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Last Updated: Jan 13, 2024
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Common Causes Of Erectile Dysfunction
Dr. Sharath Kumar CSexologist • 20 Years Exp.MBBS, MS, Ph.D, FPSM, DRM, DMRD, DGLS, C.Sc, DYN, FECSM ( Europe ), FCGP
Erectile dysfunction is a serious matter. It can hit any man, of any age, but of course, is much more prevalent among older men. Once you hit forty, youâre increasingly likely to suffer from ed. Itâs important to understand, however, that not every case of sexual dysfunction is an ed problem.
Common causes of erectile dysfunction:
Bad lifestyle:
- The sad truth is that in a significant number of cases, erectile dysfunction is a condition we bring upon ourselves. Even when these things arenât the outright cause of ed, theyâre almost certain to be contributing factors that make your condition worse.
- This is a big, expansive category that covers a lot of ground, but in a nutshell, hereâs what you need to know.
- Eating lots of leafy greens, whole grains, oysters, watermelon, and blueberries all fruits will help you give your body all that it needs to improve the quality of your erections, while cutting out processed foods, cigarettes and alcohol will provide further benefits.
- Add in a healthy dose of exercise at least three times per week, and youâre well on your way to better sexual health!
Your mind:
- Many of the causes of erectile dysfunction are actually psychological. Understand that this is not the same as saying that itâs all in your head, because itâs not.
- Psychological issues can easily lead to a variety of very real physical ailments. If that surprises you, it shouldnât.
- Stress can lead to heart disease, so also other psychological issues can lead to ed. Itâs a pretty common, fairly well understood phenomenon.
- Stress is, in fact, one of the leading causes of ed, which makes it a particularly nasty condition. It also can lead to heart troubles, so it hits you twice.
- Long before stress kills you though, it will impact your sex life in a major, and entirely negative way.
- Our modern society is filled to the point of overflowing with stress triggers. We work too many hours. We donât take enough vacations, and even when we do, we tend to bring our work with us, thanks to the advent of the smart phone, which is both a blessing and a curse.
- Yes, it lets us keep in touch with friends and families no matter where we are in the world, but it also means that we have the tendency to never unplug. We need that. We need time to decompress and relax. Sure, you can run at top speed for a while, but if you do it too long, youâll burn yourself out.
- If you keep going much beyond that, your problems will only worsen with time. Why would you want to do that to yourself? it simply makes no sense.
- Depression is another common cause of ed, and letâs face it. When youâre depressed, sex is about the last thing youâre thinking of.
- Stress is a particularly nasty cause of ed, because most of the antidepressant medicines available only make ed worse.
- Depression is insidious on another front as well, because itâs easy to get caught in a negative, self-reinforcing feedback loop trap.
- What we mean by that is that when youâre depressed, your self-esteem is low. If you try to have sex, your low self-esteem may lead to performance issues. Then, when you fail to perform, sexually, it lowers your self-esteem further, which makes future sexual performance issues even more likely.
- Once youâre caught in that trap, it can be notoriously difficult to get out of it.
- One thing youâll note that isnât on the list is" performance anxiety" thatâs because while performance anxiety can lead to a lack of sexual performance in certain specific situations, these are generally isolated, one-off events.
- The risk, however, is that a failure to perform sexually can sometimes lead to depression, which can cause ed.