Maintaining a Healthy Penis
Maintaining a healthy penis, especially as men grow older is of utmost importance. Not only does good penis health ensure that you’ll have a great sex life, but it indicates that other health concerns are not an issue.
Ways to Keep Your Penis Working in Top Form
It isn’t just about keeping an erection, but this is indeed an important part of your manhood! As much as half of the entire population suffers from erectile dysfunction – but they don’t need to!
Still other men suffer from prostate issues, and additional penis problems. As many as seventypercentof all men over 70 have erectile dysfunction! This is alarming because how your penis functions is an indicator of your overall cardiovascular health.
Getting older doesn’t mean you need to lose your virility and sexual potency, though. A good penis, is an indicator of a good heart, and so much more.
Allopathic Medicines for a Healthy Penis
Erectile dysfunction is usually addressed by allopathic medicine with pharmaceutical drugs. First, however, let’s discuss a few things that can make your penis stop working how it ought to in more detail.
Obesity
Being overweight can make your penis’s performance lackluster. Obesity can reduce testosterone levels, and abdominal fat make causes you to create more of the female hormone, estrogen– both of which are a huge damper on your erection. Unhealthy fats in obese men also clog the blood vessels, including the main artery leading to the penis.
Diabetes
Diabetes can also cause an unhealthy penis. Poor long-term blood sugar control can damagethe blood vessels that allow the penis to become and stay erect.
Parkinson’s Disease
Called a non-motor symptom, erectile dysfunction may be common in those who have Parkinson’s disease. This disease can also cause a low sex-drive, and an inability to orgasm.
Heart Disease
The same problems which cause an unhealthy heart, and put men at risk for stroke or a heart attack, cause a penis to not function as it should. Plaques which build up in the blood vessels can cause poor blood flow, and therefore, erectile dysfunction. Moreover, ED is often a precursor to more serious heart conditions– so it should not be ignored, or simply wished away.
Tobacco Use
Think twice the next time you are about to light up a cigarette. Tobacco use damages the blood vessels in your penis, and makes it suffocate. It needs oxygen-rich blood to function, and smoking doesn’t allow that to occur. If a man smokes for a long time, he can also become impotent.
Multiple Sclerosis
MS can cause all kinds of problems with a man’s sexual organs and sexual experience. Those with MS often have damaged nerves, and nerve pathways which can make maintain an erection or having an orgasm nearly impossible. MS can also cause psychological issues due to mood-changes and self-esteem relating to a man’s performance.
Depression
Younger men are more susceptible than ever to depression, and it’s causing a major downer in the bedroom. The statisticsare even depressing about depression:
- 35 to 47 percent of people with depression have problems with their sex life
- 61 percent of people with severe depression have sexual problem
- up to 40 percent of people taking common antidepressant medications report a decline in sexual satisfaction
These numbers are telling about how the penis really works, because sexual arousal starts in the brain. If your brain is making a cocktail of hormones that keep you feeling blue, they can’t simultaneously support the physiological state of feeling happy and turned on.
What’s worse, is that depressed men are already feeling uneasy about themselves. Add ED to that, and it can be very easy to slip down the slope of feeling absolutely horrible about themselves.
Stress
Stress goes hand in hand with depression. Stress, however, has even more insidious effects on your penis. Stress causes a depleted immune system, and loss of blood flow through your body – instead it goes to protect your vital, core organs, like your heart and lungs, when you are in a fight-or-flight state. Stress also causes chronic inflammation, and raises cortisol levels (a stress hormone) which keeps your body in a state of havoc. Stress can literally cause your penis to shrink.
Drugs Prescribed for Your Penis
Now that we’ve discussed common causes of an unhealthy penis, this brings us to the drugs that are most often prescribed for common penis dysfunction. None of these are really going to help you if you don’t address lifestyle choices that lead to obesity and other disease-causing factors that contribute to an unhealthy penis.
