HARD!
Maintaining Potency,
Eliminating Erectile Dysfunction
and Enjoying Healthy Sex for Life
2nd Edition – May 2012
by
Mr. Robin D. Ader
SMASHWORDS EDITION
* * * * *
PUBLISHED BY:
Robin D. Ader on Smashwords
HARD!
Maintaining Potency,
Eliminating Erectile Dysfunction
and Enjoying Healthy Sex for Life
Copyright © 2011-2012 by Robin D. Ader
Smashwords Edition License Notes
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person with whom you share it. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.
Important: This book is meant to provide direction to health related information. It is made available as a convenience to assist men in understanding possible causes of their maladies and potential courses of treatment. This book's purpose is to translate certain health related information and jargon into lay terms. Nothing presented should be taken as a diagnosis and no treatment should be inferred from the guidance provided here. It cannot take the place of a proper medical examination by trained and licensed physicians; in fact, you are strongly encouraged, here and throughout the text, to have a complete medical examination following your discovery that you have, or suspicion that you might have erectile dysfunction or any other health issue for which you may have selected this writing for guidance.
Table of Contents
This book is rated “R”
And something for the Ladies, too
Chapter 1: A Preview of the Plan
It’s a Cafeteria Plan
My Credentials
My “AHA!” Moment
Chapter 4: Dead Men Don’t Get Laid
See Your Doctor Anyway
PART II – Identifying the Problem & Seeking Solutions
Chapter 5: Why ED Drugs Are Not the Answer
There is No Such Thing as a “Side Effect!”
Chapter 6: How Happy Harry Happens
Nitric Oxide – Part I
The Three EDs
Rowing Down the Alimentary Canal
Diet: a Definition
The Answer My Friend is Blowin’ in the Wind
About Vegetarianism
Food Combination
A Brief Digression Regarding Milk
Think I Don’t Know Shit? Well, I Do
A Well-Formed Stool is Not a Wood Shop Project
And Then There’s Pee
Chapter 8: Eat, Drink, and Be Harry
Food Quality
What the Hell is Organic Food Anyway?
Ode to the Chicken
ANDI Score?
It’s Not Just the Food We Eat
Pure, Clean Water
A Note on Drinking at Meals
A Two-Way Street
Burps & Belches
The Little Greek Whore
And Your Sweat Stinks, Too!
Chapter 9: Inflammation Nation
A Brief Digression about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)
Nitric Oxide – Part II
How to Put Out the Flames
In a Perfect World...
Coffee, Tea, and Other Caffeinated Drinks
Chapter 10: The Does Makes the Poison
The Nexus of My Hypothesis
Good News – Bad News
Chapter 11: Are You Poisoning Peewee?
Have a Period, Please
Lymphomania
Air Cycling: and Exercise for ED
Chapter 12: The Spinal Connection
A Brief Review
Stretching Your Psoas
The Psoas Stretch – an Exercise
Chapter 13: Stress and the Other EDs
E.D. – Erectile Dystopia
Some Tips on Releasing the Pressure on Your Stress Valve
Touch
Laughter
Meditation versus Comtemplation
Your Adrenal Glands and Adrenal Health
Cortisol and Stress
Distress
A Segue to Testosterone
Let’s Talk Liver
The Other EDs
E.D. – Erectile Disinterest
E.D. – Erectile Dissatisfaction
Some Quick Fixes
PART III: General Men’s Health Issues & Things that Help & Harm Harry
“Reduction in Semen”
Chapter 16: Vitamins and Nutritional Supplements
Not All Supplements are Created Equal
Nitric Oxide – Part III
Chapter 17: Things That Harm Harry
Allergies
The Sign of the Beast is [TV]
Eating Just Before Sleep...
Hunger is an Aphrodisiac
Exotic Fruit and Berry “Miracle” Supplements
Pain Killers & Anti-Depressants
An Important Note for Bicycle Riders
Unfit for Fitness?
And finally... Briefs v. Boxers
Thermogenic Foods
Butter versus Any and All Butter Substitutes
Chapter 19: Weight Control and Loss
The Three Keys to Mature Weight Loss
Why We Tend to Get Fat
Fat-O-Stat versus Rapid Weight Loss
Exercise
A note to those that think it is impossible, or at least too difficult to address erectile dysfunction with a drug-free, common sense approach: Patiently read what I’ve discovered. Discuss it with your physician. Become whole again.
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Preface to the Second Edition, May 2012
In this version of HARD!, I expand on the “cafeteria” metaphor which I presented in the first edition. I list specific foods and their relationship to their Glycemic Index, and include suggested herbal, vitamin, and nutritional supplements that will enhance erectile function by promoting nitric oxide production naturally.
I’ve also redacted a lot of philosophy I shoved into the first version of this work. What the hell was I thinking?
The result is a more streamlined book that has much more information directly related to sexual health in a document that’s 30 pages shorter.
~ ~ ~
Forward
This is not a clinical, academic, medical treatment of male sexuality. You don’t need another respectful discussion that speaks to you as if you were an adolescent in a high school health class.
