Dealing with impotence naturally

Dealing with impotence naturally

 

 

 

 

                                                                        Introduction

Whether we like it or not, for many men it gets increasingly difficult to perform sexually as the years advance.

While every individual is different, for a significant percentage of the male of the species, impotency can become an ever worsening problem as the years roll by, although because it is a condition that can be caused by a wide range of medical problems, it is actually a condition that can strike any man at any age.

There are sound scientific reasons why this condition afflicts so many men, and we will consider these reasons in the early part of the BLOG.

Over the past few years, many new drugs have come onto the market to counter impotency, and there is no doubt that many of these drugs are effective for a significant proportion of men who suffer from the condition.

The downside of these preparations is that they are chemically based, because it is well known that pharmaceutical chemicals almost always have side-effects, some of which can be nothing more than unpleasant, while others can be downright dangerous.

For the purposes of presenting as complete and comprehensive picture as possible, we will also consider some of the more popular pharmaceutical impotency preparations in his book. However, I am going to focus attention on some of the known possible side-effects of the drugs, because the purpose of this book is to draw attention to the benefits of using natural impotency treatments rather than chemicals.

I should also point out that there are going to be no references to any of the more ‘imaginative’ solutions that some individuals might think of when they think of ‘natural impotency cures’. There will for example be no references to risqué movies or publications, because those are not the types of ‘natural cures’ we are interested in.

Let us therefore start by looking at what causes impotency.

What causes impotency?

Although impotency is often thought of as a condition caused by old age, it is in fact something that can be caused by a wide range of conditions, so much so that it is estimated that around 20 million men in the USA alone will suffer from impotency at some time in their life.

The condition (which is known medically as Erectile Dysfunction or ED) is defined as the inability to achieve or maintain an erection of the penis in order to enjoy satisfactory sexual intercourse.

There are many reasons why such a condition might exist, but every cause can be classified under one of two headings. On the one hand, psychogenic impotence caused by mental or emotional factors, and on the other hand organic impotence, due to a physical cause, condition or bodily malfunction.

One of the most common reasons for impotence is the natural advance of the years - which clearly represents an organic impotence problem, because no-one has (as yet) found a way to successfully prevent ageing.

However, impotency can also be a result of the effects of stress (either physical or mental), excessive tiredness, depression (sometimes brought on by an inability to perform sexually) or overconsumption of either alcohol or tobacco. Recreational drugs can be another potential cause.

It is also widely acknowledged that some men will suffer impotency as a result of the side-effects of pharmaceutical drugs that they are taking as a treatment for entirely unrelated medical conditions.

All of these causes tend to be of a temporary nature, because in all these situations, the cause of the condition can be isolated - and that means it can be treated as appropriate.

However, not every cause of impotency is going to be quite as temporary, as it can often be an unfortunate side-effect of more serious medical problems such as kidney disease, hardening of the arteries, diabetes, high blood pressure or a hormonal imbalance.

In any situation where the cause of impotence is physical (and especially in older men who are inevitably more likely to suffer from organic impotence), it is absolutely essential that a full medical evaluation is sought before any kind of impotence treatment (whether natural or drug based) is embarked upon. This evaluation should include a detailed cardiac assessment, measurements of both blood

pressure and lipids, blood sugar tests, and a full assessment of current lifestyle.

In this ‘current lifestyle’ assessment, it is likely that your healthcare professional will look at and advise upon such considerations as weight control, sleep quality management, diet improvement and other similar lifestyle changes that could help to elevate your ability to achieve or maintain an erection.

The fact is, there are many poor health or lifestyle choices that we all make which can eventually increase the chances of suffering Erectile Dysfunction. These poor choices will adversely affect your overall body condition, and deteriorating sexual performance is often the result. For example, if you are seriously overweight, the chances of suffering ED are significantly increased, and too much smoking or drinking is certainly not going to help. This is all exactly the kind of information your medical practitioner needs.

Armed with this information, it is likely that your doctor will be able to isolate the cause of your problem, and in most cases, something can be done to reverse it.

But, do you want more drugs?

If you have a medical problem that causes impotency, or your condition has been caused as a side effect of a medication that you are already taking, then it is sensible to consult your doctor to discover the cause of the problem.

After that, however, you may have a decision to make, because it is highly likely that your healthcare professional is going to prescribe pharmaceutical drugs of some description to deal with your problem, and you have to decide whether they are something that you are happy to take.

For example, if you are already on some kind of medication for another condition that is causing your ED problem, your doctor is likely to prescribe an alternative medication to deal with the original problem, an alternative that they believe will not cause impotency. Knowing that chemical-based pharmaceuticals almost always have side-effects of one form or another, is switching from one such drug to another something that you want to take a chance on?

Alternatively, if the cause of your impotency is a recognized medical or mental condition for which you have not already received treatment, do you want to begin that treatment by taking pharmaceutical drugs?

For example, imagine that your impotence problem is caused by depression, and your doctor therefore wants to prescribe

antidepressants. The following screenshot shows a handful of the most common types of antidepressant drugs.

Look at the side-effects of these drugs, and consider whether they are something that you would want to live with:

 

Of course, there are medical situations that cannot be adequately dealt with by using anything less than serious medical intervention, and that inevitably means that there are times when natural treatments are not going to be enough. However, given the evident ‘horror show’ of possible side-effects from pharmaceutical antidepressant treatments, there is definitely a strong argument for seeking out natural cures before turning to pharmaceutical drugs only after establishing that natural remedies do not work.

We will consider these natural cures later, but for the time being, the important thing to appreciate is that almost every pharmaceutical drug comes with side-effects. Even the ‘wonder drugs’ that are used to treat impotence directly are no exception to this rule.