However, pharmaceutical companies make a killing off some of these drugs simply because most men require a penis that works, and many, especially as they age, are having difficulty maintaining a healthy penis. Just one drug, Viagra, makes Pfizer over 1 billion dollars a year. Common side effectsfor Viagra are:
- Headache
- Flushing in the face, neck, or chest
- Upset stomach, indigestion
- Abnormal vision
- Nasal congestion
- Back pain
- Muscular pain or tenderness
- Nausea
Additional drugs commonly prescribed include:
- Alprostadil
- Avanafil
- Sildenafil
- Tadalafil
- Testosterone
The same side effects that accompany Viagra also can be experienced by those who take other erectile dysfunction (ED) drugs, with the exception of testosterone, which can cause:
- Acne
- Breasts or prostate growth
- Fluid retention that causes swelling
- Moodiness
- Sleep apnea (interrupted breathing during your sleep)
Prostate Health
Prostate health, although not technically a part of the penis, is still a part of the male sexual reproductive anatomy, and the penis can even reduce in size and length (even when erect) due to prostate surgery– so taking care of your penis and prostate together is paramount.
Prostate health is very closely linked to your immune system’s health. Try to reduce red meat, eat lots of leafy greens and fresh fruits, and add turmeric (as a food or supplement) to help reduce chronic inflammation, that leads to prostate issues.
Protection from STDs
Another concern for your penis is exposure to a sexually transmitted disease. You can contract an STD without even knowing it, but other signs include:
- Itching at the tip of your penis
- Rash on you penis, testicles, or groin.
- Discharge — a milky white, yellow, thick or thin substance coming from the tip of your penis
- Pain when you urinate
- Pain when you ejaculate
- Painful blisters on your genitals (penile spots/penile bumps)
There are dozens of STDs, but the most commoncan be life threatening, such as Hepatitis or HIV/AIDs.
The easiest way to protect your penis from STDs is to use a condom with every sexual encounter. Condoms are up to 90 percent effective at protecting yourself from a sexually transmitted disease.
When choosing a condom, make sure that you aren’t allergic to latex, as this can cause unpleasant rashes which can turn into infections.
Finally, spermicides may be effective at preventing pregnancy, but they can also be irritating to penile skin. You may want to do a spot test before using a spermicide with full abandon.
Exercise
Another way to take good care of your penis is to get regular physical exercise. Aerobics as well as muscles that work the pelvic floor (many of which can be done through weight lifting, yoga, or muscle isolation) also help keep blood flow and muscle tone in male reproductive organs.
Also, women aren’t the only ones who can benefit from Kegel exercises. To perform one, simply contract the muscles you would use normally to cut off the flow of urine. Repeat this contraction several times. Build up to doing up to one hundred a day and you can count on an improved sexual experience, the reduction of dribble after you urinate, and less chance of bowel or urinary incontinence.
Good Hygiene
Good hygiene may be the simplest, but most important way to care for your penis. Without washing correctly, you can become more prone to urinary tract infections, and other diseases.
If you are circumcised it may be easier to make sure that your penis gets clean from top to bottom, but if you aren’t, be sure to gently draw back the foreskinthe covers the tip of the penis to clean underneath it. Bacteria, and pathogens like to hide out in nay fold of the body – from armpits, to creases in the crotch, and this area of the penis is no exception.
Also, be sure not to use soaps, body washes, cologne or other personal hygiene products that have harsh chemicals or perfumes in them, as they can irritate the skin, and even make it easier for an infection to begin.
In Closing
In brief, there are many things you can do to care for your penis. It begins with healthy lifestyle choices like eating healthy foods and getting plenty of exercise, reducing stress and practicing good personal hygiene. Since the blood flow to your penis is an indicator of your overall cardiovascular health, be sure to head any warnings that come with ED, and see a doctor to check for a serious health condition. If you’re good to your penis, it will work exceptionally well into your 80s, and beyond.