HARD! is written by a man – for men – in the words, phrases, expressions, and with the irreverence that is common to man-speak. This book uses the language and allusion that is the common currency of men in the hallowed halls of government, ivory towers of multinational corporations, and local health club locker rooms.
Most importantly, it’s written by a man who’s been there and pulled himself back from the abyss.
I’m going to suggest how, regardless of your age, you can maintain the ability to get an erection with the objective of confidently engaging in loving and/or fun sex when a woman offers herself to you. The suggestions presented in this book will also promote your overall well being, allowing you to participate in healthy and animated congress with that woman – aka – great sex!
That’s what HARD! is all about.
The subject is critical to men who approach or have crossed the half century mark in their lives. It is also increasingly important to much younger men as well, where erectile dysfunction is growing in frequency among guys as young as their 20s.
This is a serious discussion. My objective is to convey how I overcame erectile dysfunction and now live free from boner-pills and with complete sexual confidence when I am invited to a woman's bed, couch, or kitchen counter.
You are, I'm sure, reading this work with the objective of gleaning important insight into the maintenance and perhaps restoration of erectile function, too – not for you, of course, but “for a friend.”
And just a note: any discussion of sexual organs and sexual activities provides opportunity for humor, and I take full advantage of that, having fun in the process.
And Something for the Ladies, Too
In addition to the indispensable information presented for men, there is also much that women can learn, and from which they can benefit by understanding the sexual function of the guys with whom they share their bodies.
A good portion of the general information and some of the sexual advice that I present is as applicable to a woman’s health and pleasure as it is to a man’s.
If a woman seeks a more meaningful and gratifying sexual experiences with the man/men in her life, then this book will be a valuable resource.
Further, as a couple, a woman's cooperation in the dining room, as well as the bedroom, will be essential to the rejuvenation and enhancement of her man's performance.
In this case ladies, paybacks could be Heaven.
* * *
Foreplay of Sorts
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Chapter 1: A Preview of the Plan
It’s a Cafeteria Plan
I suggest dozens of ways you can cut down or eliminate erection-killing substances from your food, drink, and environment. I provide two exercises that take just less than 20 minutes of your time when performed 10 minutes, twice daily, one of which I designed specifically for erectile health. I will discuss a way of overcoming the psychological factors that can lead to or augment erectile dysfunction. And I will help you identify when ED is not ED.
From these, as on a cafeteria tray, you pick and choose those which you can remove completely, and those that you can reduce from your life.
For many men, the worst offenders – those things that directly affect your ability to get an erection – will gladly be exchanged for a hard dick, along with the confidence you can perform great and frequent sex.
I provide you the knowledge of why these things are harmful. I explain how an erection works, and how each “offender” kills your ability to get and maintain one. That kind of insight helps you to make decisions every day regarding the future of your sex life.
This book describes an overall health regimen; what the hell good is a stiff dick, if your delivery mechanism – the rest of your body – can’t perform; lung capacity, a strong heart, and body stamina are all essential to making love.
And a note for the single guys: what woman will take you to her bed if you look like crap. You don’t have to be slim and ripped, but you can’t look like you’re near death either.
* * *
Chapter 2: My Personal Story
I am a heterosexual man who, through my twenties and thirties, had a prolific sex life. I owned a travel agency, bounced around the world, and had experiences that, if I wrote about, you’d tell me to my face I was full of bullshit.
The 1970s were pre-HIV and pre-Herpes. Virtually all sexually active women were on birth control pills, and meeting a woman at a bar, having a few drinks followed by sex, was common. I had acceptably good looks and a personality, so among my contemporaries, I did well. I maintained my bachelor lifestyle through my 39th birthday.
Then I met a woman who, just after my 40th birthday, I married. This was my first – and to this writing – only marriage.
We were a cliché. We stayed together years longer than we should have for the sake of our daughter in an arrangement devoid of intimacy, and were divorced shortly after our 16th anniversary.
Close to the legal end of my marriage – at age 57 – I received a call from an old lover that I hadn't seen in 20 years. Memories of our sex-charged relationship came back to me in force. I gladly reconnected with her and after a brief re-courtship, we were back in bed.
At the conclusion of our first coital romp, I rolled over and, being the wordsmith that I am, said, “Just like old times.” She responded with, “Yes, but with a lot more heaving and gasping for air.”
I knew I was woefully out of shape and the burning in my lungs confirmed that. Like most guys, I presumed that I would have the stamina to perform “basic” sex.
I had lied; it was not like “old times” or any time in my life, ever. While I ultimately managed to go the distance, much of my exertion was due to... well… going the distance, and not the pleasure of the run. I thought I was out of practice. I thought I was having performance anxiety. But in the morning, the second go-round wasn't any better.
This lady still cared for me, and she gave me every benefit of the doubt; she understood that decades had passed since we had been together and we were both much more “mature.” While I had not been in the arms or vagina of a woman for years, I still remembered what it was supposed to feel like, and this just wasn't right. Not for me and not for her.
On my drive home from her house that first weekend, it came rushing into my consciousness: Could I have erectile dysfunction? Candidly, the precise words and images in my mind were less clinical and certainly not as civil, but that was the bottom line. I think for the first time I actually trembled with fear.