Wonder drugs for older men…

Unlike the previous situation, it was not until recently that there were effective pharmaceutical based impotency treatments available.

However, such drugs are now widely available, and many millions of men all over the world are undoubtedly using them on a regular basis.

The modern pharmaceutical drugs that are used to reduce or remove the negative effects of impotency like Viagra, Levitra and Cialis are effective for the majority of men who decide to use them, with a success rate that is generally believed to be around 65% to 70%.

in each case, it is necessary to take the drug for a certain period of time before the anticipated sexual liaison takes place, and this can be as little as one hour before ‘things are to happen’. The effects of the drug can then be felt for a few hours afterwards, so you would only take the drug as and when necessary (although Cialis now have an ‘every day’ version of their product as well).

It is therefore fair to say that all three drugs work extremely quickly, and that is a significant advantage that drug based impotence treatments have over the natural alternatives of which you will read later in this report.

All of these drugs are available by prescription only, but because there is an ever increasing online market for drug based impotency treatments, there are many places where you can obtain these drugs easily on the net.

For example, use any of the major search engines for information about where you can ‘buy XYZ’ (e.g. ‘buy Viagra’) and you will find that there is absolutely no shortage of appropriate information available:

Even if you do not have a suitable prescription, it is still possible to get supplies of any of these drugs online by answering a detailed questionnaire so that a doctor who is working with the website from which you are interested in buying can generate a prescription for you.

You will find the whole process of buying Viagra online described on this webpage, as an example.

However, none of this should be viewed as a recommendation of these drugs, or a suggestion that you should buy them. While it is easy (and getting easier by the day) to buy the drugs online, you should know exactly what you would be buying before considering doing so.

Every one of the three examples quoted above is a powerful pharmaceutical drug, which means that there can be side-effects if you use any of these particular products. For some men, these drugs could even be dangerous - as is made clear by looking at the ‘safety information pages’ from the official Viagra, Levitra and Cialis sites.

Even the companies that make these drugs admit that if you have high blood pressure, diabetes, heart problems or any one of a range of other medical conditions, these drugs are definitely not advisable for you.

They also admit that they can cause unpleasant or even dangerous side-effects such as headaches, backache, stuffy or runny nose and even temporary blindness or deafness.

These are just the side-effects that the drug companies behind these products are willing to admit to. As this article from about.com (which is a site not generally given to over-exaggeration) makes clear, there can sometimes be far more serious side-effects which, of course, the drug companies themselves do not mention.

However, they do mention that there is a risk to taking any of the three drugs if you are already taking nitrate medications, the kind of medications that millions of people take to control heart disease or angina. In fact, the risk of combining nitrate medications and Viagra or any of the others mentioned is extremely serious.

Once again, if you search Google, you will discover that there is an awful lot of information about the adverse side-effects of these drugs, so it cannot reasonably be suggested that any of these drugs is completely safe:

 

This is a critically important factor to consider, particularly if you are considering buying any of these drugs online, because irrespective of how detailed a questionnaire a website uses is, it can be no substitute for a detailed medical examination.

Think about it this way. If you are answering personal medical questions contained in an online questionnaire, it is obvious that you can only give them information about conditions or problems that you already know about. For many men, it is not going to be the pre- existing medical conditions that they know about which are likely to be the problem – it is the ones which they are entirely unaware of that could potentially be dangerous or even lethal.

As previously suggested, anyone who is considering using a treatment for impotence for the very first time must get themselves properly examined by a healthcare professional, because there is no substitute.

The importance of nitric oxide…

Although there are many different causes of Erectile Dysfunction, the main reason that any man who is suffering from impotence has a problem is because of expansion of the blood capillaries in the penis insufficient to allow an erection to occur or be maintained.

On the other hand, nitric oxide is a molecule known to play a leading role in various vascular functions of the body, including having the ability to relax blood vessels and muscles. It also inhibits blood platelet clumping, which in turn makes the blood thinner and more free flowing.

By altering or enhancing the actions of nitric oxide in the body, both drugs and natural impotence solutions enable the sufferer to achieve and maintain erections once again.

However, they do so in different ways, and the effects are therefore also believed to be different. For example, Viagra allows more nitric oxide to be retained by the body, by attacking an enzyme known as PDE5, which itself is responsible for destroying nitric oxide.

Natural impotence cures work in a slightly different way (as you will read later). However, the way a drug based impotence treatment like Viagra achieves the results that it does has a significant downside.

That is, while it is sometimes suggested that natural impotence cures enhance the whole sexual experience, including increasing the libido, increasing stamina and enhancing genital stimulation, drugs do none of these things. Viagra improves an individual’s physical ability to indulge in intercourse but has no effect on the desire to do so or on any other aspect of the sexual experience.

As far as I am aware, there have been no clinical trials of this theory, and it is therefore very difficult to give a definitive answer as to whether this is fact or not, but there do seem to be enough impotence sufferers who make this claim for it to have some validity.

Being a proponent of natural impotence cures, I would obviously recommend that you ‘test’ this theory for yourself by trying natural treatments before resorting to pharmaceutical drugs with their acknowledged adverse side-effects.

Lifestyle changes to get rid of impotence…

While it is an accepted fact that impotence is likely to become an increasing problem for many men as they get older, it is also true that for all men, both younger and older, making appropriate lifestyle changes can reduce the incidence of impotence.

For example, if you are seriously overweight or obese, not only does that pose a significant danger to your overall well-being, it also makes it far more likely that you will suffer a problem with impotence. One reason is that you very possibly eat cholesterol rich or saturated fat rich foods and that leads to a narrowing of the blood vessels throughout your body. As achieving an erection only happens if your body is able to engorge your penis with sufficient blood supply, the fact that blood supplies are being hindered also hinders your chance of achieving an erection.

