Erectile Dysfunction- What Worked for us

by Jacob Clark

  Chapter 4: Develop an ongoing dialog with your doctor.

  He can be your penis’s best friend.

  I’ve known my primary care physician for over fifteen years. I consider him a good friend, and frequently see him socially in addition to in the exam room.

  He’s a good man, and I trust him, quite literally, with my life.

  Here’s why: he’s fond of telling our mutual friends that he wants me to live forever. Because I’m the only person on earth he can beat (occasionally) on the golf course.

  Having a healthy relationship and a rapport with your doctor can help you tremendously when it comes to beating the ED monster. Because if you’re comfortable with him, you’re more likely to ask the types of embarrassing questions you should be asking.

  If he considers you a friend, or at least a cut above the cattle who file through his office disguised as patients day in and day out, he’s more likely to provide you better care.

  Here’s an interesting statistic: It’s estimated that twenty four percent of men who have ED don’t ever talk about it to their physicians. They choose to ignore it and hope it goes away (Here’s a hint. It doesn’t). Or, they consider it just a fact of life, a by-product of getting older.

  And they never have it treated. They pretty much give up on their sex life and deprive themselves (and their spouse or significant other) of many joyful sexual adventures.

  At that point, for those men, the ED monster becomes a lifelong curse.

  On the other hand, talking to your doctor about it can benefit you in a myriad of ways.

  And no, I’m not just talking about your inability to get Viagra or Cialis without his writing you a prescription.

  That’s a big part of it, yes. But he can also advise you on other methods that don’t require prescription meds, and are perhaps better suited (and safer) for your particular medical needs.

  From Jacob:

  I remember the day I walked into Paul’s office that morning. Paul isn’t just my doctor. I also consider him a friend, and as such I feel comfortable talking to him about anything.

  Our conversation went something like this:

  Me: I haven’t been performing well in the bedroom lately.

  Him: Good. I’ve had my eye on Michelle for quite some time. Ask her if she’s free on Friday night.

  Me: I’m serious.

  Him: Who says I’m not?

  Me: And how is you fucking my wife going to fix my erection problem?

  Him: It won’t. But it’ll make me very happy. And it’ll make Michelle even happier. Maybe she’ll make you an omelet or something to show you her appreciation.

  Me: I think I need a new doctor.

  Him: Okay. But I need Michelle’s phone number before you go.

  Paul and I have known each other for a long time. Granted, probably a lot longer than you’ve known your own doctor. Chances are you don’t joke around like he and I do. But here’s my point: He’s a medical professional. He’s used to fielding questions and providing good answers about all those embarrassing things you don’t want to ask him.

  But you HAVE to ask. He may know a lot of things about ED, or whatever else is ailing you. But one thing he’s not good at is mindreading. If you don’t tell him what the problem is, he can’t help you fix it.

  Most doctors would have prescribed ED medication and been done with it. They’d have said, “Here’s a pill for you to take. Have fun. You’ll get my bill. Goodbye.”

  Or, if you had medical issues that prevented you from getting the magical pill he’d have said, “Nothing I can do for you. You have a bad heart. Sorry, but you’re out of luck. I’ll send you a bill anyway. Goodbye.”

  Paul’s not like that.

  He asked me the specifics.

  Him: How long has it been going on?

  Me: It started a month ago, when I got back from London.

  Him: How long were you abroad?

  Me: For several months.

  Him: Were you active while you were there?

  Me: No. I’m faithful to Michelle.

  Him: I know that, dummy. Were you spanking the monkey while you were there?

  Me: Is that relevant?

  Him: Very much so.

  Me: No. I didn’t think it was important.

  Him: It probably would have helped. When you just dropped sex cold turkey, your body may have interpreted it as you deciding you weren’t interested anymore.

  Me: Is there any way I can get it back?

  Him: Maybe. But we have to be careful because of your blockage and family history of heart disease. Also, you’re a diabetic now. That’s going to make it harder.

  Me: Good. I want to make it harder.

  Him: Not what I meant.

  Me: I know… so what do we do?

  Him: We start by doing the easy things. They sometimes help. Then we progress to the harder stuff.

  Paul showed me that certain drugs can lead to ED, or make a minor ED problem worse.

  Further, the way two drugs interact can do the same thing, although one or the other of the drugs, when prescribed alone, might not have any effect at all.

  Lastly, he told ne that certain foods we eat can have an adverse affect on our ED problem.

  Paul worked with me to show me how certain things we eat cause our bodies to do certain things.

  For example, he told me that eating fatty foods clogs arteries. I already knew that, and was already cutting down on my fat intake because I have a partial blockage in one of my arteries.

  But he told me eating the same fatty foods also causes people to sweat more.

  I could relate. I’d noticed even before he mentioned it that I was sweating far less at the gym than I did before I started cutting back on fats.

  He said sugar can do the same thing. It not only makes you fat and can lead to diabetes, it can also make you sweat profusely.