With erectile dysfunction, I faced the devastating prospect of never being able to give that special kind of pleasure that only an erect penis can deliver, to a glorious woman who would bless me with her body. And I would be deprived of the reciprocal joy as well.
With the feel of a woman in my arms with all those wonderful woman-parts to touch and taste, I could feel the feeling, the urge was powerful, but a solid erection evaded me. And each subsequent attempt just brought more angst and disappointment.
Over a period of months, we tried occasionally, never with great success. She kept saying, “It’s okay,” and perhaps it was for her. She was older than I – past 60 – and maybe my companionship was more important to her than sex. But for me, I had gone a long time without. I wanted sex – great sex.
Had that gone well, I might still be with that woman whom I adored.
But it didn’t go well. I got depressed and I got angry. Very angry in fact. Angry enough that my personality shifted and the relationship with my old lover deteriorated. Now I couldn't even keep female companionship which I also craved.
I was a mess, but I wasn't a quitter.
Great sex is like a great dinner. It doesn't matter how fine a meal you've had, or how great the restaurant was, the next day, you get hungry again.
I was starving.
My Credentials
After getting my undergraduate degree in biology in 1974, I continued my studies and earned a Masters Degree. Studies in biochemistry, anatomy, and physiology all provided me with the disciplines required to understand the scientific basis of erectile dysfunction. I also had a foundation in statistics, specifically, the analysis of biological experimentation.
My second credential: I had ED.
I started doing research. The magnitude of the issue and the number of men who were suffering from erectile dysfunction is estimated at 30,000,000 – 50,000,000 in the United States alone. This, of course, gave me no solace whatsoever. I wasn’t looking for a support group, and my misery didn’t want company.
I was single again, and I wanted my old life back. I understood that as I approached 60, even at full potency, the “me” of my 30s was ancient history. Still, I wanted to be capable of sexual spontaneity and to be fully confident when my opportunity to be a lover again came around.
I knew I wanted to do something about my ED, but I didn’t know where to start. For reasons I will discuss later, I didn’t want to rely on pills.
My “AHA!” Moment
Every night I was accosted by “those” commercials on TV. First there’s the group of guys playing guitars and singing joyously about their flaccid dicks, and then you get to share the inane thoughts of some guy talking to his reflection in a store window about his limpy. A couple is painting a room that magically turns into a sex-garden. Every message is the same: the only solution is the quick-fix... pop a pill.
Then, there are the bathtubs. Will someone please explain the fucking bathtubs!
Each of these audiovisual abominations multiplied my indignation. Every program break assaulted me with some guy looking out from the screen all but directing his comments to me by name, mocking me.
And then I saw it.
A black man in his 50s confesses to the camera that he never realized that his diabetes could contribute to his erectile dysfunction. Another, a white guy about the same age, asks with sincerity, Could my high blood pressure give me ED?
I'm pathologically heterosexual, but I can still identify a guy who’s got sex appeal to women. The commercials always feature great looking men.
These guys are actors. They don't have diabetes or high blood pressure, and they’re not likely candidates to ever get these diseases in real life. They are fit and trim – low body fat and muscular. They are youthful – while they have the bearing of men in their 50s, they exude an air of energy and vitality.
This in contrast to most men with diabetes, high blood pressure and erectile dysfunction who are out of shape, overweight, have poor skin tone, and generally look like shit.
Now, just as a disclaimer, doctors will rightly tell you that anyone can get diabetes or high blood pressure, fit or not, so get routine medical exams.
But let's get real: out of 100 men with these diseases, how many might be considered “fit?” Would 10 out of the 100 be in shape? Or maybe 5? Might just 1 out of 100 look like the actors in the commercials?
What do you look like? How flat is your stomach? Do you still have an ass? Might you be sporting a pouch like a pelican under your chin?
Having disqualified the actors as likely to suffer erectile dysfunction, I asked myself the question: Does just being out-of-shape cause ED?
* * *
Chapter 3: Initial Findings
In my research, I identified articles in journals that had both scientific and statistical integrity. While a growing number of younger men are experiencing erectile dysfunction, there are many guys who are out of shape in their 20s and 30s that don't. The published numbers indicate a small proportion of younger men experience ED, while there are many, many men of that same age who are in terrible physical condition – obese, etc. – who screw just fine, on the few occasions when they get the opportunity.
Then again, some people who smoke get lung cancer and pulmonary diseases, while others do not. Some old people are still smoking into their 80s with no ill effects except they look like death years before it arrives. For all we know, they may not experience ED either.
Is it all genetics? Certainly that must be a factor. It is well established that those with a strong familial history of cancer tend to get cancer more frequently, but usually of the same type – colin cancer leads to later generations with colin cancer, etc, – while families with a sporadic history as victims of disease, continue to have isolated occurrences in later generations. Up until this generation, of course. More about that later.
There just has to be something else operating here.
So, for the sake of my research, I grouped sufferers of erectile dysfunction into four groups:
Group 1: Men with a physical injury to the erection-producing apparatus, including, but not limited to, permanent nerve damage.