Being overweight leads to hypertension, and high blood pressure is often cited as a cause of impotence. It can also significantly shorten your life, but that is another story.

The answer is simple. You have to eat a healthier diet and lose a significant amount of weight if you want to get rid of your impotence problem in this situation. As living a healthier life will also probably help you to live a longer one, this choice is actually something of a no- brainer in any event.

Similarly, if you smoke too much, you are causing untold damage throughout your body, damage that will inevitably be reflected in poorer sexual performance. As an example, smoking adversely affects the circulatory system, hindering the flow of blood to the pelvic and groin area and thereby reducing the chances of being able to achieve erection.

As many men have learned to their cost over the years, while drinking excessive alcohol might give them the false courage necessary to get into a situation where sexual dalliance becomes a distinct possibility, it also reduces their ability to perform at the same time. On a long-term basis, alcohol abuse is going to cause serious physical damage to your body, and the result of that damage is going to be an inability to perform sexually when required.

Although it is a fact of life that male sexual performance deteriorates over the years, by improving your lifestyle and cleaning up your act, you can delay the inevitable deterioration for as long as possible.

Being overweight, drinking or smoking too much are all going to knock years off ‘your sexual prime’, which is not something that any sane guy would voluntarily accept!

The facts are simple and straightforward. For many men who suffer from impotence, the natural cure that they are looking for involves nothing more than living a healthier life.

Other methods of addressing an impotence problem

Besides drugs and natural impotence solutions, there are various other ways that the problem can be addressed, including impotence vacuum pumps, impotence injections, penile implants and what is known as the ‘medicated urethral system for erection’ or Muse® (which is a registered trade name of Vivus. Inc., a Californian company that specializes in next-generation obesity and sexual health products).

Let us consider each of these products in turn while looking at the attractions or weaknesses of each.

Impotence vacuum pumps

Until Viagra came on the market, impotence vacuum pumps were the number one choice of most men who suffered from erectile dysfunction. For many men who do not want to take pharmaceutical drugs like Viagra, the pump is still the number one choice.

For example, for many men who suffer from heart problems, diabetes or high blood pressure, the risks of taking pharmaceutical drugs for their impotence problem are simply too great. For this reason, despite the apparent overwhelming strength of drugs like Viagra in the impotency market, there are still a significant number of men who continue to prefer to use the vacuum pump.

This is particularly noticeable with men who have suffered impotence for a long time, because before drugs like Viagra and Cialis came along, they had spent many years using vacuum pumps to achieve erections, and consequently, they had simply got used to how they worked.

In the initial stages, a plastic cylinder is placed around the penis, and then a pump (either electrical or manually operated) gradually sucks the air out of the cylinder which creates a vacuum that forces blood to be drawn into the penis.

Once the required erection is achieved, then the cylinder is removed and a reasonably tight fitting elastic collar or band (the ‘tension ring’) is applied to the base of the penis to prevent blood passing back into the body, as this would naturally cause the erection to subside.

It is generally reported that using an impotence vacuum pump is a very effective way of achieving and maintaining an erection, although it is also widely observed that the more familiar with using such a device an individual becomes, the more effective it is. Never has it been truer that practice does indeed make perfect!

Using a pump removes the necessity of taking possibly harmful drugs, and it also provides immediate results. Because of the ‘mechanical nature’ of generating the erection, it is also generally true that performance is not affected by over-consumption of alcohol.

There are a few minor negatives. You must be careful not to leave the ‘tension ring’ in place for more than 30 minutes, and some impotence vacuum users (especially new users) could potentially suffer bruising and pain.

There have been occasionally reported cases of a condition known as priapism, where the individual concerned has maintained his erection for a period of two or three hours. While this might sound like a dream for someone suffering from impotence, it can in fact be quite a dangerous condition, so that anyone who is suffering from priapism must seek medical attention immediately.

And you will occasionally hear a complaint that having to use a pump takes away the spontaneity and romance of the moment, although this is a relatively unimportant argument.

Otherwise, there are no significant downsides to using an impotence vacuum pump, and given that it removes the necessity for pharmaceutical drugs, you might even be able to classify it as a natural impotence treatment.

There are many different types and models of pumps available, and you must ensure that the one you buy is a comfortable fit.

Impotence injections

Using injections to generate erections is a treatment that was first used in the early 1990s, and has proved to be an extremely effective treatment for impotence ever since. At that time, the drug that was injected into the corpora cavernosa of the penis (two chambers filled with sponge like erectile tissue) was papaverine, which was a drug used during surgery to dilate blood vessels. By relaxing blood vessels in this way, the drug enabled an injection to cause the penis to become engorged with blood, resulting in an erection.

Since those early days, advancements in drug treatment for impotence have enabled impotence injections to become increasingly successful. Nowadays, it is most common for a ‘cocktail’ of three drugs to be used. The original paperavine is now commonly mixed with alprostadil (a synthetic version of prostaglandin, which is a natural human hormone) and phentolamine. Combining these drugs has led to significant improvements in effectiveness over the original usage of one single drug.

The injections themselves are usually rendered with very fine needles, the kind of needles that diabetics use to inject themselves with insulin. It is said that the injections are painless. The drugs that are to be injected must be prescribed by a doctor, and it is normal for the doctor to demonstrate the injection process the first time, both as a way of ensuring that it is done correctly but also to check that the dosage is suitable.

As long as the dosage is correct, an erection should begin within 10 to 15 minutes, and will generally last for between 60 and 90 minutes.

However, it is important to note that men who have had impotence injections report priapism fairly regularly, and as previously highlighted, if the erection lasts for more than two or three hours, medical attention should be sought as quickly as possible.

It is generally recommended that you do not inject more than two or three times a week, and there are health risks if you have pre-existing medical conditions like sickle cell anemia or leukemia.

