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There are many joys that come with growing older: Gaining wisdom, seeing the younger generation grow, getting the senior discount at restaurants. But there is a big downside for aging men: The risk of developing erectile dysfunction. To many men, erectile dysfunction is seen as an inevitability that kicks in around age 50; not a potential issue, but rather a definitive one. But there are plenty of men in their 50’s with perfectly healthy sex lives. So that leaves men wondering: Just how common is erectile dysfunction at age 50?

Here’s the facts: While it is true that erectile dysfunction becomes more prevalent around age 50, it is not as widespread as idle talk might have you believe. Research has found one-third of men between 50 and 64 suffer from erectile dysfunction. While this is certainly a larger percentile then the amount of men dealing with ED in their 20’s, this is to be expected as the body ages.

But that still doesn’t mean that erectile dysfunction is set in stone. Further research shows that 44% of men between the ages of 65 and 85 develop ED, leaving a whopping 56 percent erectile issue free.

So, rest assured, erectile dysfunction is not an inevitable issue waiting to strike. If you should develop erectile dysfunction, there are plenty of solutions that can be explored with a medical professional that will allow you to continue to have a happy and fulfilling sex life. But erectile dysfunction is not set in stone, so don’t live your golden years thinking that it is.

As the nation gears of for Thanksgiving, men everywhere are loosening their belts and unbuttoning their pants in anticipation of a large Turkey Day meal. But after the turkey has been devoured and the mashed potatoes have been demolished, many couples might want nothing more than to throw on some sweatpants and take a nap in the recliner. But other couples might feel like working that meal off with some physical activity in the boudoir. But after filling up on stuffing and green beans, could a man be at a higher risk of dealing with temporary erectile dysfunction?

Silly as it might sound, the answer is “Possibly.” The mere act of eating a lot of food won’t affect your ability to achieve an erection; rather, it’s how your mind perceives all of that food that can make the difference.

If you eat to the point of physical discomfort, you might struggle to engage in any strenuous activity. If your brain interprets the fullness in your stomach as a roadblock, it might focus the body on dealing with this pressing issue first, which could theoretically cause erection signals to get lost in the shuffle, leading to a missed erection.

And it gets worse: While many opt to go all out on Thanksgiving, men that consistently eat heavy meals stand a risk to pack on the pounds, which could lead to weight gain-induced erectile issues.

But a day of heavy eating likely won’t be the end of the world for your erection. If you struggle to achieve an erection after your Turkey Day meal, put a pin in your time between the sheets and focus on getting your body comfortable first. Or take it easy on the casserole and rolls this Thanksgiving, and your erection should be a-okay after the meal.

For as long as man has roamed this blue orb we call Earth, there has been tea. While many turn to this delicious beverage as an alternative to coffee, there are those that see more in tea than a simple way to have a tasty drink; for many, tea can be used to help the body. For almost as long as there has been tea, there have been those that espouse the drink’s health benefits. To these dedicated tea lovers, the piping hot beverage can be used to help the body with everything from heart problems to stomach issues. But could tea be used to help with erectile dysfunction?

Well, yes and no. There are plenty of teas that can help the body in the fight against erectile dysfunction, but extensive research into herbal tea and ED has found no definitive proof that tea can actually defeat erectile dysfunction single-handedly. But if you’re looking to give your body a leg up in the war against erectile dysfunction, consider investing in the following teas:

Yohimbe- Derived from the bark of a South African tree, Yohimbe has been found to increase blood flow within the body, which can prove helpful for achieving an erection

Horny Goat Weed- Don’t let the ridiculous name scare you off. This herbal tea has been found to spike testosterone levels within the body, which can help the body in achieving an erection.

Ginger- This classic herb is said to open up the blood vessels within the body, encouraging healthy blood flow to the penis to facilitate erections.

So while herbal teas can’t help the body to beat erectile dysfunction all on it’s own, it can definitely help your body in the fight to reclaim your sex life.

Sleep: The cornerstone for any happy and healthy individual. While laying in bed often seems like the best way to come up with a retort to an insult you received several years ago, eventually your mind will quiet and you’ll drift off to sleep. But for many men, sleep is not an easy affair. For these men, it can take a long time for their body to feel ready for sleep, leading to precious missed hours of slumber. While many men manage to get by on their 5-6 hours of sleep, could this be setting up the body for problems in the long term? Could not getting a full 8 hours of sleep really put a man at a higher risk of developing erectile dysfunction?

Let’s be clear: While 8 hours is the most commonly recommended optimum amount of sleep, everybody is different. Some men only need 5 hours, while others need 12. What’s important is getting the amount of sleep that your body needs. If you are consistently not hitting your optimum sleep time benchmark, your brain can struggle to cope with the ensuing feelings of exhaustion.

This exhaustion causes the brain to miss important cues, such as the signals from the penis needed to achieve an erection. In your worn-out state, the body could miss these erectile dysfunction signals, leading to consistently missed erections, which could snowball into full blown mentally-induced erectile dysfunction.

In addition to the possibility of developing erectile dysfunction, lack of sleep can make the brain slower to react and slower in processing information. So make sure you make time to get the amount of sleep your body needs. Not only will you be happier and healthier, but you won’t have to worry about problems in the bedroom any time soon.

Whether your candidate won or loss, we can all agree that the 2016 election has been stressful. Insults have been traded, accusations have been made, scandals have come to light; no matter how you cut it, the election was chock full of events guaranteed to make even the most stoic men feel a little stressed out. But now that the election is over, and we’re moving on with our lives as a country, there are still plenty of men that continue to feel stressed about how it all went down. But can this continued stress from the election translate into issues in the bedroom? Could all this election-centric stress actually cause erectile dysfunction?

