(by Jason Brick)
The trouble with lots of health advice you find on the web and in other resources is that it tends to be reactive.
It’s all about what not to do, what to avoid, what to eliminate from your life in order to be healthy.
That’s at least equally true when talking about penis health tips, and we’ve been guilty of it here in this blog.
So today we’re going to get proactive.
We’ll talk about the things you should do, should take on, should make a priority in your life to keep your penis healthy and your sex life satisfying. Let’s start with number one:
1: Ejaculate at Least 4 Times a Week
This is definitely the most enjoyable penis health tip on the list, but it’s important that you ejaculate Most of the time with another person in the room.
(think sex-not masturbation).
We’ve known for close to ten years that frequent ejaculation reduces the risk of prostate cancer by a whopping 33%.
In the Harvard study that announced this finding, “frequent” was defined as “four or more times each week.” That’s right: an orgasm every other day keeps prostate cancer away.
More recent research has found that ejaculating this often helps with mens sexual health in general.
It’s a use it or lose it situation like so many other aspects of your body….
Quit lifting weights and watch your muscles slowly deteriorate. Quit playing chess and reading and watch your mental accuity decline. Quit practicing the guitar and say goodbye to your ability to shred.
Quit ejaculating, and the muscles, hormones and tissues responsible for making that happen start to fade.
2: Reject Pharmaceuticals
It’s been said that modern medicine is in the business of prolonging illness.
That might be a little unfair, but it’s true that more research and more money gets spent on finding ways to charge us money to live with a problem rather than actually solving the root cause of the problem.
Those magic pills and similar treatments do nothing to improve your sexual health. They just let you get busy with artificial chemical support despite your health problems.
And I haven’t even mentioned side effects yet.
Instead, live with the symptoms of your problem temporarily. Find natural supplements and lifestyle changes you can make to treat the root causes of poor sexual health.
It’s like the difference between filling a leaking tire with air after a bad patch job or retreading it and making it nearly new.
If you do a little research, you can find alternative treatments for almost any ailment.
Got high blood pressure? Start drinking celery or beet juice. Hemorrhoids? Increase your intake of citrus bioflavonoids to strengthen the walls of your blood vessles.
Of course, you should always move off a drug with proper medical adivce….
But I can tell you now, if you have erections problems, this is the one of the very first moves you should make, because almost all drugs impact sexual performance in one way or another.
3: Keep Your Prolactin Levels in the Zone
This is one of those penis health tips you
rarely hear about, but you need to be mindful
of this hormone.
Prolactine is made by your pituitary gland. It’s most important to pregnant and breast-feeding women, in whom levels increase by as much as 2000%.
Like estrogen, it’s important for womens’ health but also plays a role mens health.
Also like estrogen, too much or too little prolactin can wreak havoc with your penis and your mojo, as numerous studies have confirmed that too high or too low prolactin levels are strongly linked to decreased sexual desire and erectile dysfunction.
A test for prolactin levels is a quick and easy procedure that can tell you right away whether you have too much or too little in your blood.
If your prolactin levels are too high, you can take several supplements to regulate your body’s production of the hormone, including Vitamin E, Ashwagandha, Vitamin B6, Mucuna Pruriens and Zinc.
Getting enough sleep will also help, as will any activities that increase your dopamine production.
As a matter of fact, the best way to decrease prolactin is to increase dopamine levels in the blood, as these two hormones operate like a seesaw…when one goes up, the other quickly goes down.
Too little prolactin can also be a problem for men, as some recent studies show this can be as destructive to erectile health as too much.
Some herbs that increase prolactin include fenugreeek, fennel, licorice, anise, goat’s rue and nettle.
4: Get a Grip on Estrogen
Your body needs estrogen just like it needs testosterone, but the right ratio is essential to sexual health in men. If your estrogen to testosterone ratio is out of balance, it impacts your ability to get and keep an erection…and can lead to more serious health problems.
You can get a grip on estrogen by taking on a handful of simple behaviors that keep estrogen in check:
- Cut body fat, especially abdominal fat which can actually convert testosterone directly into estrogen
- Eat more broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower and other cruciferous vegetables.
- Eat organic meats. Livestock injected with synthetic hormones are often just dripping with estrogens or estrogen-producing compounds.
- Avoid soy. Soy contains phyto-estrogens, and men who eat a lot of soy have increased levels of serum estrogen.
- Watch your drinking. Too much booze messes up your liver and kidneys. Both process estrogen and remove the excess. If they don’t work as well, your estrogen levels stay elevated.
You can also take supplements that boost testosterone, because when you increase this male hormone, estrogen levels automatically go down.
5: Maximize Human Growth Hormone Production
When healthy men get erections, their blood levels of Human Growth Hormone (HGH) are elevated.
Men suffering from poor sexual health have lower levels of HGH (source).
The exact mechanics of why this is so are not well understood, but the correlation is clear. Human Growth Hormone is related to sexual health and a firm penis.
You can easily take on some lifestyle and dietary habits to increase your HGH just like you can to reduce your estrogen.
Some of the big winners include taking supplements that deliver amino acids like arginine, taurine and lysine, eating protein-rich meats, taking in more Vitamin D, and avoiding sugar for two hours after you work out.
The best way to improve your HGH levels is to get into High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) two to three times a week.
These interval workouts alternate between serious bouts of intense movement followed by a brief period of rest.
It’s been proven in multiple studies that these intense workouts spike HGH production levels for several hours after the session is over.