While impotence injections are extremely effective, you are injecting invasive drugs into an extremist sensitive part of your anatomy. There is therefore no way that impotence injections could ever be considered to be a natural treatment for the condition.

Penile implants

Here is the good news about penile implants. Of the men who have had an implant of this type, over 90% have reported that they have been able to resume an active sex life. The downside is of course that there is a surgical operation involved, and that introduces the risk of surgical complications.

However, the practice of using penile implants began in the 1970s and so far, the success and safety rates have more than justified the risk. In addition, many men report that the implant (sometimes known as an ‘internal penile pump’) is unnoticeable to their partner. This fact, in combination with the degree of sexual success that 9 out of 10 men enjoy after the operation, means that it is an extremely popular form of impotency treatment.

As the technology behind penile implantation and the materials used have advanced over the years, the operation has become easier, quicker and safer.

Nowadays in fact, a skilled urologist is likely to be able to complete the implant operation in as little as 30 minutes by making a small incision either in the lower abdomen or base of the penis so that the device can be implanted.

There are currently three different types of implants available, and the one that any individual chooses is entirely up to them because there does not seem to be any appreciable difference in either implant success rates, or performance after the operation.

The major advantage of implantation is that after surgery, the penis will get erect exactly as it normally would, whenever desired.

Moreover, there are no pharmaceutical drugs necessary, which makes an implant an attractive option for anyone who cannot tolerate impotence drugs, such as those who suffer from diabetes. In fact, it is believed that at least 40% of men who have undergone penile implants did so because of medical conditions such as diabetes or treatment for prostate cancer problems that led to impotence, so it is clear that implantation has a very real value.

Medicated urethral system for erection (MUSE®)

This is a impotence treatment that was invented by the Vivus company in California in 1997, which consists of using a specially designed plunger to insert a tiny pellet directly into the tube through which both urine and sperm pass, the urethra.

This pellet is loaded with alprostadil (which we have already seen is used in impotence injections) so that the chemical works from the inside to dilate the blood capillaries of the penis. Hence, an erection will begin within 5 to 15 minutes, and can last for up to 60 minutes.

Because you are using the same pharmaceutical chemical that you would when injecting into your penis, the risks are very similar, so people who suffer from penile deformities, sickle cell anemia or leukemia should not consider using MUSE.

Also, because the drug is inserted into the urethra, it is essential that any man who indulges in intercourse with a woman after using the treatment only does so wearing a condom too.

It is also recommended that anyone using this particular impotence treatment does not consider driving a car for a least one hour afterwards as well.

As this process involves pharmaceutical chemicals, it could not be viewed as a natural treatment for impotence, and there is one more consideration that might put you off trying it.

So far, it appears that this particular form of treatment is only successful in 30% to 60% of cases, and those numbers do not compare particularly favorably with many other impotence treatments that we have considered in this section of the report.

Having viewed these four methods of tackling impotence, it is perhaps no surprise that the impotence vacuum pump method still has so many dedicated followers because, although it clearly has some disadvantages, it does not require anything intrusive (like surgery) or involve pharmaceutical chemicals.

Natural treatment for mental or psychological conditions that cause impotence…

As suggested previously, drugs like Viagra and Cialis are designed to ‘attack’ impotence directly, in that they only ‘cure’ impotency itself. However, as we have also seen, there are many medical and psychological conditions that can result in impotency, such as depression and anxiety, and these conditions can be dealt with in a natural way.

In this respect, you are able to attack impotency in a slightly different manner by ‘curing’ the root cause of the problem, rather than the problem itself. For example, if it is possible to alleviate the worst symptoms of depression in such a way that impotency disappears, then that is every bit as effective a natural cure for impotency as it is for depression.

It is the job of your health care professional to prescribe pharmaceutical drugs, but almost irrespective of what medical condition you have that is causing impotency, there will be natural solutions available. It is impossible to say that these natural solutions will be as effective as pharmaceutical drugs for treating your primary medical or mental condition in every case, but you can almost always be certain that the natural treatments will have far fewer adverse side-effects.

As a consequence, if your impotency is a direct effect of another medical or psychogenic condition, you should give serious consideration to whether that condition can be treated naturally.

Fortunately, with the internet at your fingers, this is easy to do. Take any condition that you might be suffering from and by running an appropriate Google search, you should be able to find lots of information about the most widely recommended natural treatments. It is then simply a question of getting your hands on whatever it is that is commonly recommended, and giving it a try.

If you suffer from impotency caused by any pre-existing condition, then that condition definitely needs treating but doing so in a natural manner should always be your first choice.

Natural treatments for depression

As mentioned earlier, there are many physical or psychogenic problems that can cause impotence as a side effect in any individual sufferer.

However, depending on the severity of that condition, there are many conditions like depression, anxiety or stress where there are many natural alternative treatments available.

A great deal of the information that you need about such treatments is readily and freely available online. For instance, as this Google search would indicate, there is no great shortage of natural antidepressant treatments:

 

 

As a good example, there is evidence from controlled clinical trials that St John’s wort is a very effective (and completely natural) treatment that will relieve depression, one that is even claimed to be as effective as Prozac (which in itself is believed to cause impotence).

In Germany (as an example), St John’s wort is available as a prescription drug and is actually prescribed 10 times more often than Prozac, because it is believed to work in almost exactly the same way as the drug without the side-effects. There can therefore be very little doubt that it is a supremely effective alternative to Prozac.

As there are plenty of places where you can buy St John’s wort-based treatments online, it is certainly something that you could try if your impotency is a side effect of depression and you do not want to take any more pharmaceutical drugs.

