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As many men have discovered, it can be more difficult to uncover the reason for diminished sexual performance than simply getting a prescription. The symptoms of erectile dysfunction may be caused by any number of underlying physical and mental disorders that affect your ability to get and maintain an erection during sex.

Erectile dysfunction, also known as “impotence”, or simply, “ED”, is a problem that most men fear, and that many men experience at one point in time. However, the symptoms of ED don’t necessarily mean that you need to be treated for ED. Here are some ways that your doctor can help you discover the underlying cause for your erectile issues.

What Is ED, Really?

The National Institute of Health provides the accepted consensus definition of the disorder, describing it as the “inability to achieve or maintain an erection sufficient for satisfactory sexual performance.” Where “impotence” describes the inability to achieve erection in a romantic instant, “erectile dysfunction” is a persistent issue with erectile behavior.

This is the key to teasing out the reason for the impotence that you may be experiencing. If you’ve never experience impotence in the past, and you suddenly become unable to get an erection, it probably isn’t ED, which describes the chronic inability to perform.

So What Can You Do to Find Answers?

The definition of ED implies that you should be on high alert for impotence that persists or worsens in nature. If it happens only on one occasion, it probably isn’t ED. If it happens over and over, and you find yourself becoming less and less able to perform, it may be.

If you’re experiencing the symptoms of ED, you should consult your doctor immediately. Often men that start to become unable to achieve erections begin to internalize the problem and add an additional layer of stress and anxiety to sexual performance in general.

A simple discussion about your health, your psychological condition and some details about your life may give your doctor all the information he needs to be confident about a diagnose, but more likely, he’ll want to run some diagnostics. Here are some tests your doctor will probably want to run to tease out the underlying cause of your impotence, whether it really is erectile dysfunction or some other medical condition:

Vital Checks: Basic tests determining the health of your vital bodily functions can go a long way towards discovering the source of your impotence. These tests include blood pressure measurement— high blood pressure can lead to improper blood flow and in turn, poor circulation and blood flow to the penis —as well as tests that measure the function of your heart and central blood vessels.

Blood Tests: Blood tests can tell you whether you have insufficient testosterone, high bad cholesterol levels or whether your thyroid is functioning properly. These issues can all lead to the symptoms of ED.

Physical Exam: A doctor may want to personally inspect the penis to see if there are any malformations in or near it that may be affecting its ability to function properly.

Mental Exam: As many as 20% of erectile problems can stem from psychological disorders, from as simple as work or relationship related stress to more serious issues such as anxiety and depression. The medications used to treat these conditions can also cause hormonal imbalances, which may adversely affect your testosterone levels.

Ultrasound or Other Imaging: Imaging of the penis can allow doctors to study the blood flow to the area and look at tissue behavior as arousal occurs. While “insuffiencent blood flow” is usually caused by some other physical condition, it can allow professionals to narrow down the probably causes.

MRIs and CT scans can determine whether or not you have fatty plaque clogging your arteries, a condition that restricts blood flow known as “atherosclerosis”.

Urinalysis: Analysis of a urine sample can lead to conclusions not available through blood testing. Proteins and excretions from your kidneys and liver are present in urine, and can suggest other disorders that may be keeping you from maintaining maximum sexual potency.

Overnight Erection Test: The overnight erection tests involves a breakable band placed onto the shaft of the penis, intended to measure the occurrence of nocturnal erections. The reason for this test is that men with ED generally don’t have normal nighttime erections like those of otherwise healthy men.

Is It ED or Just a Circulatory Issue?

Improper blood flow is, by and large, the most common cause of the symptoms normally associated with ED. Many of the causes of insufficient circulatory function is, however, not as easy to discover, and may involve some major lifestyle changes to remedy.

Other factors may include a serious accident that jeopardizes the pelvic region, or normal factors of aging, sometimes called “manopause” that can begin as early as 40 years of age.

Your doctor is the only person qualified to tell you if you’re in sound body and mind, and help you seek the answers for the reasons why you may be experiencing some of these issues. The human body is a very delicate system, and a simple change in hormonal balance, psychological status or physical health can throw what seemed like a constant function totally out of whack.

If your doctor determines that your problem is genuine erectile dysfunction, don’t panic. There are numerous options for treatment of the disorder, including oral medications like Viagra, Levitra and Cialis, physical treatments like penis pumps and penile implants and a whole array of herbal and homeopathic remedies on the market.