Group 2: Men with a diagnosed biochemical source to their dysfunction.
These first two groups are states of dysfunction/disease for which medical alternatives are the best solution to restoring function, if restoration of function is at all possible.
Then there are:
Group 3: Those men whose ED is caused primarily by psychological factors.
Group 4: Those guys who just have ED. Period. Their dicks don’t work, or don’t work well enough.
Group 4 is the largest and these are the men that I’ll be primarily addressing in the remainder of this book. I’ll also deal with Group 3 because as soon as any ED is suspected, a guy’s psyche kicks into overdrive and messes him up pretty bad.
In the last several decades, much of the biochemistry of ED has been worked out by medical researchers, and this understanding has allowed the development of the medications now being prescribed – at a cost to the healthcare system (public, private and personal) measured in the billions of dollars.
Science understands what’s missing from the body preventing erection, and they’ve developed their drugs to fill in the gaps. However, there is no discussion about where those missing pieces of the erectile puzzle have gone, and there’s little or no attempt by the medical community to just correct the problem.
What is it about aging that causes half of all men over the age of 70 to have a problem getting it up and keeping it up? Sure, the onset of other diseases may impact erectile function, but why do over a third of men in their 50s and 60s who are otherwise disease-free have ED?
I'm going to take you on a journey and lay out the product of my research in as direct a fashion as possible. So that you don't have to take notes, I tend to repeat some points as I go along when that information must be reapplied to a new topic.
Read it all. It will change the way you view your day to day treatment of your body.
* * *
Chapter 4: Dead Men Don’t Get Laid
Erectile dysfunction can be a symptom of far more dangerous and life threatening diseases than just penile apathy. To eliminate the possibility that I was ill, I invested in a complete top-to-bottom medical examination: Along with the more general regimen of a physical, I had complete blood work performed, pulmonary testing, and echocardiogram. As a man approaching 60, I also signed up for the beloved colonoscopy.
I spent about $2,000 out of pocket. I did not have insurance at the time and even if I did, other than my inability to sustain an erection, I had no physical complaints.
It was well worth the cost, if for no other reason than it confirmed what I had hoped: that I was in pretty good physical condition – by normal medical standards. All I had to do was lose a few pounds and I would live forever. A few pounds? The doctor was being kind.
My blood pressure was at the low end of the normal range. My cholesterol was on the high side of normal, but nowhere near dangerous levels; that was the only result about which my doctor cautioned me, and I immediately made some dietary adjustments to accommodate that finding.
My heart, lungs and blood work were all good. The internist who performed my colonoscopy told me that I was clean-as-a-whistle. I looked that up; it's not a medical term.
There was no diagnosable reason for me to have erectile dysfunction. I was in Group 4 and I needed to find out why.
“By normal medical standards,” health is the absence of disease.
That’s just wrong. One cannot declare oneself “healthy” just because medical tests don’t find anything overtly troublesome.
If one cannot walk a flight of stairs without becoming winded, or has localized or generalized body pain for which a doctor cannot find a cause, then they’re not healthy. They’re just not necessarily “sick.”
“You’re just getting older,” is not a diagnosis. It’s a cop-out of the worst kind as it doesn’t steer people in the direction of health. It gives them an alibi. Doctors should be ashamed of themselves when they advise their patients that they’re just “old” regardless of how eloquently or humorously they may choose their words.
ED is not a disease of old age. It’s a dysfunction with a reversible cause.
See Your Doctor Anyway
The average guy doesn't need medical permission to have sex, but if you have any ongoing issues, or if you suspect you may, or if you find yourself out-of-breath after simple exertion, or experience pains during or after exertion, then come on. Get real. Get a check-up.
Certainly, if you are having [or attempting to have] sex and you begin to experience chest pains or the inability to breathe, call for help. Live to screw another day!
Throughout this book, I admonish you, ad nauseum, that sex is a act of physical exertion that involves your heart, lungs, back and spine, along with the rest of your body, and that if you have, or suspect you might have, any condition that could be made worse by physical activity, speak to your doctor before engaging in sex.
Think about it. Even if you’re laying passive receiving oral sex, when you climax, you’re breathing is heavy, your heart is pounding, and you’re in a mild sweat. And you haven’t done anything! Sex is stressful. By the way, if you’re in a heavy sweat, see your doctor.
If you haven't had a complete checkup since you discovered you had erectile dysfunction, then get one. You must eliminate the possibility that a more serious issue is lurking in the wings.
Dead men don't get laid.
These are my thoughts, my experiences, and what I did to get over my dysfunction. I share it with you because I believe – again, my opinion – that if it worked for me it should work for almost any guy; I took no extraordinary measures, engaged in no costly therapies, and performed no activity that any other reasonably ambulatory guy can't match.
However, nothing I have written here has been confirmed and proven scientifically using large, statistically significant numbers of men tested under the scrutiny of controlled circumstances and professional observation. It's just me. Nothing I suggest has been approved, endorsed or underwritten by the FDA – which has, over the years, approved any number of drugs that have subsequently been removed from the market after they killed people. My hypothesis has not been reviewed by any medical authority.
