What to do about Erectile Dysfunction

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is very common. Depending upon how you define ED, there are 15 million to 30 million men who have it. ED ranges from complete impotence to unsatisfactory performance.

But it doesn't have to be a part of getting older. As you age, you may need more stimulation and more time, but older men should still be able to get an erection and enjoy sex.

The incidence of ED increases with age. Between 15 and 25 percent of 65-year-old men experience this problem. In older men, ED usually has a physical cause, such as a drug side effect, disease or injury. Anything that damages the nerves or impairs blood flow in the penis can cause ED.

The following are some leading causes of erectile dysfunction: diabetes, high blood pressure, atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), prostate surgery, hormone imbalance, alcohol and drug abuse.

And, of course, there are your emotions. It should be no surprise that, if you’re having a relationship problem with your sex partner, you can suffer from ED. Here are some other psychological influences: anxiety over a previous failure, everyday stress, depression, and feeling unattractive to your partner. If you’re suffering from ED, you should see your doctor for a discussion and physical exam.

Monitoring erections that occur during sleep can help the diagnosis.

Healthy men have involuntary erections during sleep. If nocturnal erections do not occur, then ED is likely to have a physical rather than psychological cause. Tests of nocturnal erections are not completely reliable, however.

The cause of the ED will determine the treatment. Some ED medicines are injected into the penis. Other medicines are taken orally. In addition to medicines, there are vacuum pump devices and surgery.

Millions of men have benefited from drugs like Viagra that treat ED. Viagra improve the response to sexual stimulation, but they do not trigger an automatic erection as injections do.

“Smoking and Erectile Dysfunction Are Interrelated “, Say Researchers

Men who smoke cigarettes are at a high risk of having erectile dysfunction, reveals the study conducted by Tulane University researchers.

Published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, the study was performed by a team of researchers escorted by Jiang He, Professor of Epidemiology at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in 2000-2001. During this study, researchers observed the relationship between cigarette smoking and erectile dysfunction with the help of 7,684 men in China. The researchers utilized questionnaires to evaluate the link between cigarette smoking and erectile dysfunction. The surveyed men did not suffer from vascular disease and were aged between 35-74 years.

The team noticed that there was a vital arithmetical relation between the number of cigarettes that men burned and the odds of having erectile dysfunction. The relationship between smoking and erectile dysfunction was even more strong and apparent in the participants having diabetes. According to the study, approximately 22.7 percent of the erectile dysfunction cases amongst Chinese men could be credited to cigarette smoking.

While erectile dysfunction is not a severe health concern, it remarkably affects well-being and quality of life. The findings of Tulane study propose that more emphasis must be put on the prevention of smoking to lessen the danger of erectile dysfunction.

Erectile dysfunction is a critical health issue for men

While many surveys may found that the condition as an age-related one mainly affecting senior men, the fact is that erectile dysfunction or impotent affects men from the youth stage, right up to, and after, middle age. However, it is common in men over age 50 and men who are approaching andropause.

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a condition or situation where a man can not achieve or maintain an erection sufficient for his sexual needs, to the point where he is incapable to ejaculate, therefore keeping out from satisfactory sexual performance.

Now the question arises in your mind is, what causes ED, Professor Douglas has some answers.
Professor Lawson Douglas, a famous Urologist says about main causes which lead ED in men.
First one is psychogenic, something is upsetting the man.

Second one, vascular problem (blood not being able to reach the penis) means there is not proper blood flow in penis that keeps erectile of your penis erection at the time of sexual intercourse.

Third one, a nerve problem (can be caused by surgery).

And fourth, hormonal problems (they give you the feeling to have sex, but are not essential in producing an erection, but they can cause a man not to feel like having sex)," Professor Douglas explained.

Apart from above causes there are many other factor or causes to lead ED. Diabetes, hypertension, obesity and smoking are four such causes. It shows health issues also play a major part in erectile dysfunction.

Addressing the psychogenic issues that cause ED is one of the most essential steps in dealing with the erectile dysfunction.

Taking phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors (PDE5), which are oral erectile-dysfunction drugs such as Viagra (Sildenafil), Cialis, can help resolve the problem. The drug is used to block the degradative action of phosphodiesterase type 5 on cyclic GMP in the smooth muscle cells lining the blood vessels supplying the corpus cavernous of the penis.

As a result, a man should always consult his doctor before taking any of these erectile dysfunction drugs.

Wonder pill Viagra celebrated its 15 birthday

Exactly 15 years back, Michael Allen received a call from a doctor residing in a small Welsh town, which was actually the first indication of an innovation's emergence. The doctor had been working on a small clinical trial involving the examination of a new drug for the treatment of angina. The future of the new drug called UK-92480 seemed bleak then as other trials had revealed that it did not engender much impact on the disease and was less efficient than existing treatments.

When the doctor presented his progress report to Allen, a clinical project manager at pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, he also cited some side effects that occurred in the healthy volunteers during the trial in Merthyr Tydfil. They were indigestion, back pain and erections.
Erectile dysfunction is often a sign of a more severe vascular problem that involves abnormalities in the lining of the blood vessels. And often, endothelial dysfunction is an underlying problem for erectile dysfunction - it can be one of the first signs of atherosclerosis.
After five years of detailed research, Pfizer applied to get marketing approval for the same drug, but not to treat angina, in fact for male impotence. Since then Viagra has been utilized by over 30 million men across the globe for erectile dysfunction or impotence.

Researchers believe that the wonder blue pill may also come handy for a host of other uses. They say it might be a versatile potion as Aspirin.

The health conditions that Viagra has been assessed to treat include jet lag, premature ejaculation, heart failure, diabetes symptoms, pain, multiple sclerosis, premature birth, memory loss, chronic pelvic pain, reynaud's phenomenon, and strokes.

While Egyptians used Viagra to save unconsummated marriages, it has been examined as a new therapy to cure jet lag in Argentina. Not only this, in Israel researchers have also noticed that it can help slashed flowers to survive long.