Erectile dysfunction- causes and treatments

Erectile dysfunction (ED or (male) impotence) is a sexual dysfunction characterized by the inability to develop or maintain an erection of the penis sufficient for satisfactory sexual performance.

Some of you may have encountered it at some point and you may know what devastating psychological effects can have. It wreaks havoc in one's life, disrupting the harmony of a couple and undermining self esteem. I would recommend to get also counseling, to assist you in this stressing times and also to eliminate any psychological issues that may become a cause for ED.

Erectile dysfunction can have various causes, from medical condition to psychological and less obvious ones.

Here is a brief overview of the factors that can lead to ED:

Hormonal disorders - a low level of testosterone or a tumor on the pituitary gland may both imbalance the hormonal level. You may want to check your testosterone level once in a while just to be sure that your body helps you to be who you want to be. A full body scan also may reveal potential problems.

Lifestyle mistakes - that includes abuse of alcohol and drugs, obesity, smoking. The most famous is probably alcohol who can severely impair your ability to get an erection. Even Shakespeare talked about this phenomenon in Macbeth. I may not sound too poetic when I say this though: quit abusing alcohol and put yourself together.

Physical exercise has also such a big positive impact on both mind and body that I cannot stress enough how important it is to be active and do fun physical exercise. I'll mention just that cardio fitness has the same impact as a Prozac pill - that just counting the psychological effects.

If you were thinking to quit on smoking, here is the final argument: male impotence is 85% higher between smokers compared to non smokers. When I first read that, believe me, I threw away all the nice smelling cigars. I prefer my sexual life better.

Neurogenic disorders - that includes spinal cord and brain injuries, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, stroke, multiple sclerosis. Physical exercise has been proven also to delay and improve this kind of conditions.

Surgery - prostate and bladder cancer surgery in many cases may disrupt the arteries involved in leading the blood flow to the penis, the mechanism of erection itself actually.

Arterial disorders - they cause reduced blood flow to the penis. Again, you need to pay attention to your diet, since the health of the arteries is very closely linked to the diet you have.

Mental disorders - clinical depression, schizophrenia, substance abuse, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, personality disorders . That's why keeping a healthy psychological balance is one of the best preventive things you can do. Go talk to a counselor, it's trendy, it's helpful, it's preventive behavior.

I personally have some family friends who are psychologist and hearing their stories about how people can improve their mental state and subsequently their sex life, always puzzles me.

There have been continuous attempts to cure erectile dysfunction, the oldest we are aware of are going back to Muslim physicians and pharmacist in the medieval Islamic world. They were the first to prescribe medication for the treatment of this problem.

Fortunately the enlightened ages we are still going through had come up with more scientifically approaches. There are also a sum of controversial and unapproved treatment which I am not going to mention since they don't have the seal of the science.

The good news are that in the last 2 decades, some FDA approved medicine have become well known due to their positive results for treating erectile dysfunction.

You can read further about my reviews on Viagra, Cialis and Levitra, the 3 wonder pills that changed the face of the world. Well, at least the faces of some men, putting a smile where before was just disappointment.