All I can tell you is that it worked for me. Give it a try at your own risk – or reward. I found a solution. These thoughts may help you find yours, too.
And finally, I find it clumsy to replace the word “woman” with “partner” in every instance. So, much of what I’ve written is a reflection on my personal experience. I have composed this work with the perspective of a heterosexual man with his female partner.
ED certainly has its effects in the gay community, I am sure. There is no doubt that ED can and does impact gay relationships – perhaps doubly so. However, I cannot fathom why everything I say here wouldn't apply; it's just the pronouns that differ.
And then there's that vagina thing – ignore those passages.
* * *
~ ~ ~ PART II ~ ~ ~
Identifying the Problem & Seeking Solutions
Chapter 5: Why ED Drugs Are Not the Answer
In the early days of Viagra®, and with the release of each new ED medication, comedians and social commentators have gone over the top decrying the fact that doctors can't cure cancer, and engineers can't harness nature to produce clean, inexpensive energy, but the scientific community can, and does, devote its efforts and resources to rejuvenating dick.
We understand that ED does not just impair the lustful; it impacts couples who are deeply devoted and fully committed to each other, married couples and those in other life-long relationships. And ED affects women as much as men. No store-bought toy can take the place of a warm, hard, made-by-God penis that fits just right and is attached to her favorite handle – her man.
So, what's the solution? It’s not drugs.
You know the names: Viagra® and Cialis® are the big guns and the most advertised products in the arena of ED drugs, but there are others. Each has side effects – some severe – and each is contraindicated when you are taking certain other prescription medications that are frequently taken by – not so coincidentally –people who are getting on in years.
There is no certainty that ED drugs will work for 100% of the men who take them, and no guarantee that they will work 100% of the time on any individual man who has used them successfully. And like so many other drugs in conventional medicine, it just covers up the symptoms and doesn't address the underlying cause.
Drugs are a band-aid. They're something you might use as you work your wanger back to the land of the living. I did for a short time, as a temporary fix, but you don’t want to rely upon medications for the rest of your life.
Here are a couple of examples of why:
• Would you want an entire vacation ruined because you left one fucking little bottle of fucking pills back on the fucking bathroom counter? Fuck.
• A buddy sends a limo to pick you up so that you can attend a big party. You get in and realize that there's total privacy... just like in the movies! It's a 30 minute ride. Even if you had one with you, there's no time for a freaking pill to work.
Okay, this second scenario is far-fetched, but replace it with any opportunity that may arise when you can’t. Remember that time your woman raised her eyebrows, gave you that one special smile and said, “Wanna?” Do you want to say, “Sure. Let me take my pill and we’ll wait half an hour and...”
Yeah, yeah, Cialis is advertising an “all the time” dose. In the next section we’ll discuss the downside of that, including Cialis’ own warning, “Do not drink excessively when taking Cialis.” What a buzz-kill.
There is No Such Thing as a “Side Effect!”
There are effects. Just because the effect is not desired, or desirable, doesn't mean it's not an effect. When big pharmaceutical houses try to “spin” the possibly disastrous consequences of taking their drugs as “side” effects, they're asking you to “ignore the man behind the curtain.”
The biochemistry of the human body is amazingly complex and efficient. Evolution continually borrowed working compounds from one part of the body and reused them for entirely different purposes in other places.
Think about the cotter-pin. It held the wheel of a model-T on its axle, and now it’s used to hold parts together on the military's most advanced stealth bombers.
Your body has done the same thing. When you take a drug like Viagra or Cialis, it is promoting a biochemistry that gets you erect, but at the cost of other biochemical reactions all over your body. Many people get headaches with Cialis. And don’t stand up too fast with either of these or you’ll get lightheaded... if you don’t pass out. And drink too much alcohol – is there such a thing? – and you could fall down without ever getting that erection.
As already stated, ED is often associated with “getting older.” So is high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and heart problems, and... and... and...
Some of the drugs you will be forced to take to control these life-threatening diseases won’t permit you to take erectile dysfunction mediations.
The unintentional consequences of drugs – so called side-effects – aren’t always apparent. Whatever Cialis does that can cause a headache in some men, it might be doing just a little in you. Not enough to give you a headache, but messing you up anyway.
You don’t “feel” your oil running dry, but that doesn’t mean that at some point you’re not going to throw a piston through your engine block. Get the idea?
That's why, if there's a way to resolve your erectile dysfunction, high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, or allergies without drugs, you've just gotta try, always, of course, keeping your physician in the loop.
* * *
Chapter 6: How Happy Harry Happens
Second only to the vagina, there can be no more perfect biological element in the universe than the human penis. Penile plumbing is a wonder of hydraulics. That it gets as hard and resistant to bending as it does – who of us didn't test that as a kid – is amazing, and it's all about fluid pressure. Things can go wrong, however. Though, if one delves into the complex biochemistry, neurology, and physiology of an erection, it's astonishing that it ever works at all!
Pressure in the penis is regulated by both the inflow and outflow of blood. There are two separate channels, one for blood in and one for blood out.
As with all organs of the body, arteries and their smaller brethren, arterioles, carry blood from the heart via a branching tree of vessels throughout the body, including the penis, and venules and veins carry the blood away, back toward the heart.