In terms of antidepressant drugs, Prozac is undoubtedly the best known and most widely taken drug of a type known as SSRIs (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors), and a quick look at what it does will help to highlight other entirely natural things that you can do to help lift your depression.

Get rid of your depression and there is a high likelihood that your impotence problem will go away, so examine every available avenue or angle on the problem.

Serotonin is one of the most important chemicals in the human brain for controlling moods, so if levels of serotonin fall too low, depression can result. What a drug like Prozac does is prevent the available serotonin in the brain from being reabsorbed by nerve endings, so that it keeps the levels of the chemical that are circulating in the brain at a higher level as a result. Consequently, the likelihood of depression setting in or continuing is significantly reduced.

From this, it follows that if a similar result could be achieved entirely naturally, the likelihood of suffering depression and the accompanying impotence would be reduced by a noticeable margin.

As suggested, it is generally believed that St John’s wort does almost exactly the same as Prozac by preventing the re-absorption of serotonin.

Another way of ensuring that your brain has sufficient amounts of serotonin to avoid the worst effects of depression is to make sure that there is more of the chemical in your body.

There are several things that you can do in order to achieve this, the first of which is simple. After all, what could be easier than eating to lift your depression and get rid of the associated impotence problem?

Serotonin is sometimes termed the ‘satisfaction chemical’, because when we have sufficient amounts of it in our brain, we no longer feel dissatisfied or upset with life. That means it is far less likely that you will indulge in practices like binge eating, which almost invariably deepen your depression because of the amount of sugar you have ingested and the weight you put on.

Serotonin is manufactured in the human body from an amino acid known as tryptophan, and although this particular amino acid is not as common as many others, it can be found in foods like chicken, turkey, bananas, cottage cheese, nuts, milk, avocados and legumes (peas, beans, pulses etc). There is a table listing many of the most tryptophan rich foods on this Wikipedia page.

One thing to note about tryptophan is that it is a large molecule, and that amino acids compete with one another to be absorbed by your body. In order to ‘help’ tryptophan to win this competition, it is also helpful to raise the amount of starchy foods such as wholemeal bread, jacket potatoes or brown rice that you eat, but only by a small amount.

Alternatively, tryptophan supplements are widely available in health food stores and online sources, so taking supplementary tryptophan is another way of ensuring that serotonin levels are kept up to ensure that depression does not set in.

Another ‘shortcut’ is to consider taking supplements that contain 5HTP, which is what tryptophan is converted into by your body in order to raise serotonin levels. Again, such supplements are readily available online, and the best known natural source of 5HTP is an African herb, Griffonia simplicifolia.

Also, look out for food supplements that contain Rhodiola rosea. This is a plant the extract of which is once again known to help boost serotonin levels. In fact, Rhodiola was actually used by the Russians as a natural food supplement to help keep Cosmonauts calm, happy and stress free while spending several days weightless, cooped up in a tiny space ship thousands of miles above the Earth!

If you have an impotence problem that is a direct result of depression or stress, you have now seen that there are several entirely natural ways of dealing with this problem. Get rid of your depression or reduce your stress levels by a significant margin, and you will also reduce the chances of suffering impotence by a significant margin.

Stress and anxiety…

There is little doubt that, while stress and anxiety are not generally considered to be as serious as depression (which is a clinical condition), a man who is suffering from stress or anxiety is far less likely to achieve or maintain an erection.

Consequently, reducing stress or anxiety levels is likely to help to banish erectile dysfunction.

The first step towards reducing stress or anxiety is to identify what it is that is actually causing the problem. It may be that it is a particularly hectic work schedule combined with a lack of sleep that is causing a stress problem, which in turn is leading to temporary impotence.

The key word here is ‘temporary’, because the natural solution is to work less and sleep more. As soon as it is possible to do both of these, the chances are that the stress problem that is causing temporary impotence will go away and so will your inability to ‘perform’.

However, perhaps the most common form of anxiety that results in erectile dysfunction is ‘performance anxiety’, an anxiety that is a direct result of demands upon an individual to participate in sexual intercourse.

This problem is generally most keenly felt by those who have had some problems in the past that are now making them lose their confidence in their ability to successfully engage in intercourse when called upon to do so. Hence, they become tense and anxious at the moment when they most need to be relaxed and confident, and their performance is adversely affected in exactly the way that they feared it would be.

While there are many herbs that are known to have stress relieving qualities such as passion flower (a somewhat ironic name under these circumstances!), lavender, lemon balm and valerian, it is unlikely that any of them are going to be effective in this particular situation.

Finding a suitable answer to a performance anxiety problem is first and foremost is going to be dependent upon your circumstances and situation.

For example, if you have a regular sexual partner with whom you have a great deal of understanding, then it is likely that you will be able to sort out the problem between you. If you have no regular partner like

this, then it may be necessary to seek external counseling for this specific cause of impotence.

Before doing so however, it would certainly be worth trying supplements that are rich in adaptogens such as ginseng, maca and schizandra berries.

While all of these individual adaptogens will be described in greater detail later in this report, the common characteristic is that they relax the body while energizing it, and being relaxed while also being energized could help anyone suffering from a performance anxiety problem.

Natural treatment for physical conditions that cause impotence…

There are a great many physical conditions that can cause impotence as a side effect.

While I do not intend to cover every possible physical condition that could result in impotence, I will deal with the most common causes in this section briefly, and suggest natural or herbal answers where appropriate.

Firstly, I have already stressed the importance of improving your lifestyle if the life that you currently lead is unhealthy. You know the drill by now - if you are overweight, you need to take up exercise, or if the reason for your impotence is the fact that you are always tired and stressed, you need to learn to relax and get more sleep.

Diabetes: There are quite a few herbs that are believed to help control blood sugar levels, including commercially produced herbal compounds based on the Peruvian Yacon plant.

