Dealing with impotence naturally

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Please note, that none of this should be taken as professional medical advice and you should always seek proper medical care and advice.

Introduction
What causes impotency?
But, do you want more drugs?
Wonder drugs for older men
The importance of nitric oxide
Lifestyle changes to get rid of impotence
Other methods of addressing an impotence problem
Impotence vacuum pumps
Impotence injections
Penile implants
Medicated urethral system for erection (MUSE®)
Natural treatment for mental or psychological conditions that cause impotence
Natural treatments for depression
Stress and anxiety
Natural treatment for physical conditions that cause impotence
Direct natural solutions for impotence
Natural substances and herbs to combat impotence
Ginseng
Horny Goat Weed
L-Arginine
Catuaba
Yohimbe (or Yohimbine)
Maca
Muira puama
Schizandra (or Schisandra) berry
Tribulus
Velvet beans
Tongkat Ali
Commercially produced herbal compounds
Conclusion

Introduction

Whether we like it or not, for many men it gets increasingly difficult to perform sexually as the years advance.
While every individual is different, for a significant percentage of the male of the species, impotency can become an ever worsening problem as the years roll by, although because it is a condition that can be caused by a wide range of medical problems, it is actually a condition that can strike any man at any age.
There are sound scientific reasons why this condition afflicts so many men, and we will consider these reasons in the early part of the book. Over the past few years, many new drugs have come onto the market to counter impotency, and there is no doubt that many of these drugs are effective for a significant proportion of men who suffer from the condition.
The downside of these preparations is that they are chemically based, because it is well known that pharmaceutical chemicals almost always have side-effects, some of which can be nothing more than unpleasant, while others can be downright dangerous. For the purposes of presenting as complete and comprehensive picture as possible, we will also consider some of the more popular pharmaceutical impotency preparations in his book. However, I am going to focus attention on some of the known possible side-effects of the drugs, because the purpose of this book is to draw attention to the benefits of using natural impotency treatments rather than chemicals. I should also point out that there are going to be no references to any of the more ‘imaginative’ solutions that some individuals might think of when they think of ‘natural impotency cures’. There will for example be no references to risqué movies or publications, because those are not the types of ‘natural cures’ we are interested in. Let us therefore start by looking at what causes impotency.

However, not every cause of impotency is going to be quite as temporary, as it can often be an unfortunate side-effect of more serious medical problems such as kidney disease, hardening of the arteries, diabetes, high blood pressure or a hormonal imbalance.

The fact is, there are many poor health or lifestyle choices that we all make which can eventually increase the chances of suffering Erectile Dysfunction. These poor choices will adversely affect your overall body condition, and deteriorating sexual performance is often the result. For example, if you are seriously overweight, the chances of suffering ED are significantly increased, and too much smoking or drinking is certainly not going to help. This is all exactly the kind of information your medical practitioner needs.

What causes impotency?