Some may scoff, but it’s true: When a man feels enormous amounts of stress, it can translate into mentally-induced erectile dysfunction. Whether this stress stems from the election, or work, or home, the brain can take feelings of stress and use them to create physical problems elsewhere in the body.

This is because the erection depends upon signals from the brain to operate. If the brain is loaded with stress, it can actually struggle to prioritize other matters, including the erection signals. As a result, these signals go unaddressed, leading to the penis not receiving the signals and support it needs to achieve an erection, leading to a missed erection. If this continues to happen, the affected man can become depressed or anxious over his inability to achieve an erection, leading to the problem getting worse, until the erectile dysfunction has become a reoccurring problem caused by a litany of root feelings.

So whether you lean Republican or Democrat, the stress from the 2016 erection can actually cause erectile dysfunction. If you have been struggling with erectile issues after the election, work with a mental health professional to address these feelings properly, and your erection should eventually return to normal. Regardless of who is the White House, no election is worth losing your erection over.

Once upon a time, cannabis, or known more commonly as marijuana, was seen as nothing but a good time drug. But as researchers delved into the secrets of cannabis, the opinion on the drug began to change; no longer was cannabis seen solely as a way to cause people to drive to the gas station 2 in the morning to get taquitos and slushies, rather, it became seen as a possibly effective alternative medicine. As more and more states begin to make the push for legalization of cannabis and marijuana for recreational and medicinal use, many skeptics are taking a second look at the little green plant. But one question has loomed over cannabis: How effective is cannabis in treating erectile dysfunction?

The answer: Not at all. As the field of cannabis medicine grows, health professionals continue to find new usages for cannabis regularly, but the jury is still out on cannabis’s ability to help the body with erectile dysfunction.

But looking at cannabis as a way to help the mind, rather than a means of fixing the body, and you find the cannabis can help with erectile dysfunction, in a sense. For many, cannabis, in the form of marijuana, can help the body to relax, which can ease feelings of stress and anxiety. For men that struggle with mental inhibitors preventing them from achieving an erection, such as stress at work or anxiety about performance, marijuana could help to alleviate these feelings, allowing the affected men to focus on the task at hand and regain the use of his erection.

But that’s not to say that cannabis and marijuana is being prescribed to men suffering from mentally induced ED; in fact, as marijuana affects everyone differently, it has been found to give anxiety to some, which might only serve to make erectile dysfunction rooted in mental hang-ups even worse.

so, no, you won’t be popping into your local dispensary any time soon to treat your erectile dysfunction. When battling ED, stick with tried and true medicine and lifestyle changes, and you should recover your erection in no time.

The ancient art of acupuncture has been used for thousands of years, tracing back to the medical practices in ancient China. But while there are plenty of proponents that agree that the occasional acupuncture session can help with a crick in the neck or pain in the back, could acupuncture prove beneficial to more medically pressing issues? Could the right needle in the right place actually help a man to overcome erectile dysfunction?

Research says no, but it could give your body the fighting chance it needs to overcome these erectile woes.

Extensive research has found no definitive connection between regular acupuncture sessions and the curing of physically-caused erectile dysfunction, but that isn’t to say that the ancient Far East medical practice can’t help in some way. Researchers have found the men that regularly attend acupuncture sessions do show signs of improvement in the bedroom, but this is less the result of the acupuncture and more a result of the acupuncture serving as a kind of placebo, convincing the mind that the sessions are working, which subsequently leads to mentally-induced ED being overcome.

But experts stress that acupuncture will likely not offer the help men need when it comes to erectile dysfunction caused by physical issues. For more serious bouts of ED, work with a medical professional to weed out the root cause of the issue, and work to overcome this issue with modern medicine.

But if you’re looking to get a helping hand in the fight against ED, acupuncture could be helpful, especially if your mind convinces you that it is.

When erectile dysfunction rears its ugly head, the mind immediately springs to one thought: “What is causing this?” Men experiencing ED for the first time will begin to wrack their brains for the culprit for this embarrassing issue; after all, if the root cause can be determined, that must make it easier to stomp out the problem, right?

Well, worry not; you won’t have to devote too much time to trying to figure out if it was your recent break-up or an overindulgence in pizza that caused your bedroom snafu. Instead, there is one simple test you can perform in the comfort of your own home that will help you to figure out what is causing your erectile issues.

All you will need is a roll of stamps and a pair of loose fitting boxers. One night, as you prepare for bed, make sure you put on your loose boxers, giving everything downstairs plenty of wiggle room. Then, using the stamps, make a ring of stamps around the base of your penis. Ensure that this base has every stamp touching, and that the ring is completely unbroken. Once you have confirmed that the ring of stamps is unbroken and properly secured, it’s time to hit the hay.

When you wake up in the morning, check the ring of stamps. If you find that the ring was broken during the night, this indicates that your body is still physically capable of producing erections while you are unconscious, signifying that your ED is related to a mental hang-up rather than a physical issue.

But if the ring remains unbroken, this indicates that your body cannot produce erection unconsciously, signifying that your erectile issues could be related to a physical issue.

Once this test has determined the root cause of your erectile dysfunction, you can get to work addressing the issue and working to overcome it. Work with the proper health professional to troubleshoot your erectile issues, and, with plenty of work, you should be able to overcome ED and regain your erection and sex life.