Furthermore, it is believed that the bitter gourd or karela is also extremely effective for reducing sugar levels in your blood and urine, so you should eat it as often as possible and take a least one tablespoon of karela juice every day.

Try mixing two teaspoons of fenugreek powder with milk or water before drinking the mixture, because it is once again a natural solution for reducing blood sugar levels.

High blood pressure: There are quite a number of herbs that can help to reduce high blood pressure that range from something as simple as garlic to more exotic herbal remedies such as arjuna bark, Indian snakeroot and Yarrow.

You can find complete details about all of these herbal remedies and more on the Medicweb Hypertension page.

Kidney disease: There are several herbs that when combined together can help to alleviate the worst effects of kidney disease, while helping to cleanse and heal your kidneys at the same time.

These herbs are couch grass (diuretic), uva ursi (antiseptic and astringent), horsetail (astringent that is high in silica), parsley (an excellent diuretic), nettle (increases the elimination of waste products and high in nutrients) and maize silk (high in vitamin K. and potassium, reduces chronic inflammation).

It is unlikely that even a combination of such effective herbs is going to cure any kidney disease that you have got and equally obviously, you must consult your medical attendant before taking them, but if you are able to do so, this combination can go a considerable way to alleviating the worst of your kidney problems.

The three physical complaints that are highlighted in this section of the report are those that are generally believed to be the complaints with the highest incidence of impotence appearing as a direct result of the malady.

Hence, assuming that there is no medical reason why you cannot ‘self dose’ with the herbal remedies shown, this could reduce the severity of the physical condition that is the root cause of your impotence problem in a completely natural and organic way.

Direct natural solutions for impotence…

Over the course of the last couple of pages, we considered different ways of indirectly treating your impotency by using herbal or natural remedies to relieve various physical or mental conditions that are commonly the root cause of impotence.

Now, it is time to start looking at natural and herbal remedies that compete on a head-to-head basis with pharmaceutical drugs like Viagra and Cialis, by attacking your impotence as if it were the root cause of the problem itself.

As highlighted in the previous pages, there is often an underlying root cause for impotence, and sometimes, something can be done about attacking that root cause. However, it is not always going to be possible to do so (if, for example, the physical condition is too serious), and there will also be circumstances where there is no curable or treatable reason for impotence.

The most obvious example of this would be when impotence is a direct result of waning physical powers because of the advancing years. There is no cure for getting old, and there isn’t any affordable way of reversing the inevitable physical deterioration that is part and parcel of growing old.

Many men whose physical powers are waning swear by the ‘little blue pill’ (Viagra), but as we have already seen, there are significant side- effects and levels of risk involved in taking drugs such as these to deal with impotence.

Consequently, it would make a great deal of sense to consider the natural alternatives that are available which might be more attractive to people who are considering using Viagra or Cialis.

Natural substances and herbs to combat impotence

Ginseng

The idea that ginseng is good for you is not a new one as it has been used in Chinese medicine for many thousands of years. It was originally viewed as a substance that would improve the mind and the ability to think, something that served as a whole body tonic for anyone who took ginseng.

In modern scientific parlance, ginseng is an adaptogen, meaning that it is a substance that helps the human body to restore and repair itself without any unpleasant side-effects even if the recommended dosage is exceeded.

In terms of helping to prevent impotence, the most important characteristics of ginseng are that it helps to reduce bodily stress and fatigue, and most importantly, it is one of the most effective substances known for slowing down the ageing process.

As we have already seen on several occasions, the incidence of impotence is likely to increase as men grow older, and therefore anything that can slow down the ageing process is likely to reduce the severity of impotence or to delay its initial onset. This, combined with providing greater stamina, is the primary benefit of taking ginseng for an impotence sufferer (although because there are many other beneficial effects, ginseng really does act as a whole body tonic).

Horny Goat Weed

Horny goat weed is undoubtedly one of the best known herbal remedies for impotence as reported by Wikipedia: ‘horny goat weed, which has shown promising signs of becoming a genuine alternative to Viagra for impotent men’.

While this herb has been used to treat a variety of ailments including liver, kidney and back disorders, it is best known as an aphrodisiac and more recent research has also indicated that it has a genuine ability to improve both sexual desire and performance.

This research demonstrated that this happens because horny goat weed (‘Yin Yang Huo’ in Chinese roughly translates to ‘licentious goat plant’

-hence its Western name) inhibits the growth of a natural enzyme called acetylcholinesterase (AChE).

Without getting too complex or scientific, one of the main purposes of AChE is to degrade the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, the primary

purpose of which is to pass instructions and other information around the body as quickly as possible.

Because AChE destroys the neurotransmitter, it makes it difficult for information to move around the body quickly enough so in the situation where message of sexual arousal should be speeding around the body, AChE is slowing down and blocking these messages, hence, there is an impotence problem.

Horny goat weed inhibits the growth of AChE and thus, the appropriate arousal (and erectile) messages are conveyed to the appropriate parts of the body far more effectively. Consequently, horny goat weed enables the ‘messages to get through’ - hence the comparison to Viagra.

There are plenty of places where you can buy horny goat weed online, with a couple of examples being Worldwide-Supplements (St John’s wort is also available from the same site) or GlobalSupplements.com.

L-Arginine

L-Arginine is another completely natural substance that its proponents claim is the new Viagra, and once again, it is a sufficiently powerful impotence treatment to merit the claim to a certain extent.

L-Arginine is an amino acid that occurs naturally in the body, and while it serves various functions, the most important of these as far as an impotence sufferer is concerned is its ability to make nitric oxide.

Consequently, while L-Arginine is often considered to be most important for heart disease treatment, it has also been used as an extremely effective and successful treatment for erectile dysfunction for some time.