Unusual causes of erectile dysfunction

Erectile dysfunction is embarrassing for a man since you cannot satisfy your partner in bed. It will lower your confidence levels, and it is often an indicator that you are not healthy. Erectile dysfunction is where a man cannot get a penile erection long enough to initiate sexual intercourse. The condition is common among men who are above 40 years.

The usual causes are hormonal imbalance and stress. However, there are other things that will cause erectile dysfunction you would not imagine. They include the following:

• Not flossing – Not flossing your teeth on a regular basis can lead to low nitric acid levels in your body. These enzymes are important since they facilitate a healthy blood flow to your genital organs.
• Too much salt – Eating excessive salts will harden the arteries limiting blood flow to your organs including your genitals. Not having adequate blood flow will cause erectile dysfunction.
• Low protein intake – Men who do not take enough proteins have a higher chance of developing the condition.
• Cycling – Professional cyclists or men who cycle on a regular basis are more likely to suffer from erectile dysfunction.
• Religion – Certain religions shame sexual intercourse. Men can be psychologically affected and will suffer from the condition since they will be under stress.
• Unhappy professional life – Men who are unhappy at their places of work are more likely to suffer from the condition. They get stressed and depressed and start turning to alcohol and anti-depressants that negatively affect erections.
• Too much porn – Watching porn is not bad. However, too much porn will make it hard for you to get aroused when having sexual intercourse. Due to this, you will have higher chances of getting erectile dysfunction.

Most of these factors are directly influenced by the lifestyle you choose. If you want to have a healthy sex life, you can change any of the factors you see on the list. A bit of change will go a long way in making your sex life better, and you do not have to worry about having erectile dysfunction.

It’s a sad fact of life: The higher in fat a food is, the more delicious it tastes. While there are plenty of delicious healthy food options in the world, sometimes a man just wants a big juicy hamburger or a steaming rack of ribs. And while the occasional fatty meal isn’t the end of the world, it’s when these meals become commonplace that you begin to run into trouble. By subsisting on meals high in fats, not only will you begin to see your waist grow, but your sex life might shrink.

Think of the erection as a complicated machine; to work properly, it requires many of components working together. Signals from the penis alert the brain, blood to the penis helps it engorge, spongy tissue in the penis helps the penis to stay engorged. If one of these steps should fail, the erection suddenly becomes impossible. And when you load up on fatty foods, it is the bodies ability to provide blood to the penis that pays the price.

As fatty foods become more prominent in your diet, the harmful fat from your meals will begin to effect your body in adverse ways; in this case, in your arteries. The arteries will become clogged, slowing the flow of blood through the body. When these artery clogging deposits develop, they tend to develop in the smallest arteries first. As the arteries responsible for providing the penis with blood are some of the smallest arteries in the body, these arteries will go first. With clogged arteries, blood will struggle to flow properly, preventing blood from reaching the penis for an erection. As the problem worsens, blood pressure can be affected, worsening the problems of blood flow to the penis.

If the problem persists, it could equate to permanent erectile dysfunction.

Enjoying the occasional high fat meal certainly won’t mean the end of your erection, but a constant stream of fatty foods could spell the death of your sex life. Enjoy fatty foods in moderation, and your erection should have nothing to worry about.

The beautiful thing about sex is that you never know when the mood is going to strike. You and your partner might set out for a night of lovemaking, or you might be bundle up in your pajamas watching Netflix and suddenly the feeling strikes. But no matter when the mood hits, if you’re a man with erectile dysfunction, you have to be ready. But as you can find yourself hopping between the sheets at seemingly any moment, you won’t always have the luxury of having the perfect situation for erectile dysfunction drugs to work swiftly. We all know that ED drugs such as Viagra work best when taken on an empty stomach, but what about men that need to knock boots after finishing a meal? Can Viagra even work when taken on a full stomach?

It’s not like a full stomach will negate the effects of Viagra. No matter how big your last meal was, Viagra will still work; but depending on how full you are, how quickly it will begin to work can vary wildly.

When Viagra is taken properly (i.e., empty stomach, no alcohol, etc.), it typically takes the little blue pill between 45 minutes to an hour to take effect. But when food is introduced to the mix, this timeline changes. As your stomach digests what’s in your stomach in the order it entered your stomach, Viagra will essentially have to wait in line to be digested and distributed throughout your body. When taken on a full stomach, the turnaround time for Viagra’s effects jumps to over an hour, and can even reach the two to three hour mark.