Although impotency is often thought of as a condition caused by old age, it is in fact something that can be caused by a wide range of conditions, so much so that it is estimated that around 20 million men in the USA alone will suffer from impotency at some time in their life. The condition (which is known medically as Erectile Dysfunction or ED) is defined as the inability to achieve or maintain an erection of the penis in order to enjoy satisfactory sexual intercourse. There are many reasons why such a condition might exist, but every cause can be classified under one of two headings. On the one hand, psychogenic impotence caused by mental or emotional factors, and on the other hand organic impotence, due to a physical cause, condition or bodily malfunction.
One of the most common reasons for impotence is the natural advance of the years - which clearly represents an organic impotence problem, because no-one has (as yet) found a way to successfully prevent ageing.
However, impotency can also be a result of the effects of stress (either physical or mental), excessive tiredness, depression (sometimes brought on by an inability to perform sexually) or overconsumption of either alcohol or tobacco. Recreational drugs can be another potential cause.
It is also widely acknowledged that some men will suffer impotency as a result of the side-effects of pharmaceutical drugs that they are taking as a treatment for entirely unrelated medical conditions. All of these causes tend to be of a temporary nature, because in all these situations, the cause of the condition can be isolated - and that means it can be treated as appropriate.
However, not every cause of impotency is going to be quite as temporary, as it can often be an unfortunate side-effect of more serious medical problems such as kidney disease, hardening of the arteries, diabetes, high blood pressure or a hormonal imbalance.
In any situation where the cause of impotence is physical (and especially in older men who are inevitably more likely to suffer from organic impotence), it is absolutely essential that a full medical evaluation is sought before any kind of impotence treatment (whether natural or drug based) is embarked upon. This evaluation should
include a detailed cardiac assessment, measurements of both blood pressure and lipids, blood sugar tests, and a full assessment of current lifestyle.
In this ‘current lifestyle’ assessment, it is likely that your healthcare professional will look at and advise upon such considerations as weight control, sleep quality management, diet improvement and other similar lifestyle changes that could help to elevate your ability to achieve or maintain an erection.
The fact is, there are many poor health or lifestyle choices that we all make which can eventually increase the chances of suffering Erectile Dysfunction. These poor choices will adversely affect your overall body condition, and deteriorating sexual performance is often the result. For example, if you are seriously overweight, the chances of suffering ED are significantly increased, and too much smoking or drinking is certainly not going to help. This is all exactly the kind of information your medical practitioner needs.
Armed with this information, it is likely that your doctor will be able to isolate the cause of your problem, and in most cases, something can be done to reverse it.

But, do you want more drugs?

If you have a medical problem that causes impotency, or your condition has been caused as a side effect of a medication that you are already taking, then it is sensible to consult your doctor to discover the cause of the problem.
After that, however, you may have a decision to make, because it is highly likely that your healthcare professional is going to prescribe pharmaceutical drugs of some description to deal with your problem, and you have to decide whether they are something that you are happy to take.
For example, if you are already on some kind of medication for another condition that is causing your ED problem, your doctor is likely to prescribe an alternative medication to deal with the original problem, an alternative that they believe will not cause impotency. Knowing that chemical-based pharmaceuticals almost always have side-effects of one form or another, is switching from one such drug to another something that you want to take a chance on?
Alternatively, if the cause of your impotency is a recognized medical or mental condition for which you have not already received treatment, do you want to begin that treatment by taking pharmaceutical drugs?
For example, imagine that your impotence problem is caused by depression, and your doctor therefore wants to prescribe antidepressants. The following screenshot shows a handful of the most common types of antidepressant drugs.
Look at the side-effects of these drugs, and consider whether they are something that you would want to live with:

Of course, there are medical situations that cannot be adequately dealt with by using anything less than serious medical intervention, and that inevitably means that there are times when natural treatments are not going to be enough. However, given the evident ‘horror show’ of possible side-effects from pharmaceutical antidepressant treatments, there is definitely a strong argument for seeking out natural cures before turning to pharmaceutical drugs only after establishing that natural remedies do not work.
We will consider these natural cures later, but for the time being, the important thing to appreciate is that almost every pharmaceutical drug comes with side-effects. Even the ‘wonder drugs’ that are used to treat impotence directly are no exception to this rule.

Wonder drugs for older men…

Unlike the previous situation, it was not until recently that there were effective pharmaceutical based impotency treatments available. However, such drugs are now widely available, and many millions of men all over the world are undoubtedly using them on a regular basis. The modern pharmaceutical drugs that are used to reduce or remove the negative effects of impotency like Viagra, Levitra and Cialis are effective for the majority of men who decide to use them, with a success rate that is generally believed to be around 65% to 70%. in each case, it is necessary to take the drug for a certain period of time before the anticipated sexual liaison takes place, and this can be as little as one hour before ‘things are to happen’. The effects of the drug can then be felt for a few hours afterwards, so you would only take the drug as and when necessary (although Cialis now have an ‘every day’ version of their product as well).
It is therefore fair to say that all three drugs work extremely quickly, and that is a significant advantage that drug based impotence treatments have over the natural alternatives of which you will read later in this report.
All of these drugs are available by prescription only, but because there is an ever increasing online market for drug based impotency treatments, there are many places where you can obtain these drugs easily on the net.
For example, use any of the major search engines for information about where you can ‘buy XYZ’ (e.g. ‘buy Viagra’) and you will find that there is absolutely no shortage of appropriate information available:

Even if you do not have a suitable prescription, it is still possible to get supplies of any of these drugs online by answering a detailed questionnaire so that a doctor who is working with the website from which you are interested in buying can generate a prescription for you. You will find the whole process of buying Viagra online described on this webpage, as an example.
However, none of this should be viewed as a recommendation of these drugs, or a suggestion that you should buy them. While it is easy (and getting easier by the day) to buy the drugs online, you should know exactly what you would be buying before considering doing so. Every one of the three examples quoted above is a powerful pharmaceutical drug, which means that there can be side-effects if you use any of these particular products. For some men, these drugs could even be dangerous - as is made clear by looking at the ‘safety information pages’ from the official Viagra, Levitra and Cialis sites. Even the companies that make these drugs admit that if you have high blood pressure, diabetes, heart problems or any one of a range of other medical conditions, these drugs are definitely not advisable for you. They also admit that they can cause unpleasant or even dangerous side-effects such as headaches, backache, stuffy or runny nose and even temporary blindness or deafness.
These are just the side-effects that the drug companies behind these products are willing to admit to. As this article from about.com (which is a site not generally given to over-exaggeration) makes clear, there can sometimes be far more serious side-effects which, of course, the drug companies themselves do not mention.
However, they do mention that there is a risk to taking any of the three drugs if you are already taking nitrate medications, the kind of medications that millions of people take to control heart disease or angina. In fact, the risk of combining nitrate medications and Viagra or any of the others mentioned is extremely serious. Once again, if you search Google, you will discover that there is an awful lot of information about the adverse side-effects of these drugs, so it cannot reasonably be suggested that any of these drugs is completely safe:

This is a critically important factor to consider, particularly if you are considering buying any of these drugs online, because irrespective of how detailed a questionnaire a website uses is, it can be no substitute for a detailed medical examination.
Think about it this way. If you are answering personal medical questions contained in an online questionnaire, it is obvious that you can only give them information about conditions or problems that you already know about. For many men, it is not going to be the pre-existing medical conditions that they know about which are likely to be the problem – it is the ones which they are entirely unaware of that could potentially be dangerous or even lethal. As previously suggested, anyone who is considering using a treatment for impotence for the very first time must get themselves properly examined by a healthcare professional, because there is no substitute.

The importance of nitric oxide…

Although there are many different causes of Erectile Dysfunction, the main reason that any man who is suffering from impotence has a problem is because of expansion of the blood capillaries in the penis insufficient to allow an erection to occur or be maintained. On the other hand, nitric oxide is a molecule known to play a leading role in various vascular functions of the body, including having the ability to relax blood vessels and muscles. It also inhibits blood platelet clumping, which in turn makes the blood thinner and more free flowing. By altering or enhancing the actions of nitric oxide in the body, both drugs and natural impotence solutions enable the sufferer to achieve and maintain erections once again.
However, they do so in different ways, and the effects are therefore also believed to be different. For example, Viagra allows more nitric oxide to be retained by the body, by attacking an enzyme known as PDE5, which itself is responsible for destroying nitric oxide. Natural impotence cures work in a slightly different way (as you will read later). However, the way a drug based impotence treatment like Viagra achieves the results that it does has a significant downside. That is, while it is sometimes suggested that natural impotence cures enhance the whole sexual experience, including increasing the libido, increasing stamina and enhancing genital stimulation, drugs do none of these things. Viagra improves an individual’s physical ability to indulge in intercourse but has no effect on the desire to do so or on any other aspect of the sexual experience.
As far as I am aware, there have been no clinical trials of this theory, and it is therefore very difficult to give a definitive answer as to whether this is fact or not, but there do seem to be enough impotence sufferers who make this claim for it to have some validity. Being a proponent of natural impotence cures, I would obviously recommend that you ‘test’ this theory for yourself by trying natural treatments before resorting to pharmaceutical drugs with their acknowledged adverse side-effects.

