Erectile dysfunction: natural cure for impotence, premature ejaculation and sexual performance The effects of stress and anxiety Erectile dysfunction (ED) is quite a delicate subject and many men shy away from opening up to discuss their problem. ED is very common, in fact over 18 million men in the US are affected by ED, but yet other estimates say the number is almost double the amount. It’s common to experience ED as you age and many men will experience it at some point or another, although chronic or long term ED isn’t considered normal. Erectile dysfunction also known as impotence, happens when a man cannot maintain or obtain an erection which stops him from having full sex, being able to perform or last in bed. There are many factors that go into a healthy erection, such as the bodily systems – hormones, blood vessels, nervous system, the brain, emotions and muscles. If a problem interrupts any of these areas, it can cause impotence. Let’s look at what can contribute to ED: Heart disease High blood pressure High cholesterol Prostate cancer Enlarged prostate Damaged pelvic floor muscles Anxiety Insufficient sleep Sedentary lifestyle Depression Diabetes Obesity Damaged nerves Blocked blood vessels Low testosterone Medications Hard drugs Smoking High alcohol consumption There are a lot of factors that result in ED but the two most common are stress and anxiety and it’s important to note that these two contribute to high blood pressure and cholesterol. Although a small amount of stress and anxiety is good for motivation, if it builds up and becomes prolonged over time it can cause unwanted responses in your body, impotence being one of them. When a man experiences impotence it increases his stress response, this can lead to anxiety and even depression which makes the effects of ED even worse. If you experience ED then it’s likely that you’ll experience performance anxiety which of course can produce even more stress. Men often focus too much on satisfying their ego by making sure their partner is satisfied rather than themselves. In most cases men are too proud to talk to their partner or seek professional help to discuss their problem and may even try to avoid sex altogether which can put a major strain on your relationship, or your confidence if you’re single. Stress management is key here and it’s likely that you’ve identified stress and anxiety to be the main cause of your ED. Although this could be the case, it’s still wise to go and visit your GP in case any of the above are contributing also. As well as a visit to the doctors, counselling and psychotherapists can be of great help to your concerns. Don’t suffer in silence about ED, as soon as you talk to your GP the sooner they can identify the problem or contributing factors and the sooner you can return to full sexual function. Let’s look at the common treatments for ED Penis exercises Blood vessel surgery Testosterone therapy Prescription medicine Injections Penis pump Quit smoking Reduce alcohol consumption Weight loss Sexual anxiety/psychological counselling Sexual performance anxiety Performance anxiety is one of the biggest contributors to ED. This can cause constant worry, or dreading of sexual encounters, some men may even try to avoid sex all together. Let’s look at what men fear the most during sex: Getting an erection Keeping an erection Worried that they can’t satisfy their partner Fear that their penis is too small Fear that partners ex’s penis is bigger than theirs Premature ejaculation Self-conscious about their image Statistics show that most men worry about the above but many men can experience anxiety just through watching excessive porn. They put way too much pressure on themselves and think women have all these ridiculous expectations. They worry about things such as comparing their penis to a porn stars penis, they think they need to give their partner 5 orgasms each time they have sex and that they need to go at it for over an hour. It’s easy to lose touch of reality when you get invested in porn, seeing a woman screaming at the top of her lungs pretending to roll around in ecstasy, but this isn’t the real world, its pure fantasy. In some cases it can come down to wanting to feel validated, you may have insecurities by perfecting the sexual act on your partner and you put way too much pressure on yourself to perform because you think this factors into the relationship and that’s what you have to do to keep her. It could even be due to past sexual experiences you’ve had. Sex is supposed to be exciting, passionate and joyful, not a time for worry, stress and anxiety. Men often see sex as some kind of goal they have to achieve to please their partner but this is essentially exercising your ego, it’s not really enjoyment. Sex should come from a place of intimacy and sharing of sexual pleasure, how better would sex be if you felt you were never being judged? Men have these expectations that can create all types of anxieties that don’t necessarily matter. You should never look at sex as a task, it’s all about pleasure for you and your partner. Let’s look at methods to overcome performance anxiety Learn