This isn’t just performance anxiety we’re talking about here. This is full blown, unable to perform, erectile dysfunction symptoms. So what do you do about it?
No problem, right? Just pop a Viagra or Cialis and you’re good to go for the next 4 hours (anything longer and the term “priapism” no longer seems like a laughing matter…). Of course, if you’re Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets, you fear for your safety if you happened to be taking any blood pressure or heart medications. Other than that, we are led to believe from the commercials that we have little to fear and that a tiny little pill can help you rise again like a 16 year old teenage boy in the girls’ locker room.
If you think that you need to avoid Viagra or Cialis because you have a heart problem or high blood pressure, you’ve got it absolutely backwards.
There is no longer any question that erectile dysfunction (aka impotence) is strongly linked to heart disease. Just for clarification, we are not talking about psychological impotence, but rather physiological impotence. If you have any question about which you may have, Google “stamp test.”
Here’s where the association is.
The enlargement of the penis is dependent upon the opening of blood vessels that fill it with blood and create the erection. But, if someone has blood vessels problems (vascular dysfunction–the beginning stages of heart disease and stroke) and the blood vessels begin to plaque, you lose the ability to move blood to create an erection.
In other words, erectile dysfunction = bad blood vessels.
Not a good thing. And NOT something that any medication is going to fix. As always, this requires comprehensive lifestyle changes to pull back from heart disease. And let’s face it–if fixing erectile dysfunction is not incentive enough, NOTHING else will be!
Ironically enough, studies have shown to those who engage in more regular sexual activity actually have lower risk of heart disease. There are, of course, hundreds of other ways to lower your risk of heart disease and improve the health of your blood vessels. Many of these can be found here.
So, if you or your partner are experiencing erectile dysfunction, you need to understand that you are a ticking time bomb. This particular article demonstrates just how bad it is.
Researchers found that, in men aged 40-49, the presence of impotence was associated with a FIFTY TIMES likelihood of having heart disease.
Fifty times. Let’s put this another way. If you were a 4 pack a day smoker for 30 years, you would still be less likely to get lung cancer that an impotent 49 year old man is of having heart disease. I hope that’s clear.
If you are someone who experiences erectile dysfunction and you are not willing to make lifestyle changes, please let me know why you’re sticking with this decision…