So if you’re looking to get down to business between the sheets, try to take Viagra on a relatively empty stomach. Otherwise, be prepared to play the waiting game.

Relationships are built on trust. And while everyone goes into a relationship with every intention of being open and honest with their partner, occasionally secrets do crop up. It might be something innocent, like concealing a present you purchased for your partner’s birthday, or it might be something more significant, such as money troubles or infidelity. Depending upon the severity of the secret, the guilt over concealing this secret might begin to leak into your day to day life. You might find yourself more anxious, or perhaps you find that don’t enjoy spending time with your partner as much as you used to. In some cases, guilt over a secret can even affect your performance in bed.

The erection is entirely dependent on the brain to function properly. When the process of achieving an erection is working perfectly, the penis alerts the brain when it is time to produce an erection. The brain takes this alert and funnels the blood necessary for an erection to the penis. But when the brain is preoccupied on distracting topics such as guilt, the signals send by the penis for an erection can actually get lost in the shuffle.

Instead or prioritizing functions such as the achieving an erection, your brain could devote power towards worrying about guilt. In works in much of the same way that thinking non-sexual thoughts while trying to avoid orgasm does, but in a more subconscious way; the brain becomes so preoccupied with guilt and shame over the secret, that it misses the cues for sexual activity

If this secret continues to fester and the problem of missed erections is left unchecked, this issue can spiral into reoccurring missed erections, which becomes erectile dysfunction.

So yes, hiding something from your partner actually can affect your ability to achieve an erection. If you are struggling with erectile issues, and you are dealing with hiding something from your significant other, you would be wise to be honest about whatever it is that you are hiding. If you can address your secret and manage to deal with it, your erectile issues should disappear.

For men, there may be no scarier three letters than “UTI.” A Urinary Tract Infection is painful, hard to deal with, and worst of all, downright embarrassing. But it’s more common than you might think, especially among older men. a UTI develops when a bacteria that is produced by the bowels, which is commonly found on the skin near the rectum, makes its way into the urethra. Once this bacteria has wormed its way into the penis, swelling of the bladder and of the kidney can occur, leading to pain and trouble urinating. But while a UTI is bad enough, could this dreaded medical issue also cause erectile dysfunction?

To add insult to injury, a UTI actualy can snowball into full blown erectile dysfunction. This is because a UTI can cause swelling in and around the penis, which can lead to functions that the penis depend on, such as constant blood flow for an erection, to be affected. If the penis cannot get the blood required to produce and maintain an erection, it can erection opportunities to be missed. If the UTI continues to cause issues achieving an erection, this can begin to affect a man psychologically, which can lead to a man doubting his sexual ability, culminating in an erectile issue that is caused by both psychical and mental issues.

If you struggle with a Urinary Tract Infection, work with your doctor to overcome this issue. With medication and medical insight, you should be able to beat the UTI in no time. Once your UTI has been conquered, your erectile issues should be a thing of the past.

There’s an old saying when it comes to food: The better it tastes, the worse it is for you. But according to an old wive’s tale, this idiom doesn’t apply when it comes to a certain food that is supposed to help with erections. While men typically wouldn’t be advised to wolf down bushels of dark chocolate, rumors say that the delicious delicacy can actually help men to achieve an erection. But is there any truth to the legends of dark chocolate’s erection producing powers?

Actually, yes! Dark chocolate is filled to bursting with a plant-based antioxidant known as “flavonoids.” While this might sound like the title of a bad horror movie, flavonoids are nothing to scream at. Found only in plant-based solid foods, flavonoids are said to help the body with the flow of blood. This is because flavonoids assist the body in opening up blood vessels, facilitating healthy blood flow. When the flavonoids get to work on opening blood vessels, they target smaller blood vessels first, which includes the cluster of vessels responsible for providing the penis with the blood necessary to produce an erection.

But that isn’t to say that men everywhere should start investing in pallets of dark chocolate. Extensive research has found no correlation between eating dark chocolate and permanently overcoming erectile dysfunction. But that doesn’t mean dark chocolate isn’t without it’s uses when it comes to ED. Instead of solely depending on dark chocolate to beat your erectile issue, use dark chocolate as a back-up while you continue to utilize erectile dysfunction drugs. By combining the power of ED drugs and dark chocolate, your body should have the fighting chance it needs to beat erectile dysfunction.