How Your Significant Other Can Help with Your Erection Health

Your significant other has a vested interest in your erection health, because if you begin to experience erection problems, it will certainly be reflected in the quality of your partner’s sex life. Fortunately, the woman in your life can help to encourage behavior that will protect your erectile function so that together you enjoy as fulfilling a love life as possible.

And your significant other also can help you to maintain a positive attitude by showing compassion and understanding on those occasions — pretty much inevitable in every man’s life — when things just don’t seem to be working as they should.

Healthy Lifestyle Decisions

Whether you’re living together with your significant other or just hanging out most of the time, your partner can help steer you in the right direction toward lifestyle decisions that promote erection health rather than hinder it.

Although erection problems have a variety of causes, the biggest single cause of impotence is diminished blood flow to the penis. So steps to preserve cardiovascular health not only protect erectile function but may also help to head off the threat of a future heart attack or stroke.

Here are some concrete measures that your partner can take to promote a long and happy love life for the two of you.

1. Make It a Team Effort: Nothing rings quite so false as the do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do syndrome. If your significant other truly cares about your erectile health — and your health in general — she will probably be happy to join with you in measures that can help to ensure that the two of you stay healthy. Or to put it another way, what’s good for the gander is certainly good for the goose as well. She may never face a problem with impotence, but by adopting healthier habits that promote sound cardiovascular health, she will benefit in more ways than one.

2. Eat a Healthy Diet: No matter where you and your significant other dine on a regular basis, eating healthy is a must. And if she can help you to stay on the straight and narrow, diet-wise, most of the time, both of you will reap the benefits. And to support strong erectile function, it’s important to eat a heart-healthy diet, because the same blood vessels that may clog and make it more difficult to get an erection may eventually become so seriously blocked that they compromise other aspects of your cardiovascular health.

The link between erection problems and heart health is all too often overlooked, but your significant other will be doing both of you a favor if she makes it a point to remind you of this reality from time to time. If she isn’t already familiar with the basics of heart-healthy eating, she should make it her business to learn them.

Generally speaking, an erection-friendly diet steers clear of high-calorie, high-fat, and high-cholesterol foods while maximizing your consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, low-fat poultry, whole grains, and polyunsaturated fats. The latter include omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids and can be found in nuts, seeds, fish, and vegetable oils, such as olive oil. Your intake of red meats, which tend to be high in unhealthy saturated fats, should be limited.

3. Cook Up a Special Meal: While eating a healthy diet is essential to the maintenance of strong erectile function, there are a handful of foods that have developed a reputation as being particularly erection-friendly. As a sign of her love and affection — not to mention concern that you’ll be ready for action when necessary — your significant other can plan special meals that feature one or more of the following foods:

Garlic and onions are rich in allicin, which thins the blood and boosts circulation. Follow with breath mint. Cherries, berries, and red- and purple-skinned grapes are loaded with plant chemicals known as anthocyanins, which help to prevent the buildup of artery-clogging plaque. Especially abundant in red wine, resveratrol is a plant chemical that promotes your body’s production of nitric oxide, which in turn supports strong blood flow. And don’t forget oysters, nature’s aphrodisiac, which contain plenty of vitamin B6 and zinc, both of which trigger increased production of testosterone. For a thoughtful finishing touch, she might want to include a dessert featuring dark chocolate, which is loaded with flavonoids that promote strong circulation, essential for the erectile function.

4. Stay Active Together: If you and your significant other tend to be a bit on the sedentary side, she can help you to maintain erectile health by slowly getting the two of you up and moving around. If the two of you have really been couch potatoes of long standing, it would be a wise idea to check first with your personal physicians before hitting the gym too hard. If you’ve both been inactive for awhile, it’s best to start slow. But even a little exercise is better than none, and once you begin to reap the benefits of your exercise program, you’ll probably be tempted to expand it as time goes on.

As with a healthy diet, a regimen of regular physical activity not only supports good erectile function, but it also helps to combat atherosclerosis, the clogging of arteries that carry oxygen to your heart and brain.

5. Keep Alcohol Consumption in Check: It’s hardly a secret that a glass or two of wine or perhaps a cocktail can help set the mood for romance, but having too much to drink is likely to spoil the party for both of you. Your significant other can set the right example by limiting her alcohol intake and encouraging you to do the same.

6. Stop Smoking: If you’re among the dwindling number of Americans still hooked on nicotine, your significant other can do you a real solid by encouraging you to kick the habit. And if she’s still a smoker herself, she can join you on a team effort to quit. Multiple studies have shown that nicotine damages blood vessels, hampering blood flow. And strong blood flow is essential to getting and keeping an erection strong enough for intercourse.

7. Replenish Vitamin D Stores: The primary function of vitamin D, sometimes known as the sunshine vitamin, is the maintenance of normal levels of calcium and phosphorus in the blood. However, an Italian study, published in 2014, indicates that a deficiency of the sunshine vitamin can significantly increase a man’s risk of developing erection problems. To help ensure you avoid such a problematic deficiency, your significant other can do her best to see that you get plenty of exposure to the sun or, if you’re a night owl, encourage you to eat more foods rich in the vitamin or take supplements. Among the few foods with significant levels of vitamin D are fatty fish, such as mackerel, salmon, and tuna. Some processed foods, such as milk, margarine, and yogurt, are fortified with extra vitamin D.

Photo credit: Caroline

Don Amerman is a freelance author who writes extensively about a wide array of nutrition and health-related topics.