  He said whenever he gets a complaint from a patient that they tend to sweat profusely, he prescribes a reduction in sugar and fatty foods and it solves the problem almost every time. Or at least reduces it to a great degree.

  What does that have to do with our ED problem? Very little. But I mention it to show that the things we eat, without thinking, can have a major impact on our ED problem.

  Like the aforementioned sugar.

  Sugar is one of those things our body doesn’t really need, but which we crave. (Caffeine is another). Paul says that’s why our body sweats when we eat too much sugar. Sweating is one of the ways the body gets rid of the things it doesn’t want or need.

  The problem with sugar is that (in some men) it can prevent an erection. Or lessen the erection. And as we know, a penis that’s only halfway erect might as well be not erect at all.

  Paul advised me to get rid of all unnecessary sugar.

  I do have a bit of a sweet tooth, so I asked him to define “unnecessary sugar.”

  He said that many foods have hidden sugars we don’t even know are there. The example he used was ketchup.

  I never knew ketchup was loaded with sugar, did you?

  He said I’d never rid all sugar from my diet, because it’s contained in so many of the things we consume without even knowing it.

  But he said that getting rid of those things I eat specifically for the sugar, like candy bars and glazed donuts and ice cream, can help me in a myriad of ways.

  First of all, since I’m diabetic now I shouldn’t have them to begin with. I’ve known that for awhile, but have still been cheating occasionally. Who can say “no” to that Snicker’s bar calling my name while I’m standing in line at the register?

  So giving up sugar helps me to keep my blood sugar level in the 120 to 150 range he’s having me shoot for.

  Over the long term, giving up sugar will help me lose those extra twenty pounds Paul’s been after me to lose for years.

  And lastly, he says giving up sugar can help some men with their erection problem.

  I don’t know if I’m one of those men.

/>   I just know that I cut back dramatically on my sugar intake, at the same time I did a lot of other things. My ED problem went away.

  I’ll never know for sure to what degree giving up sugar helped, because I was doing so many other things at the same time.

  But here’s the thing:

  If you know that sugar is bad for you, and you know that getting rid of it (or most of it) can help you medically in so many ways, then why not give it up?

  Reasons to eat sugar:

  1. To satisfy a temporary craving that will soon go away on its own even if not satisfied

  Reasons to give up sugar:

  Reduces risk of diabetes

  Reduces risk of heart disease

  Reduces risk of damage to liver and kidneys

  Helps to lose weight

  Reduces excess sweating

  May prevent or lessen severity of ED in men

  Kind of a no brainer, isn’t it?

  Okay, let’s put reduction of sugar intake on our list of things to do.

  But there’s so much more that Paul has done for me.

  Paul is one of those doctors who doesn’t believe in overtreatment. What I mean by that is, he doesn’t just listen to your symptoms, make a calculated guess, issue you five different prescriptions, and then send you on your way.

  Then follow you out the door so he can make his tee time.

  Yes, there are doctors like that out there. Way too many of them.

  Paul isn’t one of them.

  Paul thinks we (the world in general, but mostly Americans) are way overmedicated.

  And he doesn’t like prescribing medications unless they’re absolutely necessary.

  Seriously.

  That’s about his only redeeming quality, besides the fact he’s lousy in poker.

  Just kidding. The fact is, he’s a great doctor. I hope he’s ahead of his time, for I believe more doctors should do what Paul does and look for other means of treatment before he just prescribes potentially harmful meds willy nilly.

  When I went to see him complaining of pain in my feet, he immediately suspected diabetic nerve pain. He sent me to the lab for a glucose test, and they made me drink some nasty orange stuff that made me want to vomit.

  Sure enough, I had diabetes.

  Most doctors would have said “Give up sugar” and prescribed some very harsh medicines, which would have treated the diabetes but had some potentially bad side effects. Including ED.

  Paul did say “Give up sugar.” But he also sent me to a dietician. He did give me a prescription, but it wasn’t for medication. It was for a cool little machine about as big as my computer mouse, which I use to read my blood sugar each day. I didn’t even know you could get a blood glucose meter with a prescription, but you can. My insurance even covered it, minus a six dollar co-pay.

  The dietician taught me to eat better. And since I confessed to having a sweet tooth, she showed me ways to satisfy that sweet tooth without using sugar to do it.

  For the foot pain he told me to go to a nutrition store and buy something called “Stabilized R-Lipoic Acid.”

  “There are several kinds and several brands,” he said. “The brand doesn’t matter. But be sure it has an R in front of the Lipoic Acid. That’s the best one for you.”

  I didn’t ask him what the “R” stood for or why that was important. I still don’t know.

  What I do know, though, is that I started taking the stuff (and wearing diabetic socks) and the foot pain went away within days. Bear in mind that before I saw Paul the pain was so severe it was keeping me up at night. I was popping half a dozen ibuprofen just to get to sleep.

  Now it’s gone completely.

  And it’s gone without any harsh prescription drugs which may help with one problem but cause others.