Interestingly, a resting penis is regulated by an active function. Smooth muscles in the walls of the arterioles leading into the penis are contracted, constricting blood flow. They allow only enough blood into Harry to keep him alive and breathing, but not quite awake.
When chilled, as when one is swimming in cold water, these small vessels contract even further, and the reduction of blood flow that this constriction causes, results in the now infamous, but very real condition of “shrinkage.”
On the opposite side of that equation, there are some guys that have a very large “hang.” Their arterial flow is naturally higher and keeps them longer. In many – not all – of these cases it’s all cosmetic. That is, once aroused, they don’t get larger, just stiffer.
For a penis to become erect there must be a stimulus – physical or mental – that sets off a series of signals from the brain down to the fun factory. Neurotransmitters tell the smooth muscle of the arteries to relax and blood begins to flow filling the spongy material of the shaft of the penis, the corpus spongiosum – or spongecake as my spell checker insists – and the corpus cavernosa. You gotta love how they named these things.
Blood is pumped in at an increasingly higher pressure. At the same time, the smooth muscles in the walls of the veins that carry blood out of the penis are constricted. This traps the blood inside. Pressure builds and Harry rises to the occasion.
The guy has to stay that way for some period of time while you satisfy your lady and yourself. Sometime after ejaculation – depending on your age and state of inebriation – the process reverses; the veins open allowing blood out, while the arteries constrict preventing much blood from entering. Harry slumbers off.
Nitric Oxide – Part I
Hormones play a major role in the control of male sexual function just as they do in women. Behind all the mechanics, there is a biochemistry to creating an erection, sustaining an erection, achieving ejaculation, and the desire for a drink afterwards.
However, a discussion of this biochemistry is far beyond the scope of my presentation here; it would be inappropriate to attempt to simplify an elaborately complex process to fit into the context of this discussion. But a simple little control molecule, a non-proteinaceous hormone is key.
Nitric oxide (chemical formula: NO – one Nitrogen atom attached to one Oxygen atom) does much of the heavy lifting when it comes to snapping Harry to attention. Viagra® does its magic primarily by increasing the amount of NO in your pecker. Cialis® does to, though by a mechanism different from Viagra.
Special Note: Nitric Oxide, NO, which is essential for erections, is not the same a Nitrous Oxide, NO2 (one Nitrogen atom and TWO Oxygen atoms), which is used most commonly by dentists as a pain killer – laughing gas. NO2 is quite different, biochemically, from NO and has the opposite effect. Like all substances that deaden the senses, besides dulling the pain nerves in your teeth, NO2 will put Harry to sleep. You'll may find your Limpy hysterically funny, but your dental hygienist won’t see the humor when you show her.
Nitric Oxide is a vaso-dilator. It opens up blood vessels allowing an increased flow of blood. You can see how this is essential to opening that inflow artery to pump up the volume.
It is produced throughout the body. When you exercise, blood vessels need to dilate – become larger in diameter – to deliver more blood to muscles. The cells at the interior walls of blood vessels themselves produce nitric oxide. Healthy vessels produce a lot in a constant stream which keep arteries and veins working efficiently.
It’s not just exercise. Have you ever become flushed with embarrassment or rage? Same thing. The quantity of nitric oxide increases in the vessels of your face, and you go red.
As you age, the interior lining of your blood vessels deteriorates from the abuse of inflammatory chemicals – from poor nutrition and crap food – and their ability to produce nitric oxide declines. Hence, the correlation between age and ED.
High blood pressure beats the hell out of your blood vessels with a concomitant reduction in their ability to produce nitric oxide.
We’ll speak more about this in our discussion of inflammation.
It must be noted that overarching all this is an extensive neural network. Nerves that carry stimulation from your genitals up to the brain, and the brain’s commands back to Harry’s control mechanisms.
The Three EDs
There are three kinds of ED. The unusual names I use to describe these three conditions should make you aware that these have not yet been fully accepted by the larger sphere of the scientific or medical community:
• First, the type of ED that keeps one from getting an erection at all – the Limpy. If there's some stiffness, it's not enough to penetrate a vagina, even if she's wide open and hungry.
• Second, there's the Transitory Stiffy. Things start out well, but begin to wane even while you're inside and feeling good. It goes away before either of you are satisfied. It just won't come back during that session.
• Finally, there's Bonehead, your guy seems to forget why he's there. You're just stiff enough, not necessarily rock-hard, but sufficient to keep going. You just can't cross the finish line. You can't ejac, Jack. Candidly, this isn't actually ED, it's a condition called anorgasmy/anejaculation, but I think it can be have some neurological relation to ED, so I'm going to include it in our discussion.
The reasons for the onset of each of these EDs are varied and often a product of more than one cause.
If Bonehead isn't caused psychologically, it might be attributed to a reduction in the sensation during sex. For example, the loss of direct contact when one uses a condom makes it more difficult for even some younger men to achieve climax. Imagine a reduction in sensation that makes you feel as if you're wearing a condom all the time.
