Erectile dysfunction? Try losing weight
Viagra gets the job done, but it's a fast repair. For numerous males, weaning themselves off the small blue pill and discovering a longer-lasting solution to their sexual dysfunction may require hitting the fitness center and placing down the doughnuts.
A brand new Australian study, published Friday in the "Journal of Sexual Medicine," found that losing just 5% to 10% of physique weight over a two-month period improved the erectile function -- and revved up the sex drives -- of obese males with diabetes.
The study was very little (it included just 31 males), so the results ought to be taken with a grain of salt. However the findings are but another reminder that obesity and erectile dysfunction (ED) frequently go hand in hand.
Excess weight -- particularly excess belly fat -- can affect sexual function in many ways; it can interfere using the body's ability to supply blood towards the penis, for example, and it can cause testosterone production to plummet.
And although the research on weight reduction and sexual dysfunction is still emerging, there's expanding evidence that males who get active, consume healthier foods, and pare a few pounds will see their sex lives improve -- not to mention their overall well being.
In fact, physicians express hope that the promise of an enhanced sex life will finally get via to all of the overweight and obese males who haven't responded to dire warnings about heart illness, diabetes and stroke.
"You speak all the prevention you want," says Kevin Billups, M.D., an associate professor of urology at the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis. "When I speak about restoring penile well being, I have their attention."
When a patient comes to view him about ED, among the 1st issues Billups tells him to complete would be to stand up and look at his belly. "If you cannot see your penis," he says, "that's a problem."
How obesity hits below the belt
Probably the most important way that excess weight drags down a man's sex life is by affecting the well being of his blood vessels.
An erection occurs when the blood vessels leading to the penis dilate, causing it to fill with blood. This procedure begins when the inner lining in the vessels (known as the endothelium) releases nitric oxide, a molecule that signals the surrounding muscles to relax. (Viagra and similar drugs function by growing the quantity of nitric oxide in the endothelium.)
Although specialists aren't exactly sure why, obesity appears to damage the endothelium. And when the endothelium does not function properly, the penis might not get sufficient blood to create or sustain an erection.
"An erection is essentially a cardiovascular occasion," says Robert A. Kloner, M.D., a cardiologist and professor of medicine in the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine, in Los Angeles. "If blood flow cannot improve since the blood vessels can't dilate usually, then there's a decrease in erectile function."
Sure enough, in the new study, endothelial function enhanced within the males who lost weight. (Function was measured using two various laboratory tests.)
Poor heart well being can trigger ED in an additional way. The fatty foods and lack of exercise that cause weight acquire also contribute towards the narrowing and hardening of arteries (atherosclerosis), in which cholesterol as well as other substances build up in the artery wall.
Atherosclerosis, which can result in heart attacks if it occurs in main arteries close to the heart, can happen just as effortlessly in the little blood vessels top to the penis.
In fact, atherosclerosis may hit those little blood vessels 1st, which is why ED is increasingly noticed as an early warning sign of heart illness, Kloner says.
The function of testosterone
Blood vessel issues are responsible for the vast majority of ED instances in obese men more than 40, experts say, but an additional common culprit is low testosterone, that is also linked to obesity. Adequate levels of this male sex hormone are necessary to maintain sex drive and get erections.
Low testosterone is "very much underdiagnosed," says Ronald Tamler, M.D., co-director in the men's well being plan at the Mount Sinai Medical Center, in New York. "And as we are all getting fatter, it's becoming an increasing issue."
Those large bellies Billups warns his patients about are particularly worrisome with regards to testosterone. Belly fat, a powerful predictor of heart risk, seems to have a higher effect on the hormone than excess fat distributed in other parts in the body.
"That's the poor actor that causes all sorts of inflammatory mediators and various substances to become emitted in to the physique which will lower testosterone," says Billups, who research the relationship in between heart health and sexual dysfunction.
Losing even just a little weight can enhance blood vessel function (as the new study shows), but the impact of weight loss on testosterone levels might not be as rapid or as direct. Men who have persistently low testosterone levels and ED despite reducing weight might need to think about testosterone gels, shots or patches, Tamler says.
Weight reduction can turn things about
Becoming overweight doesn't seem to impact a man's self-esteem as much as it does a woman's, says Joel Block, Ph.D., a psychologist on Long Island who specializes in couples therapy and sex therapy. ED, however, can trigger a cycle of shame and doubt in even probably the most confident men.
"Once [ED] occurs it becomes self-perpetuating," says Block, an assistant clinical professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in New York City. "The much more he fails, the more difficulty he has."
Ultimately, Block says, a man will start to avoid sex. And his condition may plunge him into depression.
"Even when you have clear cut medical reasons -- diabetes, obesity -- when you're getting erectile dysfunction...it's depressing," Billups says. "A lot of these men [are] down within the dumps."
Losing weight will help using the plumbing aspect of ED, however it can also provide an ego increase that carries more than in to the bedroom, says Stephen Josephson, Ph.D., a psychologist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
"People need to feel great about themselves [to] overcome efficiency anxiousness and other things in the sex arena, and sometimes it is as easy as getting into shape," Josephson says.
Some males who've relied on pills like Viagra or Cialis to get erections can toss them once they start exercising, eating right and reducing weight, Billups says.
These men might see their morning erections return, he adds, and their wives happen to be recognized to say they are acting "friskier."