Not only does L-Arginine make nitric oxide, it also enhances the actions of it. Hence, this particular amino acid has the ability to enhance blood flow to the penis by relaxing the muscles surrounding the appropriate blood vessels.

However, while Viagra works by blocking the PDE5 enzyme, L-Arginine works in almost the opposite way by making new nitric oxide.

More than this, not only does L-Arginine help to make sure that enough blood get to the extremities of the body to ensure that a successful erection can take place, it also helps to lower blood pressure, control plaque and lower cholesterol levels as well.

Also, unlike Viagra (but in a similar way to most other natural impotence treatments), L-Arginine has to be taken every day, and the effects are cumulative rather than immediate. In other words, whereas

Viagra works within an hour or so, L-Arginine will take several days of regular dosage to start becoming effective.

Under normal circumstances, your kidneys and liver produce enough L- Arginine entirely naturally to keep you fit and healthy. However, there can be situations where additional L-Arginine is required such as when the body has suffered severe injuries, burns or infections, and depending on the degree of impotence being suffered, it may even be that this condition falls into the same category.

In this case, your focus should be on consuming foods that are rich in both animal and plant based proteins, such as meat, dairy produce, fish, poultry and nuts.

Perhaps surprisingly for an amino acid that is produced entirely naturally by the body, there can sometimes be side effects from L- Arginine, especially if the levels of the acid are higher than normal.

For example, in excessively large doses, it can result in blood pressure that falls too low, as well as having the potential to cause nausea, headaches and indigestion.

Too much L-Arginine can increase stomach acid, and especially in people with liver disease, it can alter potassium levels as well.

Also, supplemental L-Arginine is definitely not something that you should be taking if you have serious heart problems, as made clear here.

Having said all of that, unless you fall into a high risk group (i.e. someone who has already suffered an MI) and choose to ignore sensible advice, L-Arginine is a natural and safe way of treating your impotence, one that can be bought online for very low prices, without prescription, from sites like TheCatalog.com.

Catuaba

According to Wikipedia, the name Catuaba refers to the infusion of the bark of several native Brazilian trees, amongst the most common of which are Trichilia catigua and Erythroxylum vacciniifolium, although other tree barks are also included under this generic name.

More than the specifics of the name, however, the most important fact is that Catuaba is a traditional Brazilian medicine that has been used for many generations as a natural aphrodisiac and central nervous system stimulant.

Although there is some doubt whether these claims have ever been validated clinically, there are many men who have found that taking Catuaba extract has increased their natural libido and sex drive by a considerable margin. Thus, there does seem to be sufficient evidence in

support of the claims made on behalf of Catuaba as an impotence treatment to merit further investigation.

Yohimbe (or Yohimbine)

From an evergreen tree that originally hails from West Africa, Yohimbe bark contains alkaloids, the primary one is of which is yohimbine. It is this that is used to make the herbal treatment known as yohimbe.

This is a prescription drug in the USA, one that used to be extremely popular as an impotence treatment. However, since the advent of Viagra, the popularity of yohimbe has waned somewhat.

There is plenty of evidence that this particular treatment can be very effective for dealing with impotence, as the prescription version of yohimbe has been extensively tested and shown to have positive effects. However, the evidence that yohimbe as a dietary supplement can have such positive effects is less well documented.

What is well known is that it is critically important that the dosage you take is absolutely right.

If you take too little, it will have very little effect, but if you take too much, it can become toxic. For example, in the USA, the FDA reports that some people have complained of kidney failure or seizures, and such side-effects as raised heart beat, nausea and increased blood pressure have been reported even from normal dosages of yohimbe.

For this reason, although it is possible to buy yohimbe as a stand-alone supplement to treat impotence, it is generally better to buy compound supplements where yohimbe is only one ingredient of many. Because such compound formulas tend to keep the yohimbe content on the safer side of the line, you can ensure that your intake of yohimbe is never likely to reach toxic levels.

However, if you suffer from any kind of kidney or liver disease, stomach ulcers or irregular or unusual blood pressure (i.e. if your blood pressure is too high or low), you should avoid taking yohimbe.

Maca

Lepidium meyenii or maca (as it is more commonly known) is a plant from the high Andes of Bolivia and Peru, considered to be a superfood in South America - because when eaten cooked (as it most commonly is) or raw, it is claimed that maca imparts great strength, stamina and virility. Not only this, but the root of the plant (the part eaten or used in supplements) also contains a substance believed to exert many beneficial effects on the central nervous system.

Consequently, maca is generally believed to be an aphrodisiac, and an effective treatment for impotence. It is also an adaptogen in the same

way as ginseng is, so it is an excellent full body tonic. Moreover, given that the nutritional value of eating maca is also very high – similar to brown rice – eating maca should be your number one choice (as opposed to taking it in supplementary pill form).

Muira puama

Muira puama is another South American herb that is believed to be an aphrodisiac, one used to treat sexual problems and impotence for many hundreds of years. From the available evidence, it seems that muira puama does have strong stimulant qualities, and it is therefore often used in compound herbal impotence treatments.

Schizandra (or Schisandra) berry

The berries of the Schisandra shrub have long been used in traditional Chinese medicine as a sedative and tonic agent, something that can both relax and energise the body at the same time.

In modern scientific parlance, schizandra would be known as an adaptogenic herb (an adaptogen) - that is one that can help to return the body to its normal balanced state irrespective of its previous condition. In the same way that ginseng was traditionally considered to be a full body tonic, schizandra serves exactly the same purpose.

Hence, for an impotence sufferer, the attraction of taking schizandra berry is that it relieves stress, removes anxiety and increases stamina, all at the same time. For anyone suffering from psychologically induced impotence, adaptogens like these berries, maca and ginseng could all therefore provide a very significant boost.