And best of all they take less than 15 minites to complete.
6: Talk With Your Doc About Dropping Statins
Statins are a group of drugs used to treat circulatory ailments, especially high cholesterol. They can seriously mess up your bedroom mojo.
They do this in two ways:
They reduce the orgasmic response. A government funded study published in 2009 found that men who use statins reported much more difficulty achieving orgasm, copmpared to the controls.
They pummel testosterone. Statin use directly reduces testosterone production. Testosterone is one of the key hormones in erectile health and sexual performance.
I will admit that in some cases medications may be (temporarily) necessary to prevent issues way more serious than an unenthusiastic pecker.
But my opinion is that statins medications aren’t one of them.
You may find it tough to get your doctor to look into alternative methods for treating health issues and improving your cardiovascular health.
If so, you can always fire him and move onto to a more enlightened medical man or even a good naturopath if you can find one in your area.
7: Optimize DHEA Levels
Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA for short) is a hormone your adrenal glands produce which is involved in the erection process.
It’s a substance your body turns into testosterone and estrogen, so optimal sexual health depends on optimal levels of DHEA the same way that optimal sandwich production relies on optimal levels of bread, cheese and cold cuts.
Your body is pretty good at optimizing DHEA on its own, but you’ll notice I said it was produced by your adrenal glands.
Too much stress can overwork your adrenal glands, and tap out the raw materials they use to produce DHEA. You already knew that stress can have a psychological impact on your sexual health. Now you know it can also have a physiological effect.
We’ve written before about the importance of reducing stress to improve sexual health.
Some of the key techniques are getting enough sleep, exercising regularly, interacting with your favorite people, and taking frequent breaks from the grind of daily life.
All of these behaviors can have a positive impact on your production of DHEA if you do them consistently.
8: Maintain Supreme Dental Health
It used to be that dental health was only important
to sexual health because nasty teeth and breath
stop you from getting laid.
Over the past ten to twenty years, researchers have linked dental health to cardiovascular health, dietary health, and….sexual health.
Turns out, a study published recently in the Journal of Sexual Medicine found a 200% increase in erectile dysfunction among subjects with severe periodontal disease.
200 perecnet is quite a large number, and not something to take lightly.
As of today, no follow-up research has been conducted to find out why this is so, but I think the answer is pretty obvious sicne science has already established link between poor gum health and poor cardiovascular health.
Poor circulatory health is definitively linked with erectile dysfunction because you can’t rack up wood if you can’t get blood to rush into the penis.
So floss every day, and brush at least twice a day. Cut out sugary drinks and keep your sweet tooth under control, and consume plenty of fat soluble vitamins, especially vitamin K.
Your penis will thank you, and so will anybody who kisses you.
9: Solve Snoring and Sleep Apnea
I cheated a little bit here, since the most recent definitions are beginning to lump snoring in as a mild form of sleep apnea.
In either case, a study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine looked at nearly 20 million men with sleep apnea related problems…
Researchers found almost half of them experienced “reduced arousal” during sex and 69 percent experienced “reduced sexual desire.”
This is because sleep apnea in all of its forms messes with your sleep. Sleep is when your body and psyche recover from the rigors of life in general.
Without sleep, your body isn’t sharp on any of its responses whether you’re working, driving or trying to have sex. Without sleep, you’re cranky and under stress, both of which have been linked directly with reduced ability and desire to shag.
The good news here is sleep apnea has received a lot more attention in the past five years. There are lots of ways to treat it, ranging from exercises to (increasingly less cumbersome) anti-snoring sleep devices.
10: Massage Your Penis and Testicles
Like frequent ejaculation, this another one of the more enjoyable penis health tips
And don’t worry you won’t go blind or grow hair on your palms and feet..
Instead, you will experience more frequent erections, more sensitivity before and during sex, stronger orgasms and longer staying power.
Just take some time to get to know the little soldier several times a week in the shower.
Just like massage everywhere else on your body, this stimulates the tissue and facilitates the blood flow that refreshes and stimulates cells.
It can also be added into your sexual routine if you can talk your girl into lubing you up and performing the massage herself.
The key her is to stretch and stimulate the penis to increase blood flow thru the corpora cavernosa, which loosens tendons and stimulate production of sex hormones, all of which are good for penis health.
To make this happen, lube up, create the okay signal with your pointer finger and thumb, grip your penis firmly near the base and stretch it out.
10 minutes of moderately firm stretching a few times a week will give you the benefits without the risk of suffering bruised tissue, ruptured blood vessels, or reduced penis sensitivity, which can happen if you go overbaod with this.
While you’re at it you should also perform a brief testicle massage to detect testicular cancer early so you can get treated before it gets out of hand.
To do this, cup your scrotum then gently roll each testicle between your fingers and thumbs to check for lumps. If you find anything abnormal, its time to check in with a specialist.
Penis Health Tips – Conclusion:
Good general health is a matter both of avoiding the bad stuff and doing the good stuff, as anybody who doesn’t smoke but never exercises can show you.
Good health for your penis and your sex life is the same. Avoid the bad stuff, but work enough of this good stuff into your rotation so that you’re actively moving toward a healthier penis.
You don’t have to take on all of these penis health tips at once.
One or two will make a noticable difference. Once you’ve made them part of your unconscious, automatic routine, add a third and a fourth.
By the end of a year you’ll have taken on enough to alter your sexual health forever.
And believe me, you won’t ever want to go back.