There can be other factors. Contemporary media has made a cliché of “size matters.” The clear implication is that a man with a large penis is more desirable and satisfying to a woman than a man with a normal or small organ inasmuch as a mega-wanger gives her a greater sensation of presence during sex and concomitant pleasure. The key factor, guys, is width, not length, but since one usually occurs with the other, well...
However, “size matters” ignores the corresponding female affliction: the Bell-Jar Vagina.
After birthing a few kids and through the normal action of hormone rearrangement and age, the muscles of vaginae (yep, that's the plural of vagina) tend to weaken. There’s also a reduction in the engorgement of female erectile tissue, something I won’t discuss here beyond the observation that this tissue contributes to “tightness,” in the absence of which, in simple terms, the cavity gets larger.
A regularly hung guy just can't reasonably fill the void. Sure, there's contact, but not the kind she offered in her youth. If you're using KY jelly or another artificial lubricant – or worse – if your woman naturally lubricates too well, then there just isn't sufficient friction and therefore not enough sensation to bring you off.
This same female condition can also contribute to a Transitory Stiffy. Loss of erection can occur during sex just because you're not getting enough “rub.” If you’re using a condom, you might as well phone it in.
Match a guy with some reduced sensitivity issues and a Bell-Jar woman and there had better be a liberal use of alternate methods to achieve and sustain arousal or little is going to happen.
The Transitory Stiffy (TS) proves that – at the very least – the basic plumbing works. Loss of erection can occur if the exit valve, the muscles in the veins that retain blood in your penis, are not being controlled properly or are too weak and tire quickly. This can, in some instances, be a “true” dysfunction; the valve mechanism may be damaged or, in rare cases, malformed congenitally. Even small deviations from optimal formation of the valve can be exaggerated by the normal progression of the years. At some point it just doesn't work anymore – the muscles within the veins fail after a short period of contraction. There may be a surgical fix for this, but it is best if, failing the suggestions in this book, you discuss that with your urologist.
Or... the wiring – the nerves that control the erectile function – may not be performing. We'll speak about this in much greater detail later on.
TS is not immune to masturbation. The constant, strong, sensation possible with a hand – yours or someone else's – keeps the neural messages firing like sons-of-bitches so the muscles just can't relax until your neighbors start banging on the walls for you to shut up.
Combine some blood pressure control issues with some loss of sensitivity and TS can easily manifest.
The Limpy. Once you've eliminated any clinical issues by subjecting yourself to a thorough examination by a urologist...
Joke Time: A guy goes to his urologist. He's led to an examining room where, a few minutes later, a gorgeous, blue-eyed blond walks in. She's sporting a stethoscope around her neck that rests enviably on her ample bosom. Noticing the guy's obvious confusion, she explains, “I'm your urologist. I'm working with Dr. Smith and I am Board Certified. I've been practicing for several years and I assure you I've seen it all. Please don't be embarrassed to discuss your issue with me. What is your problem?”
“Well, Doc,” the man says, “my dick tastes funny.”
So, you've got a Limpy. You go to your urologist and she can't find anything physiologically wrong. You have to consider one of just a few alternatives. Your doctor will undoubtedly suggest counseling – she may want you to consider that your ED may be psychological, and that may be true. But there are other reasons you can't get it up.
You’re Group 4. We'll review these conditions as we go along: severe manifestation of poor lymph drainage, neural inflammations and nutritional deficits.
* * *
Chapter 7: Gut Feelings
So far, I've discussed why the topic of erectile dysfunction is important to me, and what motivated me to seek the answer to my dilemma. I've described my reasoning for not wanting to settle for the pill-popping quick-fix as a way of life. We've also reviewed the control mechanisms that prime Harry for the deed.
Now, I'm going to share with you what I discovered as I dug into the medical and anecdotal research.
Rowing Down the Alimentary Canal
Your alimentary canal is a tube running from your mouth to your butt. Digestion begins in the mouth, but the major digestive area includes the stomach, the small intestine and the large intestine (bowel). This is also called the gastrointestinal (GI) tract.
There is a school of thought, predominantly among alternative medical practitioners, that most disease starts in the GI tract. Because the primary purpose of these organs is digestion, digestive disorders would then be the cause of most bodily problems.
Erectile dysfunction is no exception.
Diet: a Definition
Before going any further, I'd like to define the word “diet.” This word has taken on the connotation of what we restrict from our food mix to accomplish a goal such as weight loss, a better state of health, or generally just to make ourselves miserable.
Dictionary.com defines diet as “food and drink considered in terms of its qualities, composition, and its effects on health...” In fact we are all on a diet all the time. Sometimes it's a healthy diet and all too often it's putting us on a path to make us terribly unhealthy.
It's in the sense of the definition that I'm going to use the word.
We’ve all heard about “Heart-Healthy” foods and diets. I’m going to focus on “Dick-Healthy” eating.
The Answer My Friend is Blowin’ in the Wind
We must first address flatulence – farts, that is. We are all familiar with the scene in the college movie. Animal House had such a scene, but it surely was not unique to that flick. Five guys are riding in a car – road trip. The guy in the middle of the back seat, usually a really fat guy, lets loose with a resonant explosion. The others start waving their hands and hanging out the windows and, of course, all the boys in the audience who are under the age of eleven – perhaps mentally so – laugh hysterically.
