#erectiledysfunction #ED
There are 4 main causes of erectile dysfunction that were going to cover in this the video.
The first is called Psychogenic ED, as in a psychological cause of erectile dysfunction. Your mental state is extremely important when it comes to getting and maintaining and erection and things like stress, depression and anxiety can all limit your ability to get an erection. Stress decreases blood flow to the genitals. Our brain and nervous system don’t distinguish very well between serious lifethreatening situations and normal every day stress that we go through. It responds by increasing heart rate increasing blood pressure, increasing stress hormones. These put the body in survival mode and not in sexy time mode, so your body sees an erection as low priority because it’s in survival mode. When you're in survival mode, in some ways, your body acts as if youre running from a predator. Can you imagine trying to run for your life with an erection? If things aren’t going well in the relationship and there’s stress there that can be a common reason why things aren’t working as well as they should be. So doing things to relax and destress like getting plenty of sleep, meditating, journaling, doing breathing exercises and fixing problems in your relationship can definitely help with psychogenic erectile dysfunction. Psychogenic erectile dysfunction can sometimes come and go because maybe one day you’re in a good mental state and maybe the next you’re stressed out and you’re dealing with a lot mentally and that translates into poor function. Once you see there is a problem in your function it lowers your confidence and adds to the stress and can make the problem worse.

The next cause of ED is called neurogenic erectile dysfunction. This is caused by a problem where the nerves aren’t sending the right signals to the penis. This can be caused from multiple different things for example a spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, lumbar disc disease, traumatic brain injury, radical pelvic surgery like prostatectomy. In the case of surgery Sometimes the nerve is damaged or cut, or it could be from an injury or disease that affects the nerves in a different way. This is can difficult one to treat because we can’t always restore nerve function. Sometimes the nerve is damaged or cut. In cases where function can’t be restored, a penile implant surgery can be considered, so there is still hope.

The third cause is vasculogenic erectile dysfunction. Meaning there is a problem with the blood vessels that causes difficulty in getting an erection. This is by far the most common cause of erectile dysfunction and is responsible for about 80% of cases. High blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking and diabetes all can affect the health of the blood vessels. When the blood vessels become more stiff and more narrow it decreases the ability of blood to get to the penis. This happens gradually over years or decades beginning in the mid to late thirties or 40s. ED can also be a warning for heart disease. The blood vessels going to the penis are only about a millimeter in diameter, they shows signs earlier than the heart does and have a very obvious affect when they start to have problems. All the heart healthy recommendations will also apply to erectile dysfunction and fortunately can help reverse the problem. These are things like getting regular exercise, losing weight, intermittent fasting, eating a heart healthy diet like the Mediterranean diet or a low carb diet, reducing sugars and processed foods, eating healthy fats and lots of vegetables, going in the sauna, getting your blood pressure cholesterol and diabetes under control. These things will help Erectile dysfunction but they may also save your life. Men with ED are at least twice as likely to suffer form a heart attack, stroke or cardiovascular death. Take this seriously because I know having sex and staying alive are probably among your top priorities.

The Fourth cause of ED is Iatrogenic. This means the ED was caused by the medical system, usually from a treatment or procedure. Pelvic surgery can damage nerves to the penis causing erectile dysfunction. Other possible causes are certain medications that your doctor prescribes. Certain blood pressure medications can do this like thiazide diuretics and beta blockers. Those are common and well known to cause ED. Others medications include: antidepressants, antihistamines, opioids, metformin, tranquilizers, parkinson’s disease medications, antiinflammatories like ibuprofen, muscle relaxants and others. It’s important that you do NOT just stop taking your medications if you suspect they are causing ED but rather have a conversation with your doctor about alternative medication options and an even better option is to talk to your doctor about the kind of lifestyle changes you can make to improve your health and have less of a need for medications.