart and lungs pump oxygenated blood throughout your body, and a healthy blood supply is vital to erections. Losing stress over body image and clearing your head through exercise can reduce your risk of depression, which can help boost libido. This is only the smallest list of the benefits of eating right and exercising.
There is so much unnecessary confusion about eating right. In most cases, anything that’s extreme is a waste of good grocery money, and it’s also risky to your health.
If you have weight to lose, don’t fall for the quick fixes such as The Cabbage Diet or eating only protein, or anything else that inordinately restricts which nutrients you’re getting. You might lose weight with any of those plans, but your health will take a hit.
The same theory applies to exercise. You don’t need to work out as if you’re training for a triathlon. Moderate exercise, done regularly, is good for the body and the mind, both of which play a role in healthy erections.
A word about biking: Bike rides are great for your heart. But long periods of time spent on a traditional bike seat can damage your ability to achieve and maintain an erection. Most of your weight is supported by a very small seat, and the part of your body that rests on that seat is filled with nerves and blood vessels that help make an erection happen.
Watch Your Cholesterol, and Be Aware of Diabetes Risks
High cholesterol and diabetes can both impair the body’s natural reaction to sexual stimulation. Even with a strong libido, both of these conditions can stop the erection process right in its tracks.
Cholesterol can create thick, waxy deposits inside blood vessels. Chances are, you’re familiar with how dangerous that is for your heart. When blood can’t get through freely, the heart is strained and the parts of the body that don’t get adequate blood suffer from what is essentially malnutrition. Nourish your whole body with healthy blood by keeping cholesterol down.
Remember, blood vessels supply the penis, as well as the rest of the body. Strong erections depend on strong, healthy blood vessels.
Diabetes is another risk. Type-2 diabetes, or adult-onset diabetes, is often caused by being overweight, although there are genetic risks, too.
Where diabetes is present, the body can’t control its blood sugar without careful diet, exercise, and sometimes medication. Uncontrolled blood sugar puts stress on blood vessels, and can ultimately damage them, according to Mayo Clinic.
Neuropathy, which is nerve damage, is another diabetes risk. There are several different types, says the National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse, but autonomic neuropathy can damage your natural sexual response. Nerves signal the release of nitrous oxide into the penis; when those nerves are damaged, this part of the erection process can suffer.
Go Easy on Adult Beverages
Having a drink or two isn’t necessarily a threat to erection health. Your age and overall health are factors in whether alcohol is a bad idea for you.
In younger men, low to moderate alcohol consumption — a drink or two — can enhance libido and shouldn’t impede sexual performance. The McKinley Health Center, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, explains that alcohol can lower inhibitions, reduce anxiety, and encourage erections.
In older men, the opposite may be true. Older men who drink more than moderately may experience erection difficulties, especially if the drinks are consumed shortly before sex.
Drinking a lot of alcohol is another story altogether. Consuming alcohol in large quantities over a long period of time can lead to many health conditions, not the least of which is problems with erection health. WebMD says heavy drinking can lead to nerve damage, which can damage erection health.
Skip Muscle Enhancing Vitamin Supplements
Anabolic steroids generally offer one benefit, muscle enhancement, but carry along a host of problems that outweigh it. They are also addictive, which makes their use even more dangerous.
Some anabolics are available as supplements from a vitamin store, but that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily safe. The National Institute on Drug Abuse says they are directly related to shrinking of the testicles, infertility, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and blood cholesterol changes. Any one of those should be reason enough to avoid anabolic steroids.
The cardiovascular effects can directly impair the ability to achieve and maintain an erection. Erections depend on the blood supply; when it’s restricted or otherwise unhealthy, erections can suffer. The good news is that short-term use and the accompanying side effects are often reversible. The longer anabolic steroids are used, the less likely those effects are to be reversed.
Stop Smoking, or Don’t Start
Smoking is bad for you. In a 2004 study, “Do Cigarette Smokers with Erectile Dysfunction Benefit from Stopping?: A Prospective Study,” researchers noted that smoking is a “known risk factor” for erection health issues. The goal of the study was to determine whether stopping smoking could reverse the effects.
Researchers discovered that the severity of erection problems was in direct correlation with how much a subject had smoked, and for how long. Further, at the end of one year, 25 percent of men who stopped smoking saw an improvement. Men who continued to smoke saw little or no improvement in erection health.
Smoking harms nearly every part of the body. It can damage blood vessels, cause high blood pressure, and make blood vessels constrict. When you want an erection to happen, constricted blood vessels is not beneficial.
Erection health is important for men of any age. Youth doesn’t necessarily mean erections are always predictable, and age doesn’t have to mean erections become more difficult.
Your overall health is the primary factor in achieving and maintaining an erection. When health suffers, so can erections. When health is guarded, erections have a much better chance of staying healthy, too.
If you’re on the road to better health, but still have problems with erections, there are medications that can help. PDE5 inhibitors, such as Viagra, Staxyn, Cialis, Levitra, and others, can facilitate erections in men who have difficulties.
eDrugstore.com sells Levitra, Cialis, Viagra, and other erection health medications, all of which are scientifically proven to work. There’s even a sample pack to try, if you’re not sure which one is right for you. We offer the privacy and convenience of online ordering, and your discreetly-packed shipment arrives right at your door. If you’re ready to try something that works, see what eDrugstore.com has to offer.
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