What is the main cause of erectile dysfunction? This is a difficult question to answer as there are multiple causes that can result in erectile dysfunction, however, it can perhaps be said that if the general health of a person is poor with low blood flow, a person would most likely succumb to erectile dysfunction. But if his blood circulates freely in his body, that’s fine.
What is erectile dysfunction?
It’s a bodily disorder that prevents a man from having and keeping an erection for an enjoyable sexual experience with his sexual partner. A man with ED will not be able to enjoy sex or have an orgasm.
It’s a non-discriminatory condition that affects people of all ages but it tends to be common among men of over 75 years of age.
What are the symptoms?
The main symptom of erectile function is that a person is unable to have or maintain an erection for performing the sexual act.
What are the factors that can cause erectile dysfunction?
There are many factors that can cause the onset of erectile dysfunction that can be divided into two main categories of physical and psychological causes as shown below:
Physical Causes of erectile dysfunction
- Alcohol consumption and use tobacco – both these habits have the tendency to relax the body and moderate indulgence especially in consuming alcohol to induce a laxative mood before a sexual encounter is perfectly fine, but you should think twice about smoking in all its forms.
Overindulgence right before a sexual encounter is not advisable as too much alcohol can prevent you from completing the sexual act. Alcohol also directly interferes with your ability to achieve erections but fortunately these are only temporary situations.
Equally fortunate is that moderate drinking of one or two drinks a day might produce health benefits such as reducing your risk of getting heart disease, which are fundamentally similar to the risks for erectile dysfunction which may mean killing two birds with the one drink!
- Medications – It’s quite likely that medications that you keep in your medical box or cabinet can also have a dramatic effect on your bedroom performances. There’s a whole bunch of very commonly used drugs that can cause the beginning of erectile dysfunction in your body.
These drugs may include prescribed medicines for treating high blood pressure, antidepressants for your depressions and pain killers to reduce your pain. It would be wise if you consulted your doctor or online pharmacist before you actually start taking medications to address your health problems.
The reason is that there are so many street drugs available nowadays that may worsen your condition instead of improving it. For instance, street drugs available include amphetamines, cocaine and marijuana which are known to cause sexual performance issues in men.
- Obesity – When you enter your middle age stage in your life, you’ll begin to gain weight around your midsection and you know what, the extra weight will not only affect your sexual activities but your self-esteem as well.
It’s a known fact that obesity reduces the level of the hormone testosterone in men. The hormone is directly responsible for boosting sexual desire and producing your erections. Obesity is often associated with high blood pressure due to a hardening of the arteries which in turn can reduce the flow of blood to the penis.
Psychological causes of erectile dysfunction
- Depression – In all erectile dysfunction related conditions, the role of the brain is often overlooked as the core of the erogenous zone. In fact all sexual stimuli actually begin in the head and travels downwards towards the rest of the human body. When you are depressed, your desire is hampered and this usually results in erectile dysfunction. it should be borne in mind that antidepressant drugs do in fact impinge on your sexual urge, making it difficult for you to get an erection and also delay the onset of orgasm.
- Stress – there are so many factors that can spark stressful situations such as a tiring day at work, quarrel with a best friend, unpaid bills, eviction notice and so on that makes it absolutely impossible to get into a sexy mood. These stressful situations play havoc with your penis as well.
You need to eliminate all these stressful situations and normalize your lifestyle in order to promote a happy, joyful and stress free environment. You should engage in doing exercises often and at regular intervals, get that deep sleep and always be ready to contact your doctor or online pharmacist.
- Anger – getting yourself into violent tantrums over your problems at home and elsewhere jolts your blood flow straight upwards to the head instead of going down to your lower body section where you want it to go for having gratifying sex!
It’s very hard to get yourself in a sexy mood when you are ranting on in anger especially when you target your sexual partner, yourself or other parties involved in the commotion.
You are so obsessed with being angry at others that you destroy any chance of enjoying the company of your sexual partner in engaging in sex.
- Anxiety – Sometimes you can become so overwhelmed with doubt about your own capabilities in bed that you begin to believe in it. It does sound a little unusual but rest assured it does happen and it can spoil your performance in the bedroom.
You can actually alienate yourself from both the sexual act itself and against your partner. You feel so incompetent about your inadequacy that you actually convince your mind to shut itself against enjoying sex and can irreparably damage your sex life and relationship with your loved one.
- Self-image – When you look into the mirror and you cringe at what you see there,your mind automatically thinks for you and say, “what does my wife (or girlfriend) think of me? I look a mess!”
Be warned that your negative impression of yourself will not only make you worried about the way you look but will also dampen your confidence about your own performance in bed.
It has happened that people who have a poor impression of themselves in how they look but also completely lose interest in attempting to have a sexual encounter with their partners.
- Low libido – which also means that your sex drive is low, is the culmination of all the other negative factors which, when combined together produces this rather dismal negative condition.
It reflects the sum total of your low self-esteem, the medications that you’ve taken to ward off other illnesses, anxiety and stress and anger which you are experiencing. They’ve all combined to decrease your sex drive and therefore make you succumb to an erectile dysfunction condition.
Bottom line
As can be seen, identifying what are the causes for erectile dysfunction appears to be a very simple thing to do. Actually it is, but actually getting ourselves to prevent them from producing erectile dysfunction is another story altogether. You see, forcing ourselves to forgo all the things that make ED happen are more difficult to do than identifying them. But we must try!