"They'll come in and tell me, 'Wow, doc, things are truly turned around,'" he says.
A brand new Australian study, published Friday in the "Journal of Sexual Medicine," found that losing just 5% to 10% of physique weight over a two-month period improved the erectile function -- and revved up the sex drives -- of obese males with diabetes.
The study was very little (it included just 31 males), so the results ought to be taken with a grain of salt. However the findings are but another reminder that obesity and erectile dysfunction (ED) frequently go hand in hand.
Excess weight -- particularly excess belly fat -- can affect sexual function in many ways; it can interfere using the body's ability to supply blood towards the penis, for example, and it can cause testosterone production to plummet.
And although the research on weight reduction and sexual dysfunction is still emerging, there's expanding evidence that males who get active, consume healthier foods, and pare a few pounds will see their sex lives improve -- not to mention their overall well being.
In fact, physicians express hope that the promise of an enhanced sex life will finally get via to all of the overweight and obese males who haven't responded to dire warnings about heart illness, diabetes and stroke.
"You speak all the prevention you want," says Kevin Billups, M.D., an associate professor of urology at the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis. "When I speak about restoring penile well being, I have their attention."
When a patient comes to view him about ED, among the 1st issues Billups tells him to complete would be to stand up and look at his belly. "If you cannot see your penis," he says, "that's a problem."
How obesity hits below the belt
Probably the most important way that excess weight drags down a man's sex life is by affecting the well being of his blood vessels.
An erection occurs when the blood vessels leading to the penis dilate, causing it to fill with blood. This procedure begins when the inner lining in the vessels (known as the endothelium) releases nitric oxide, a molecule that signals the surrounding muscles to relax. (Viagra and similar drugs function by growing the quantity of nitric oxide in the endothelium.)
Although specialists aren't exactly sure why, obesity appears to damage the endothelium. And when the endothelium does not function properly, the penis might not get sufficient blood to create or sustain an erection.
"An erection is essentially a cardiovascular occasion," says Robert A. Kloner, M.D., a cardiologist and professor of medicine in the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine, in Los Angeles. "If blood flow cannot improve since the blood vessels can't dilate usually, then there's a decrease in erectile function."
Sure enough, in the new study, endothelial function enhanced within the males who lost weight. (Function was measured using two various laboratory tests.)
Poor heart well being can trigger ED in an additional way. The fatty foods and lack of exercise that cause weight acquire also contribute towards the narrowing and hardening of arteries (atherosclerosis), in which cholesterol as well as other substances build up in the artery wall.
Atherosclerosis, which can result in heart attacks if it occurs in main arteries close to the heart, can happen just as effortlessly in the little blood vessels top to the penis.
In fact, atherosclerosis may hit those little blood vessels 1st, which is why ED is increasingly noticed as an early warning sign of heart illness, Kloner says.
The function of testosterone
Blood vessel issues are responsible for the vast majority of ED instances in obese men more than 40, experts say, but an additional common culprit is low testosterone, that is also linked to obesity. Adequate levels of this male sex hormone are necessary to maintain sex drive and get erections.
Low testosterone is "very much underdiagnosed," says Ronald Tamler, M.D., co-director in the men's well being plan at the Mount Sinai Medical Center, in New York. "And as we are all getting fatter, it's becoming an increasing issue."
Those large bellies Billups warns his patients about are particularly worrisome with regards to testosterone. Belly fat, a powerful predictor of heart risk, seems to have a higher effect on the hormone than excess fat distributed in other parts in the body.
"That's the poor actor that causes all sorts of inflammatory mediators and various substances to become emitted in to the physique which will lower testosterone," says Billups, who research the relationship in between heart health and sexual dysfunction.
Losing even just a little weight can enhance blood vessel function (as the new study shows), but the impact of weight loss on testosterone levels might not be as rapid or as direct. Men who have persistently low testosterone levels and ED despite reducing weight might need to think about testosterone gels, shots or patches, Tamler says.
Weight reduction can turn things about
Becoming overweight doesn't seem to impact a man's self-esteem as much as it does a woman's, says Joel Block, Ph.D., a psychologist on Long Island who specializes in couples therapy and sex therapy. ED, however, can trigger a cycle of shame and doubt in even probably the most confident men.
"Once [ED] occurs it becomes self-perpetuating," says Block, an assistant clinical professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in New York City. "The much more he fails, the more difficulty he has."
Ultimately, Block says, a man will start to avoid sex. And his condition may plunge him into depression.
"Even when you have clear cut medical reasons -- diabetes, obesity -- when you're getting erectile dysfunction...it's depressing," Billups says. "A lot of these men [are] down within the dumps."
Losing weight will help using the plumbing aspect of ED, however it can also provide an ego increase that carries more than in to the bedroom, says Stephen Josephson, Ph.D., a psychologist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
"People need to feel great about themselves [to] overcome efficiency anxiousness and other things in the sex arena, and sometimes it is as easy as getting into shape," Josephson says.
Some males who've relied on pills like Viagra or Cialis to get erections can toss them once they start exercising, eating right and reducing weight, Billups says.
These men might see their morning erections return, he adds, and their wives happen to be recognized to say they are acting "friskier."
"They'll come in and tell me, 'Wow, doc, things are truly turned around,'" he says.
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