The question is, are all farts that noxious? The answer, obviously, is no. Even those people who often leave a bathroom so pungent that the cat's eyes water, aren't that odoriferous all the time; they have good days and bad days. But why are some people are never so.
Farts are just expelled gas. Some of it is swallowed air that gets pushed along through the alimentary canal all the way to the end. Most of it is a byproduct of the biochemistry of the digestive process. It's usually a result of what the bacteria in our intestines do to the food we eat. Those bacteria are an important part of converting food into a form that our bodies can absorb for nutrition; we need the bacteria, and we need much of what they produce.
Sometimes food is digested well and that will result in sweet farts that are barely noticeable. Too often, food is digested poorly allowing putrefaction – a fancy word for rotting. The food in your gut rots like carrion on the side of the road. The result is the kind of smell that is best described by the diatribe, “What crawled up your ass and died?” It's no joke, except that it climbed down through your mouth and you put it there.
What goes in must come out. The canal from mouth to butt is a continuous tube and many things happen to our food along the way. It's mixed with enzymes in the mouth, acids in the stomach, and more digestive juices as it is moved through the small intestine, which in an adult is over 20 feet long.
There are foods that are easy to digest and foods that are not. Protein – meat – is more completely utilized by the body, leaving little solid material left over if it is properly processed. Plant material – fruits and vegetables – contain indigestible cellulose, so there’s more left over. This is what we call fiber.
As an example, starch is easy to digest. Starch is just a long polymer – a chain – of glucose molecules – common sugar – and the body quickly breaks it apart into that smaller component. Sugar is quickly assimilated and used for energy, or stored in your body after being converted to fat.
Corn is largely starch. Chewed corn digests well, their deflated hulls are still there but they pass invisibly. But those kernels that are swallowed whole often show up a day later floating around in your toilet completely intact. The indigestible outside coverings protect the starchy contents inside. Such is the indigestibility of fiber.
We need a balance of meat, fat, starch, carbohydrates, vegetables and fruits, seeds, and nuts. Humans are omnivores; we can eat everything, and we should. One source of the fart problem is an imbalance in the proportions of these “food groups” in our diet.
Meat and potato guys – those that get very little green vegetable matter – tend to have stronger smelling farts. The fiber in vegetable matter is essential to move other food along through the GI tract at a reasonable rate. Nothing should stall-out during the trip. In the absence of fiber, the movement slows and putrefaction occurs. Meat rots in your gut and the raunchiest smells possible begin to emanate from your ass.
This discussion of farts is not just a sophomoric attempt to make jokes. The subject is quite important. Regardless of the social aspects of flatulence, what comes out of your body is an indication of what's happening inside.
Unless you want to die while still too young to have enjoyed all the sex that is out there, you must address digestive issues early on. Colon cancer is rising to epidemic proportions in the West... and yet, we keep making fart jokes.
Everyone needs vegetable matter as part of their diet. On the other hand, if you were to eliminate all meat protein – beef, pork, lamb, chicken, fish, etc. – you could run into the problem of nutritional deficits if you didn’t work very hard to supplement your diet with vegetable protein. The majority of humans need both vegetables and meat.
A Naturopathic doctor once told me that the unhealthiest people she sees in her practice are vegetarians – those people who won't eat any meat. They become convinced that meat is bad and they just decide to give it up without any consideration for their personal, quite individual, biochemistry. In most cases, they need some amount of animal protein in their diet. While there are some people that can be vegetarian, their numbers are relatively few.
Vegans – extreme vegetarians – choose to ignore the fact that human teeth and digestive systems are eminently predisposed to acquire, process, and productively extract nutrition from animals and their byproducts. Animals eat animals. We are animals. Veganism is unnatural.
Many of those who choose a vegan lifestyle base their decision on what I consider a dubious philosophical construct. Regardless of the rhetoric, they defy nature and in doing so are setting themselves up for health issues later in life.
So, that’s my opinion. Agree or disagree. But in a guide that is meant to be practical above all else, what do you think the chances are of a guy going vegetarian for much longer than it takes for him to get laid? So, in a discussion aimed primarily at men, vegetarianism isn’t an issue. But I will promote the idea that many of us should cut down on the amount of meat we consume as part of our daily diets.
Balance is the key. There is no precise formula for the proportions of meat, carbs, vegetables, fruits, and starches that an individual should strive to achieve; everyone is different. The old food pyramid concocted by the Food and Drug Administration was a wild-assed guess, though the attempt to prepare one, in my opinion, was not a waste of time.
The FDA has announced that the pyramid format is being scrapped in favor of a food “plate.” The proposed graphic appears here. This device indicates the relative amounts of foods from the main food groups: grains, protein, vegetables, fruits, and dairy.
I believe even this should be accompanied by something more realistic such as a simple listing of the healthiest components of each of the food groups. A protocol must be provided that advises people how to work through the process of finding their own dietary proportions by trial (and error), thereby refining their diet specific to their individual requirements as they go.