Dr. Joe DeStefano of Urgent Care 24/7 discusses erectile dysfunction.

Dr. DeStefano thinks ED is a little misnomer. It's almost like total body dysfunction, because erectile function or male is a good indicator of their overall health status. So in a way, medicine has got kind of lazy in the last 30 years. Before the invention of Viagra and Cialis, if somebody had erectile dysfunction, there wasn't much good treatment for it. So if you wanted to help your patients, you had to try to get them healthier, or you had to address the primary cause of erectile dysfunction.

This meant you looked at their hormone status. Do they have enough testosterone to perform sexually? Was their thyroid okay? You looked at their whether they had vascular disease? Do they have a problem? With erectile function due to hardening of the arteries? Dr. DeStefano never smoked, but smoking must be good, because people will smoke until it compromises their ability to have sex. So that is an indicator of a strong addiction.

Cigarette smoking poisons you into thallium in your arteries or into feeling, and produces nitric oxide. Nitrous oxide is what helps you get an erection. These medications, such as Viagra and Cialis, work by increasing nitric oxide production. So there is the problem with smoking smoking poisons and the Valium. It makes it harder for you to fail to make nitric oxide. It also hardens and narrows the arteries, providing blood supply to the corpus callosum in the penis, and these things worsen erectile function.

Also, sexism is an exercise in its physical activity. If somebody is in poor physical condition, they're out of shape. They can't do 50 pushups, they can't do 25 setups. They can't walk a 12 minute mile. They're gonna have problems with erectile function, hitting the gym, swimming laps, hiking, walking. These are all things that need to be done as a complete holistic approach to treatment of erectile dysfunction. They're basically just good for good for the patient. Someone in better physical condition will perform better sexually.

Another problem with erectile dysfunction is someone once said 90% of sex happens in the mind. So you have to consider mood disorders in depression. Is somebody having a severe depressive episode?

They're having erectile dysfunction because they lack interest in sex due to a symptom of severe depression. So this is the psychologic aspect of erectile function must be considered. Whereas Viagra and these newer nitrous oxide releasing medications have been a revolution in about three years and in providing help with erectile dysfunction.

Like so many things in medicine, there needs to be a more holistic approach to it.

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