stress managemen t – stress from work, relationships or family can severely affect your performance so learn to manage your anxieties. Learn how to release stress – find ways to release stress such as, working out, yoga, meditation, a hot bath, long walks, whatever works. Block negative thoughts – bring your attention to the way you think during sex as this can be your biggest turn off. Don’t judge yourself, relax and enjoy the pleasure. You can also practice this outside the bedroom to maximise confidence. Deep breathing – deep breathing or controlling your breathing slows down your heartrate that increases due to anxiety. Slowing your heart rate down allows you to relax and focus. Talk about it – talking to a GP, a close friend, member of family or even your partner can help manage your anxiety and help you feel more comfortable. Enjoy sex – sex is supposed to be about pleasure, focus on the sensations you like, what you want from sex and what your partner wants or likes. Share each other’s fantasies. Don’t focus on getting an erection – too often men that have anxiety towards sex, as soon as they get an erection they put pressure on their partner to rush into it and get it in there so to speak. There is no need for this pressure, if you get an erection, fine that’s okay, this means you’re turned on, you don’t need to rush into anything. One of the biggest things men stress out about, is when they are fooling around with their partner, they have taken their clothes off but they aren’t erect. Don’t worry if you’re not completely erect when you’re taking your clothes off, don’t let new or past fears stop you from enjoying sex. You can’t let anxiety over power you, focus and tell yourself you want to use your erection, you can control your anxiety, don’t let it control you. Don’t rush – try to relax and enjoy what you’re doing, get into a flow there is no reason to rush to the finish line. Healthier lifestyle – sleep is one of the most important tools to a healthy sex life. Exercise is great to get the blood flowing, this along with a healthy diet can greatly improve the blood flow to your penis. Plus seeing your body imagine change will improve your confidence overall. Get professional help – sex therapists can help pin point any difficulties you may be experiencing, they will also identify any issues you’ve experienced in previous relationships or sexual encounters. Quit watching porn – porn is simply fantasy. Too often men compare themselves to porn stars, the size of their penis, the duration and positions they can perform etc. This isn’t how it is in the real world, penis’s are of average size more often than none, women find penis size to be at the very bottom of the list, if even on the list at all of their wants/needs in a man. Most women find huge penis’s a turn off, although it can be visually stimulating it isn’t physically, in fact it can be a very painful experience. Also the average duration a couple has sex in reality is between 5-15 minutes. Porn isn’t at all sex education it is pure fantasy. Distractions are a no-no – concentrate on your partner and pleasure, don’t think about anything else, channel in and focus, also don’t use a distraction to delay yourself from ejaculating either, use the edging technique below. Limit drugs and alcohol – you may use drugs or alcohol as a way to relax, intensify pleasure or to become more confident, but over time excessive use of drugs and alcohol can have the opposite effects. The Pelvic Floor Muscles It’s likely that you’ve heard of the kegel exercise at some point in your life, and perhaps only thought that these exercises apply to females to strengthen the vagina after child birth. Well males can greatly benefit from kegels too! kegels are specifically designed to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles, which can help you to improve the quality and duration of your erection. Other benefits include a more intense orgasm, indirect enlargement of the penis and can help cure ED. You can maximise your overall results by combining kegels with Jelqs or stretches. The most common method of finding your PC (Pubococcygeus) muscle is while urinating, slowly contract the muscles which will either stop or slow the flow of urine, those are your pelvic floor muscles. I advise you not to do this though as it can cause an infection, instead a safer method is while you are erect, simply move your penis up and down to find your pelvic floor muscles. For men kegels are a great way to improve the overall health and hardness of the penis and enables the ability to last longer in bed. Kegels have one goal which is to strengthen your PC muscle. This muscle is similar in both men and women, it stretches from the tail bone up to the pubic bone which creates a hammock – like muscle floor. The kegel exercise is different to all other penile exercises in that it contracts and strengthens real skeletal muscles – the pelvic floor muscles. Just like women, men can find kegels very beneficial to improving their sex life. It is common that men skip out on kegel exercises as many do, because they are the only exercise that do not directly enlarge