How To Maintain Optimal Sexual Health
2014-04-29
The best way to maintain optimal sexual health is to keep the rest of your body healthy. Health issues in other areas of the body affect your sexual health, especially the genital area (menshealth.com). Certainly your age may not have as much to do with it as you think it does. According to assistant professor at the New York University School of Medicine and author, Steven Lamm, M.D., “A 50-year-old man who is healthy is probably performing as well sexually as an out-of-shape 30-year-old who smokes and drinks.” Dr. Lamm has written a book called, The Hardness Factor: How to Achieve Your Best Health and Sexual Fitness at Any Age. If you want to have a healthy and consistent sex life, pay attention to blood flow. Being overweight or eating a poor diet not only is bad for heart health, it’s bad for sexual health as well. In fact it’s a little known rule in medicine that what’s good for the heart is good for the genitals and visa-versa. Remember, too, that not only physical but mental health plays a big role in your bedroom ability. Anxiety, stress and depression can have just as much to do with the ability to have an erection and to sustain it, as well as remaining lubricated, as physical obstacles do. Drug and alcohol addiction are both libido killers. By enacting a lifestyle that is both physically and emotionally healthy, you should be able to enjoy sex even into your eighth decade of life, and perhaps even beyond.
Abdominal fat is the worst kind of fat for sexual health. It absorbs testosterone, the hormone responsible for sex drive. The penis, for instance, is the proverbial “canary in the coal mine” for cardiovascular health. This is due to the fact that the coronary artery is slightly bigger than the penile artery. If your arteries are hardening or plaque is becoming a problem, it will first affect your erection. Eating a high fruit and vegetable, whole grain and low fat diet with lean meats and healthy proteins is one way to ensure you stay healthy. Also get plenty of exercise.
Aerobic exercise of some type for twenty to thirty minutes three times per week will keep you and your sex life healthy. Exercise increases not only blood flow but nitric oxide, a key ingredient in the formation of erections. Of this Dr. Lamm says, “The healthier a man is, the more nitric oxide he produces, and the harder his erection is.” Don’t smoke, and if you do, quit. Nicotine makes erections softer by restricting blood flow. Not only that, but according to Dr. Lamm, “Smoking just clenches down on your blood vessels and prevents them from being reactive.” If you are a male between 18 and 40 years of age, check your testicles often for testicular cancer. The disease affects 8,000 men per year but can be easily detected as an unusual lump in the testicles. If caught early, treatment is 95% effective. Go easy on the alcohol. More than one glass can affect your erection. Finally, eat fatty fish once or twice per week. The omega-3 fatty acids not only help your heart, they support healthy sexual function as well.