Feeling down about your sex life? Here’s how you could have things looking up again.
Professor Geoff Hackett, medical adviser for men’s telehealth company Hims, shared five lifestyle choices that could be causing erectile dysfunction (ED), The Huffington Post reported.
ED — the inability to develop or maintain an erection — impacts 40% of men by the time they are 40 and 70% of men who are 70, according to Cleveland Clinic. Over 50% of men will suffer from some kind of ED.
This is due to things like health and aging, but could be exacerbated by the following:
Fatty Food
Eating fatty foods like saturated animal fats, trans fats, and cholesterol could be preventing you from rising to the occasion, according to Hackett.
A fatty diet could lead to atherosclerosis in the heart, which is when fat clogs the artery walls and makes your arteries narrow. At worst, this could lead to a heart attack and stroke.
ED could actually be one of the first signs of the condition.
“ED can be an important early warning sign that the smaller arteries of the penis are being affected and that larger arteries will be affected unless medical issues are addressed. In a large study from Italy, 2 years of intense diet and lifestyle intervention produced only moderate reduction in ED,” Hackett said.
Eating Sugar
Unless sugar is the name of your romantic partner, you might want to refrain from eating it.
Eating a diet full of sweets makes your blood sugar go up which causes your pancreas to produce insulin to bring it back down.
“The more sugar you eat, the more frequently this cycle happens and the more likely it is that it will affect your sexual health,” Hackett said.
He also explained that ED could be a symptom of Diabetes.
“Early medical intervention can be helpful,” Hackett said.
Drugs and alcohol
While substances like alcohol lower inhibition, they can also raise blood pressure and cholesterol and lower testosterone, all of which can impact sexual performance.
“This leads to ED, low sexual desire[,] and delayed or absent orgasm,” Hackett said.
He said that certain “anabolic steroids and supplements” for athletic performance and antidepressants could also impact desire and delay ejaculation.
Smoking
There’s yet another reason to stop polluting your lungs. Nicotine in cigarettes is a vasoconstrictor — meaning it constricts blood flow to arteries.
“The small blood vessels of the penis are especially vulnerable and smokers have 1.5 to two-fold increased risk of ED,” Hackett explained.
He said health benefits from smoking can happen within weeks, but an increase in sexual performance can take six months.
Stress
Being stressed can impact your hormones and reduce libido, Hackett explained.
“Stress is associated with increased levels of adrenaline which causes difficulty in maintaining an erection and also affects the production of sex hormones, especially testosterone, that may reduce libido,” he said.
In addition to adrenaline, the stress hormone cortisol also affects testosterone production.
Tips to improve sex life
Hackett said certain lifestyle changes can make a difference in ED, but if you’re experiencing it, you might want to get checked out for health issues.
As for ways to improve time under the sheets, Hackett said eating healthy food, practicing breathing exercises, incorporating meditation or undergoing sex therapy could be helpful.
Improving things in the bedroom goes beyond health, however. Those looking to spice things up may want to try mutual masturbation with a romantic partner, according to researchers from the University of Southampton in the UK.
New research published in the International Journal of Impotence Research suggested that self-administered radio waves could also get things moving again.
A bevy of other alternative ED treatments have recently emerged, such as a quick-acting nasal spray, or even the use of Botox.
