Erectile Dysfunction

Many men will face erectile dysfunction at some time in their life; the inability to get an erection or the problems to maintain an erection. There are of course many well known erection pills on the market like Viagra®, Cialis®, Levitra®, to call but a few of the best known brands.

Although these medicines are a great help in achieving an erection and maintaining it, they are not a solution to the underlying problem. They only treat the symptoms of erectile dysfunction (often with success), but they don’t solve the underlying cause.

Also, for some men taking erection pills is just not an option because they have a medical condition, which can make taking these pills life threatening. And then there are those men who refuse to take erection pills because they don’t want to get dependent on them. In other words, they fear that after taking these erection pills they might not be able to achieve an erection without them anymore.

Although I am in principle not against the use of medicines that can improve the performance in bed, I do also understand this objection. My position is that one should avoid using erection pills as long as possible. It shouldn’t be any more than the last resource.

It is much better to try and solve this problem in a more natural, more ‘holistic’ way, before looking for salvation in all kinds of erection pills. According to me there are enough alternatives to fight an erectile dysfunction. Especially if your erection problems have a psychological origin, you’ll see that there are plenty of solutions other than taking erection pills.

A closer look at erectile dysfunction

The best way to decide whether your erection problems have a psychological (as opposed to physical or medical) origin, is to check out your erections.

This may sound strange, but what I mean is this:

Do you always have problems with getting and/or maintaining an erection? If so, you need to see a doctor as soon as possible for further investigation. It could be caused by your entire blood flow system and could be a symptom of an underlying cardiovascular disease.

Do you have problems to get an erection when you want to have sex, but have no trouble getting and keeping a stiff penis while you are relaxed and are masturbating on your own? If so, the cause of your erection problems is probably psychological.

In the same way, when erection problems occur suddenly, or only occur in certain situations, the cause will most likely be psychological. Erection problems with physical causes are mostly ongoing and slowly build up.

Two factors of erectile dysfunction: Excitement and relaxation

We can come up with several reasons for a psychological erectile dysfunction. The two most important factors for an erection are, on the one hand, excitement, and on the other hand relaxation. If one of these is missing, it will be very difficult to get and/or keep an erection.

Excitement

One cause of erectile dysfunction can be the lack of excitement. You will have to look at your sex life. Do you both still try your best to keep the sexual excitement in your life? Or has it become the proverbial 2.5 times a month? It is important to keep communicating with your partner and to look together at what you can do to change this. You can find plenty of tips on this site to reignite the passion in your relationship, so I’d say, use them.

One of the biggest evils in causing the lack of excitement can be a lot of (or too much) masturbation, in combination with porn watching. You create your own fantasy world with stimuli for yourself that can’t be realised by your partner in the real world. A recent Italian study has concluded that watching a lot of  (or too much) porn can over time indeed lead to loss of libido and in the end even to total impotence.

Relaxation

Another important and often occurring cause of erectile dysfunction is the lack of relaxation. In other words: stress.

This stress can be directly related to your sex life: the stress to perform and fulfil expectations. This stress can get really high, especially when you have a new bed partner. Few things can be as deadly for an erection as the pressure to perform. The best you can do is talk about it. Your new bed partner probably experiences a similar pressure to yours. By talking about it you can bring it all back to normal levels for each other. Because after all,

we’re just humans.

Stress can also be caused by events outside of the bedroom. Stress at work often has an adverse effect on your libido. Your colleague got the promotion you deserved, the threat of redundancy after a reorganisation. All these can make you feel bad in your skin. The car needing a costly repair and financial worries are also not helpful to your performance in bed.

The erectile dysfunction is a natural reaction

It is good to understand that a (psychological) erectile dysfunction is in the end a completely normal and natural reaction. Body and mind are sending out signals telling you that the situation or the circumstances you are in are not optimal for sex, that there is something going on in your life that isn’t right, that there’s something you have to change. It can be your relationship, your obsession with porn, that you need to get to know your partner better, your work situation, etc.

Very often, just knowing that it is a natural reaction can suddenly make you feel like a weight drops from your shoulders, and the problem can alleviate. This is what I meant by ‘holistic’ approach at the start. Body and mind need to be balanced. Your mind may want a lot of things (like sex), but if your body (your penis) doesn’t cooperate, it often stops there.

A nice example of this (we’ve all been there once in our lives) is erection problems as a result of excessive alcohol use.  You stormed into the bedroom with your partner full of alcohol-fuelled elation, only to discover that your penis refuses to serve. This is a clear message form your body: “all good and well, but you’d better go and sleep off this intoxication first”.

A healthy life means a healthy erection

Ultimately a healthy life is often the key to a healthy sex life. A good diet, plenty of movement, taking time for rest and relaxation and having enough sleep. Maybe you smoke. If so, you should stop. Smoking is one of the worst things you can do to get and maintain an erection. This is also printed on the packages since a few years ago. Binge drinking has an immediate negative influence on your blood flow and so on your libido and on having an erection problem or not. Regular exercise on the other hand, has a positive effect on your blood flow. Exercising is also an ideal way to de-stress and to put your troubles to the side; to forget the stress of a long and busy day at work. Exercise and also enough rest ameliorate the production of testosterone, the male hormone which is crucial to the getting and keeping of an erection. The right diet also ensures a healthy hormone level.

So if you have concluded that your erectile dysfunction is not caused by underlying medical conditions, then first have a look at which of the things mentioned above you can improve; your relationship, your diet and your life style. Often this can change things dramatically for the better. There’s always the possibility to grab those erection pills anyway.