Tribulus

Tribulus terrestris is another traditional medicine that has been used both in China and in India for many centuries. While in the mid-1990s, tribulus became well known in the West after East European Olympic athletes answered drug allegations by claiming that all they were taking was tribulus, it has traditionally been viewed as a herb that can help counter low libido, erectile dysfunction and infertility.

It has been claimed that tribulus can help to increase the levels of sex related hormones in the body such as testosterone and oestrogen, and it is certainly true that preliminary studies on animals indicated that tribulus heightens sexual activity. This was believed to result from an increase in testosterone levels, but no large-scale human study has been carried out so far.

On the other hand, apart from people who suffer from hormone dependent medical problems such as breast or prostate cancer, it does not appear that there are any significant adverse side-effects associated

with tribulus either. It is therefore a herbal remedy that anyone who does not have a medical condition but who does suffer impotence can try without being too concerned about side-effects.

Velvet beans

Velvet beans (Mucuna pruriens) is an annual climbing shrub found in the Caribbean, India and Africa.

Extracts from mucuna pruriens are rich in L-dopa, which is turned into dopamine in the human body. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, a chemical in the brain that is very influential as far as mood and sexuality are concerned. For this reason, mucuna pruriens has long been used by the people of the countries to which it is indigenous as an aphrodisiac.

From what is known about dopamine, there seems little doubt that increased levels will increase libido and sexual activity, which is why it is often recommended as a supplement for impotence sufferers.

Tongkat Ali

Tongkat ali is a tree that is native to many countries in southeast Asia such as Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. It is generally the root of the tree that is used for medicinal purposes.

Tongkat Ali has been used for many centuries in Southeast Asia as an aid to sexual performance, so much so that it has been dubbed the ‘Asian Viagra’. It is believed that the extract of the tree roots increases libido, sexual desire, sexual performance and also as a treatment for erectile dysfunction.

All of this is believed to derive from the fact that Tongkat Ali is another natural substance that is believed to increase or at least enhance testosterone, and as this is the main hormone behind the male sex drive, this makes perfect sense.

There are very few adverse side-effects associated with Tongkat Ali, although excessive ingestion could lead to insomnia or anxiety attacks. However, the fact that, throughout Southeast Asia, anyone can buy canned drinks containing Tongkat Ali across the counter of a normal convenience store, indicates that there are very few serious risks associated with this particular natural extract.

Commercially produced herbal compounds...

While all of the individual herbs and natural substances dealt with in the last section can help anyone who suffers from impotence to get over their problems, each of the individual substances has different qualities. For example, while some could help by being aphrodisiacs, others (the adaptogens) will provide assistance by helping the impotence sufferer to relax and re-energize their body.

Consequently, it is going to be extremely difficult for any individual to know exactly which of these herbal solutions is likely to be one which is most effective for them.

It is this reason that, rather than seeking out a supplement that contains one anti-impotence herb (which you can do by running a Google search on any of the individual herb names), it might make more sense to consider using a supplement that contains a compound mixture of many different herbal and natural impotence treatments.

The other advantage of approaching the situation in this way is that by doing so, you ensure that you are taking the correct dosage of each individual herb for maximum effect. It also minimizes the risk of adverse side-effects, and, as we have seen, certain natural substances (L-Aginine and yohimbe as examples) do carry side effect risks.

This is one of the reasons that a leading compound natural impotence treatment such as Passion RX offers two different herbal formulas, one with yohimbe and one without. This provides you with the opportunity of testing a proven, doctor prepared herbal compound formula of two different types so that you can ascertain which is the most effective in dealing with your impotence problem.

Another similar compound product that is worth taking a look at is Pro- EreX, and while there are of course many other similar products available, there is one thing to be careful about.

Many of the products make fantastic claims about how successful they are in the fight against impotence, and no doubt, if you look around, you will find many sales pages that are littered with testimonials from satisfied customers. However, if the product does not list the ingredients that they are using, you should be very wary, because if you do not know what is in the product, how can you be sure that it is safe?

You will note that both of the compound sellers I am recommending in this chapter are both happy to list the ingredients of their products, which enables you to make a carefully considered choice of what you are willing to take, and what you are not.

Beware of hype-filled sales pages, and always scroll to the bottom of the index page to look for the ‘Ingredients’ link.

Conclusion

As you have read in this report, there are many natural remedies that you can try in an effort to overcome your impotence problems.

Ranging from mechanical devices such as the impotence vacuum pump to a long list of natural substances and herbs, plus a few herbal compounds, there is no shortage of natural impotence treatments on the market.

Given the choice, the vast majority of people would rather choose something that is natural and known in preference to chemical-based solutions that may well have an adverse side-effect that is, as yet, completely unknown.

For this reason, if impotence is a problem that you suffer from, I would thoroughly recommend that you consider all of the natural impotence treatments listed in this book before committing yourself to commercially produced pharmaceutical chemicals.

Although there is no doubt that these chemical-based drugs do work extremely well, there is also little doubt that many of the natural alternatives can be equally as effective, and they are considerably safer. Impotence may be a problem for you at the moment, but you do not want to compound the severity of your problems by taking drugs that could cause other problems of equal or even greater magnitude.

Think about it this way. Most of the leading impotence drugs (for example, those mentioned in this report) have only been in use for a few years, and there are already reports of extremely serious side- effects, such as permanent blindness.

Can we say with absolute, 100% certainty that there are no other even worse side-effects that are not going to be discovered for another 10, 20 or even 50 years?

I would suggest that we cannot, whereas substances like ginseng and maca have been tested by millions of people for centuries.

The bottom line is, treating your impotence using natural substances is likely to be safer, but it does not necessarily have to be any less effective than using drugs.

So, to my mind, the best choice is very clear…