Lifestyle changes to get rid of impotence…

While it is an accepted fact that impotence is likely to become an increasing problem for many men as they get older, it is also true that for all men, both younger and older, making appropriate lifestyle changes can reduce the incidence of impotence. For example, if you are seriously overweight or obese, not only does that pose a significant danger to your overall well-being, it also makes it far more likely that you will suffer a problem with impotence. One reason is that you very possibly eat cholesterol rich or saturated fat rich foods and that leads to a narrowing of the blood vessels throughout your body. As achieving an erection only happens if your body is able to engorge your penis with sufficient blood supply, the fact that blood supplies are being hindered also hinders your chance of achieving an erection.
Being overweight leads to hypertension, and high blood pressure is often cited as a cause of impotence. It can also significantly shorten your life, but that is another story.
The answer is simple. You have to eat a healthier diet and lose a significant amount of weight if you want to get rid of your impotence problem in this situation. As living a healthier life will also probably help you to live a longer one, this choice is actually something of a no-brainer in any event.
Similarly, if you smoke too much, you are causing untold damage throughout your body, damage that will inevitably be reflected in poorer sexual performance. As an example, smoking adversely affects the circulatory system, hindering the flow of blood to the pelvic and groin area and thereby reducing the chances of being able to achieve erection.
As many men have learned to their cost over the years, while drinking excessive alcohol might give them the false courage necessary to get into a situation where sexual dalliance becomes a distinct possibility, it also reduces their ability to perform at the same time. On a long-term basis, alcohol abuse is going to cause serious physical damage to your body, and the result of that damage is going to be an inability to perform sexually when required.
Although it is a fact of life that male sexual performance deteriorates over the years, by improving your lifestyle and cleaning up your act, you can delay the inevitable deterioration for as long as possible.

Being overweight, drinking or smoking too much are all going to knock years off ‘your sexual prime’, which is not something that any sane guy would voluntarily accept!
The facts are simple and straightforward. For many men who suffer from impotence, the natural cure that they are looking for involves nothing more than living a healthier life.

Other methods of addressing an impotence problem

Besides drugs and natural impotence solutions, there are various other ways that the problem can be addressed, including impotence vacuum pumps, impotence injections, penile implants and what is known as the ‘medicated urethral system for erection’ or Muse® (which is a registered trade name of Vivus. Inc., a Californian company that specializes in next-generation obesity and sexual health products). Let us consider each of these products in turn while looking at the attractions or weaknesses of each.

Impotence vacuum pumps

Until Viagra came on the market, impotence vacuum pumps were the number one choice of most men who suffered from erectile dysfunction. For many men who do not want to take pharmaceutical drugs like Viagra, the pump is still the number one choice. For example, for many men who suffer from heart problems, diabetes or high blood pressure, the risks of taking pharmaceutical drugs for their impotence problem are simply too great. For this reason, despite the apparent overwhelming strength of drugs like Viagra in the impotency market, there are still a significant number of men who continue to prefer to use the vacuum pump. This is particularly noticeable with men who have suffered impotence for a long time, because before drugs like Viagra and Cialis came along, they had spent many years using vacuum pumps to achieve erections, and consequently, they had simply got used to how they worked. In the initial stages, a plastic cylinder is placed around the penis, and then a pump (either electrical or manually operated) gradually sucks the air out of the cylinder which creates a vacuum that forces blood to be drawn into the penis.
Once the required erection is achieved, then the cylinder is removed and a reasonably tight fitting elastic collar or band (the ‘tension ring’) is applied to the base of the penis to prevent blood passing back into the body, as this would naturally cause the erection to subside. It is generally reported that using an impotence vacuum pump is a very effective way of achieving and maintaining an erection, although it is also widely observed that the more familiar with using such a device an individual becomes, the more effective it is. Never has it been truer that practice does indeed make perfect!