  If you’re on diabetic drugs, ask your doctor about R-Lipoic Acid. I recognize that we’re all different, and that just because it worked well for me doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll work for you. But at least ask the question. You have nothing to lose. Except the possibility you’ll be able to get off a harsh drug that’s contributing to your ED…

  Chapter 5: If You Have a Family History of Heart Disease or Partial Blockage, Don’t Skip This Chapter.

  It’s Kind of Important.

  While we’re talking about Paul and some of the ways he treats his patients, we’ll talk about heart disease and its affect on the penis.

  Specifically, its ability to become erect and to stay that way.

  The co-relation of the two isn’t necessarily due to heart disease itself, although low blood pressure or partial blockage can reduce blood flow, and it’s the blood inflow which makes your penis come alive.

  Most of the reason men with heart issues or hypotension (low blood pressure) have problems with ED isn’t the problem of low blood pressure itself.

  Rather it’s the side effects of the medication they take to treat the heart issues or hypotension.

  Again, modern medicines are wonderful things. They save many lives each and every day. But nearly all of them have side effects. And in the case of men over fifty, an alarming number of those medicines list problems with impotency as one of those side effects.

  Doctor Paul is a physician who doesn’t believe in prescribing medications unless they’re necessary. He tries other, less potentially harsh, methods first.

  Your doctor should consider those methods as well.

  We’re not advocating you stop taking your prescribed meds.

  What we’re advocating is that you talk to your doctor. Tell him that you’ve been taking Brand X to treat your blood pressure problem. Tell him you checked the information pamphlet that the FDA requires be included in every new prescription, and that it lists impotency as a possible side effect. Tell him you’ve been suffering from ED and you want to know if there is another method of treatment that will protect your heart and still allow you to have sex.

  He might say no. But in all likelihood he’ll say, “You know what? We can try Brand W. It’s less likely to contribute to your intimacy problems. Let’s try it out for a while and see what happens.”

  A good doctor will listen to your concerns and try to work with you.

  If he refuses to… if he says, “I prescribed that to you because it’s the only thing that’ll work for you,” it might be time to seek a second opinion.

  From Jacob:

  Of course, the best option is no prescription medicines at all. But only your doctor can determine whether that’s an option for you.

  So far Paul has only prescribed one medication for me: Viagra, but he told me only to use it when everything else fails (which it occasionally does). It’s our backup plan, which we use only every once in a while. Usually when I’m extra tired or we have sex two nights in a row.

  More on that later.

  Back to non-prescription alternatives to prescription medicines.

  I’m fifty eight years old. And while I wish I was as healthy as I was in my twenties (and got erections several times a day even when I didn’t want or need them), I’m like most men my age. I have a few medical problems. I mentioned the diabetes and the partial blockage, which Paul says we caught early enough to fix before it becomes a major problem. He also tells me my blood pressure is a bit higher than normal, and so is my cholesterol. He’s closely monitoring those two things.

  He’s got me modifying my diet, which he says is the best thing I can do to help get healthier.

  And the dietician he referred me to is the spitting image of Elizabeth Hurley, so I don’t mind going to see her at all.

  So I’m eating much better, which he assures me will help me live longer as well as helping with the ED problem.

  And after all, that’s precisely why I want to live longer. So I can solve the ED problem and have more sex with my lovely wife.

  Hey, we all have our priorities…

  Anyway, a diet heavy in veggies and fruits (more veggies than fruits if you’re diabetic) and low in fats is a good
thing. A very good thing.

  Paul also had me get an over the counter supplement called Slo Niacin. It’s good for the heart.

  He’s got me taking fish oil tablets for the same reason.

  And he’s got me exercising more.

  I used to be a dedicated runner. For many years I ran a hundred miles a week or more.

  I even ran in a marathon, in Honolulu, in 1981.

  It damn near killed me, but I’m glad I did it.

  These days I can’t run. My knees are bad, no doubt a result of all those thousands of miles I ran in my youth.

  But that’s okay.

  I can still walk, and Michelle and I walk around our neighborhood for a mile or so every evening.

  And sometimes in the morning if we’re awake and want to see the sunrise.

  We also swim and ride bikes on nice days.

  All of that is good for us.

  At our age, we do what we can do, even if it’s not what we once could.

  All exercise is good exercise.

  Bottom line: See your doctor. And don’t be shy to tell him you’re having erection problems.

  He can’t help you if he doesn’t know.

  From Michelle:

  Men and women view the human body so much differently. We, as women, spend so much time being modest, wearing uncomfortable bras and panties, and constantly worrying that we’ll reveal too much and be branded a shameless slut.

  I once was horrified to learn part of my right nipple was exposed in a grocery store. I was so traumatized I wouldn’t go shopping for weeks. And when I started going again I was paranoid for a long time. I looked at everyone I saw, wondering if they were there that day. Whether they saw my nipple. And whether they’d spread the word to all their friends that I was easy.

  Men, on the other hand, don’t care.

  They’ll whip that sucker out in a heartbeat, twirl it around a few times, then place bets with their friends on whose is bigger.