the penis. However kegels for men have a much wider range of other benefits, few of which that can cure problems or enlarge the penis indirectly. Some of these benefits include: Increased blood flow helping you achieve a longer lasting harder erection. Improved erection angle. Increased ejaculation force and volume giving a more intense explosive orgasm. Helping you to control your ability to ejaculate, allowing greater sexual stamina. Indirectly enlarges the penis with increased blood flow. Helps cure urinary incontinence and the ability to hold in urine for longer especially during the night. A healthier prostate and can be used in treatment of prostate swelling and pain due to BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia). Can help prevent prolapsed pelvic organs. Kegel exercises The PC muscle is easy to find, as I mentioned before these are the muscles you use to move your penis up and down while erect. Just focus on lifting the entire pelvic floor upward, and continue to breathe throughout the contraction. Hold the contraction for as long as possible, don’t worry if you can only hold it for a few seconds or not at all. Try to record how long you can hold the contraction for, slowly release and repeat for seven to ten repetitions. Each time you kegel gradually build up the duration so that you can squeeze the muscles for ten seconds at a time. You should be able to see or feel your testicles lift when you perform the exercise correctly and you may notice an improvement in your pelvic floor muscles in as little as 4 weeks. Kegels can be fun as you can do them anywhere, it requires no assistance from your hands or legs – you can perform them while you’re at work, watching TV or even in the car. It’s always best to start off slowly and increase the intensity over time. This is my recommendation to get you started with kegels: For the first four weeks try to achieve 50 reps per session, 3-5 days per week having rest days in-between. Try to maintain each contraction for at least 5 seconds depending on your existing pc muscle strength. As you become more experienced with Kegels and perform them more frequently, your pc muscle will become stronger and you’ll be able to hold the contraction for a longer duration. Gradually work your way up from 5-10 minutes per day incorporating more Kegels into your routine. Once your pc muscle is conditioned, you’ll gain the ability to stop yourself from ejaculating, which is possible by tightening the contraction for around 10 seconds just before the point of no return. You can practice this while masturbating, when you feel you are at the point of no return simply hold the contraction for 10 seconds or longer. Once the urge to orgasm subsides simply release the contraction, this process may take weeks, months or even years to perfect. Combining Kegels with Jelqs and stretches will promote more blood flow to the penis which will enhance the effectiveness of each exercise. Kegel exercises can be fun to add pleasure to your sexual experience. When a woman squeezes her pc muscles her vagina walls tighten, increasing the pressure and pleasure for both involved. As you start to practice Kegels you may unconsciously Kegel during sex, which may cause you to ejaculate too soon as continuous contractions quickly drains the strength and endurance of the muscle. I understand it may be tempting to kegel as much as possible at first, but it’s important not to over train. Instead of seeing positive results the whole process will become counterproductive. Bodybuilding is a great comparison as someone who over trains their muscles would become too sore or may injure themselves being unable to continue, essentially overtraining and causing atrophy. This will do more damage than good. Always listen to your body and allow yourself time to rest and recover to reap the full benefits. Too much masturbation Before we get into masturbation I feel it’s important to note that kegeling too much either during sex or masturbation can cause penis fatigue leading to weak erections or no erections at all. Chronic masturbation can lead to exhaustion and a drop in testosterone levels. Let’s look at some of the effects of chronic masturbation. Weak erections No morning wood Feeling tired Fatigue Pelvic pain Testicular pain Lower back pain Changes in vision At the end of the day masturbation is healthy, the penis needs exercise to keep it in shape, have you ever heard the phrase “use it or lose it?” well the same applies here. Your penis also needs nutrients to keep the blood vessels and tissues healthy. A few erections throughout the day and throughout the night are healthy as this helps to keep erection strength. Healthy testosterone levels are also very important to ensure proper blood flow. So you can see that masturbating occasionally can keep your penis healthy and in shape. Think of it this way, if a bodybuilder did nothing but train his arms everyday he would be constantly overtraining, cause fatigue to his biceps and this can even cause muscle atrophy which is shrinkage of the muscle. The same can apply to
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