Using a pump removes the necessity of taking possibly harmful drugs, and it also provides immediate results. Because of the ‘mechanical nature’ of generating the erection, it is also generally true that performance is not affected by over-consumption of alcohol. There are a few minor negatives. You must be careful not to leave the ‘tension ring’ in place for more than 30 minutes, and some impotence vacuum users (especially new users) could potentially suffer bruising and pain.
There have been occasionally reported cases of a condition known as priapism, where the individual concerned has maintained his erection for a period of two or three hours. While this might sound like a dream for someone suffering from impotence, it can in fact be quite a dangerous condition, so that anyone who is suffering from priapism must seek medical attention immediately. And you will occasionally hear a complaint that having to use a pump takes away the spontaneity and romance of the moment, although this is a relatively unimportant argument.
Otherwise, there are no significant downsides to using an impotence vacuum pump, and given that it removes the necessity for pharmaceutical drugs, you might even be able to classify it as a natural impotence treatment.
There are many different types and models of pumps available, and you must ensure that the one you buy is a comfortable fit.

Impotence injections

Using injections to generate erections is a treatment that was first used in the early 1990s, and has proved to be an extremely effective treatment for impotence ever since. At that time, the drug that was injected into the corpora cavernosa of the penis (two chambers filled with sponge like erectile tissue) was papaverine, which was a drug used during surgery to dilate blood vessels. By relaxing blood vessels in this way, the drug enabled an injection to cause the penis to become engorged with blood, resulting in an erection. Since those early days, advancements in drug treatment for impotence have enabled impotence injections to become increasingly successful. Nowadays, it is most common for a ‘cocktail’ of three drugs to be used. The original paperavine is now commonly mixed with alprostadil (a synthetic version of prostaglandin, which is a natural human hormone) and phentolamine. Combining these drugs has led to significant improvements in effectiveness over the original usage of one single drug.

The injections themselves are usually rendered with very fine needles, the kind of needles that diabetics use to inject themselves with insulin. It is said that the injections are painless. The drugs that are to be injected must be prescribed by a doctor, and it is normal for the doctor to demonstrate the injection process the first time, both as a way of ensuring that it is done correctly but also to check that the dosage is suitable.
As long as the dosage is correct, an erection should begin within 10 to 15 minutes, and will generally last for between 60 and 90 minutes. However, it is important to note that men who have had impotence injections report priapism fairly regularly, and as previously highlighted, if the erection lasts for more than two or three hours, medical attention should be sought as quickly as possible. It is generally recommended that you do not inject more than two or three times a week, and there are health risks if you have pre-existing medical conditions like sickle cell anemia or leukemia. While impotence injections are extremely effective, you are injecting invasive drugs into an extremist sensitive part of your anatomy. There is therefore no way that impotence injections could ever be considered to be a natural treatment for the condition.

Penile implants

Here is the good news about penile implants. Of the men who have had an implant of this type, over 90% have reported that they have been able to resume an active sex life. The downside is of course that there is a surgical operation involved, and that introduces the risk of surgical complications.
However, the practice of using penile implants began in the 1970s and so far, the success and safety rates have more than justified the risk. In addition, many men report that the implant (sometimes known as an ‘internal penile pump’) is unnoticeable to their partner. This fact, in combination with the degree of sexual success that 9 out of 10 men enjoy after the operation, means that it is an extremely popular form of impotency treatment.
As the technology behind penile implantation and the materials used have advanced over the years, the operation has become easier, quicker and safer.
Nowadays in fact, a skilled urologist is likely to be able to complete the implant operation in as little as 30 minutes by making a small incision either in the lower abdomen or base of the penis so that the device can be implanted.

