There are countless causes of erectile dysfunction…
Everything is connected in biology so your diet, exercise, lifestyle habits, stress and even how often you have sex can all impact your ability to get it up.
But if you’ve got your diet under control, you exercise regularly, you’ve developed positive lifestyle habits, and you’re STILL suffering erectile dysfunction, the answer might be hiding in your medicine cabinet.
Using Multiple Medications Causes ED
That’s right. The medication that’s supposed to be making you better might very well be CAUSING erectile dysfunction.
And I don’t mean as a side effect of the drugs, like how SSRI anti-depressants can lead to erectile dysfunction.
And I don’t mean that sick people who are taking medication have a hard time getting it up.
What I’m talking about is that the mere act of disrupting your body’s internal balance with long term medication use can lead to erectile dysfunction.
A study published in the British Journal of Urology in 2011 concluded that it doesn’t matter how sick (or not sick) you are, nor does it matter what medication you’re actually taking.
Simply taking multiple types of ANY medication increases your risk of erectile dysfunction.
The researchers used survey data from the enormous California Men’s Health Study. The study included data on 37,712 men and asked them all sorts of questions about their health, their medication, and ED.
They found that about half the men in the study (57%) were taking 3+ medications, and that overall, about one in three suffered erectile dysfunction.
So far, this is pretty standard for a group of men that were documented by a major hospital. Perhaps a little higher than the population average, but these guys are mostly already sick, so a jump in ED isn’t unexpected.
But what ISN’T standard is the fact that they found a relationship between number of medications and rates of ED:
- 15.9% of men taking two medications reported ED
- 19.7% of men taking three to five medications reported ED
- 30.9% of men taking six to nine medications reported ED
Even when the researchers controlled for health factors affecting ED (diet, exercise, smoking, diabetes etc…) those who took more medications STILL had higher rates of ED.
The message is crystal clear:
The more medication you’re on, the higher your chances of suffering erectile dysfunction.
Now this in itself isn’t so alarming. I mean, after all, most people probably don’t use that many medications right?
Wrong.
From 1986 to 2002, the reported used of medication by people 45+ rose in the US from 52% to 75%.
The same report from the AARP found that on average Americans 45+ are currently taking FOUR DIFFERENT MEDICATIONS DAILY.
Even aside from those staggering figures, the report continues that 65+ men are even more likely to take some medication every day (87%).
Now you might be asking yourself…
Why are we consuming almost 39% more drugs today than we were in the 1980s? Surely drug design and development hasn’t come that far!
And you’d be right.
The drugs themselves haven’t improved.
What’s changed is that now, Big Pharma is VERY good at identifying market opportunity and developing a drug to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.
Welcome to the world of lifestyle drugs.
Lifestyle Drugs and ED
Big Pharma is like any industry – it relies on product innovation and marketing together to create demand for its products.
The same way that every year Nike releases a new shoe style, every year Big Pharma needs to release a new drug.
The problem, of course, is that drug companies can’t possible identify and cure a new disease every single year…
Which means they do what every other company does – they create a problem and then offer THEIR solution.
This practice, called ‘Disease Mongering’ by doctors, inflates non-problems by creating a pathology, linking that pathology to quality of life, and then presenting their drug as the solution to the completely made up pathological problem.
Sometimes, this is called the Fear, Forever, Faith…
Where drug companies try to create a product that you’re afraid not to take, which you have to take forever, and even if there’s no visible sign of improvement – you take the fact that it’s working on faith.
And we’re talking about some serious money to be made with disease mongering. And by using selective research, biased doctors, and symptoms that are at best vague, Big Pharma is getting very, very good at finding and plugging gaps in the market with invented diseases.
From Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators (SERMs) to help women fight off postmenopausal osteoporosis (before any symptoms present, of course, so there’s no way to measure success)…
To pills to help prevent sleep walking, eating and sweating , Big Pharma pushes to ‘medicalize’ increasingly normal behavior.
Other Big Pharma drug mongering examples include:
- Adult-onset ADHD
- Mild Cognitive Impairment
- Drugs for ‘treatment resistant’ conditions. For example, if you don’t respond to antidepressants, there’s an additional drugs for you to take
Given what we know about the link between multiple medications and ED, it’s no surprise that so many men are suffering from ED as they get older.
But what happens when you’ve suffering from ED as a RESULT of all your different medications?
Don’t worry – Big Pharma is here with a drug for that too…
How Pfizer Hijacked Erectile Dysfunction
With so many drugs around to treat everything from night sweats to jock itch, ED can become less a matter of IF and more a matter of WHEN.
And in that fundamental truth, Pfizer saw an opportunity for Viagra.
Viagra was invented to help treat men with other medical problems that cause ED. Think things like spinal cord injuries.
But with so many other drugs being pushed on us, Pfizer saw an opportunity to expand their sales potential ENORMOUSLY.
They rebranded Viagra as a drug for the everyday man.
First, they built the case that “most” men suffer from ED. Taking a poorly executed study that found 52% of men experience ED, they then trumpeted that as loud as they could.
Next, they expanded the definition of ED to appeal to even more men. By changing the meaning of erectile dysfunction from an ‘inability to get an erection’ to ‘any struggle, regardless of circumstances of frequency’ they created a problem that literally every man on the planet has had.
Too much booze? Viagra.
Stressed and distracted? Viagra.
Tired? Viagra.
Not in the mood? Viagra.
Suddenly, Pfizer expanded their potential market from a soft 52% of men to 100% of men – including those suffering ED from taking too many other medications.
It doesn’t matter that sometimes psychological ED is a symptom of an underlying problem.
It doesn’t matter that Viagra has been linked to a less enjoyable sex life, doesn’t present a long term cure, creates drug dependency, and can have a range of other nasty side effects.
All that matters is that Pfizer sells as much product as possible.
ED in Men Over 40 – Conclusion
There are plenty of reasons to that men suffer from erectile dysfunction…
Stress, depression, low T, poor diet – the list goes on. Most of these can be cured or improved with lifestyle changes (many of which have other positive side effects).
But one cause of ED can take longer to shake off. Over medication with lifestyle ‘drug mongered’ drugs have increased the average number of medication people today are taking.
And once those drugs start piling up, so too do the victims of ED.
By creating a problems and then presenting us with medication as the solution, Big Pharma has managed to increase our readiness and reliance on drugs to fix problems that don’t exist.
And the crème de la crème of lifestyle drugs is good ol’ Viagra. To have them tell it, any man who:
- Suffers even a second of limited penis functionality
- Suffers ED for non-physiological reasons (e.g. stress)
- Suffers ED for totally natural reasons (e.g. drank too much beer)
Should take Viagra.
It’s a vicious cycle. You’re put on long term drug mongering products built by Big Pharma and pushed by doctors. You end up suffering ED as a result. Then, when you raise THAT issue, Big Pharma has – you guess it – another lifestyle drug for you.
Viagra works sometimes while simultaneously undermining your ability to generate natural erections without the drugs. And it’s only a matter of time until Big Pharma produces a Viagra supplement.
But there’s another way. Say NO to lifestyle medications. REDUCE the long term meds you’re on…
Make syOSITIVE lifestyle changes to your diet, your exercise and fitness regime, and support your body with natural supplements.
Finally, tackle and manage your psychological wellbeing NATURALLY, by reducing stress and anxiety in your life.
You’ll feel better, your erections will be healthier than ever before.
You don’t have to be beholden to Big Pharma. Break the cycle and help regain agency over your sex life today.