There are currently three different types of implants available, and the one that any individual chooses is entirely up to them because there does not seem to be any appreciable difference in either implant success rates, or performance after the operation. The major advantage of implantation is that after surgery, the penis will get erect exactly as it normally would, whenever desired. Moreover, there are no pharmaceutical drugs necessary, which makes an implant an attractive option for anyone who cannot tolerate impotence drugs, such as those who suffer from diabetes. In fact, it is believed that at least 40% of men who have undergone penile implants did so because of medical conditions such as diabetes or treatment for prostate cancer problems that led to impotence, so it is clear that implantation has a very real value.

Medicated urethral system for erection (MUSE®)

This is a impotence treatment that was invented by the Vivus company in California in 1997, which consists of using a specially designed plunger to insert a tiny pellet directly into the tube through which both urine and sperm pass, the urethra.
This pellet is loaded with alprostadil (which we have already seen is used in impotence injections) so that the chemical works from the inside to dilate the blood capillaries of the penis. Hence, an erection will begin within 5 to 15 minutes, and can last for up to 60 minutes. Because you are using the same pharmaceutical chemical that you would when injecting into your penis, the risks are very similar, so people who suffer from penile deformities, sickle cell anemia or leukemia should not consider using MUSE. Also, because the drug is inserted into the urethra, it is essential that any man who indulges in intercourse with a woman after using the treatment only does so wearing a condom too. It is also recommended that anyone using this particular impotence treatment does not consider driving a car for a least one hour afterwards as well.
As this process involves pharmaceutical chemicals, it could not be viewed as a natural treatment for impotence, and there is one more consideration that might put you off trying it. So far, it appears that this particular form of treatment is only successful in 30% to 60% of cases, and those numbers do not compare particularly favorably with many other impotence treatments that we have considered in this section of the report.

Having viewed these four methods of tackling impotence, it is perhaps no surprise that the impotence vacuum pump method still has so many dedicated followers because, although it clearly has some disadvantages, it does not require anything intrusive (like surgery) or involve pharmaceutical chemicals.

Natural treatment for mental or psychological conditions that cause impotence…

As suggested previously, drugs like Viagra and Cialis are designed to ‘attack’ impotence directly, in that they only ‘cure’ impotency itself. However, as we have also seen, there are many medical and psychological conditions that can result in impotency, such as depression and anxiety, and these conditions can be dealt with in a natural way.
In this respect, you are able to attack impotency in a slightly different manner by ‘curing’ the root cause of the problem, rather than the problem itself. For example, if it is possible to alleviate the worst symptoms of depression in such a way that impotency disappears, then that is every bit as effective a natural cure for impotency as it is for depression.
It is the job of your health care professional to prescribe pharmaceutical drugs, but almost irrespective of what medical condition you have that is causing impotency, there will be natural solutions available. It is impossible to say that these natural solutions will be as effective as pharmaceutical drugs for treating your primary medical or mental condition in every case, but you can almost always be certain that the natural treatments will have far fewer adverse side-effects. As a consequence, if your impotency is a direct effect of another medical or psychogenic condition, you should give serious consideration to whether that condition can be treated naturally.

Fortunately, with the internet at your fingers, this is easy to do. Take any condition that you might be suffering from and by running an appropriate Google search, you should be able to find lots of information about the most widely recommended natural treatments. It is then simply a question of getting your hands on whatever it is that is commonly recommended, and giving it a try. If you suffer from impotency caused by any pre-existing condition, then that condition definitely needs treating but doing so in a natural manner should always be your first choice.

Dealing with impotence naturally Part 2 - Natural treatments for depression

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