Normal Weight Obesity, Erectile Function and Heart Health

Is the term Normal Weight Obesity an oxymoron?

When I first saw the phrase some time ago, I dismissed it as another full-court press to get people to buy some product, some service, or some load of crap. Now, I’m on board with the label, though not with the context in which I originally saw it... to buy some product, some service, and some load of crap.

NWO which can occur in both men and women, is characterized by having a normal weight on the “outside,” while having the metabolism, heart, lung and muscle health of someone that is morbidly obese. Morbid obesity is commonly defined as being either 50% above one’s optimum weight, or 100 pounds or more overweight. I’d like to take the “morbid” out of the definition of NWO and suffice it to say, you’re slim, but a fat man could out-run, out-ride, and out-fuck you.

Just because you’re in your 40s, 50s or older, and you can still fit into the sky blue, polyester leisure suit you wore on your (first) honeymoon, doesn’t mean you’re in shape, or even sane – after all, you still have that suit in your closet.

Slim people get erectile dysfunction, too. They also get heart attacks, strokes, gall and bladder stones, and ripped off on the finance charges when they buy a new car, just like everyone else.

Some time ago, I met a man with whom I was going to work on a project. My employer had brought us together for the job and he was to be my supervisor. We got along well from the very start and I afforded him the added respect, above and beyond that of supervisor, that I would to any man that was, perhaps 10 years my senior. He was taller than I, but quite trim. Trim enough, in fact, that some months later he wore his military attire – the same he had worn some decades earlier while still in the service – to an affair that I also attended.

In conversation during our first meeting, he made a “well, when you get to my age” comment. For some reason I felt comfortable enough to ask him how old he was. Turns out, he’s a year younger than I. Wow. His skin tone, texture and color were that of a man of 70.

Here I get to brag a bit – I do look younger than my chronology. Not a lot, but I’ve got a full head of mostly black hair and a good complexion. When people – okay, women – play the guessing-ages game, then often take a stab at 50 or 52 for me. I’ll accept that they’re being kind and they’re thinking 55, but still, I don’t look 60, and I don’t intend to, ever.

However, the point is, even HE thought he was older than I – enough older to “when you get to my age” on me. That’s because he FEELS older. As slim as he might be, internally he was an old man. I say “was” because in the time I worked with him he did start on a fitness program. With some time and determination, he can rejuvenate his skin, his heart, his lungs, his muscles, and his... well... we never discussed that, but his wife, the same age as he, is kinda hot and I hope he’s not letting her go “unappreciated.”

Rejuvenation is not just a matter of exercise. Physical activity in the absence of proper nutrition can do more harm than good. Restoring tone to skin, flexibility to blood vessels, and elasticity to heart muscle and other organs all require the proper balance of protein, carbohydrates, fats – yes, some are necessary – and the all important phytonutrients that are derived from a daily dose of vegetables.

All this has to be provided in a body environment that is functioning optimally. Your liver and endocrine systems have to be performing well within operational parameters, that is, not overtaxed by the assault of toxins or overloaded by fats, alcohol, and drugs.

In most cases, being fat is unhealthy. In some cases, being slim isn’t necessary any better, especially if you live a life of sedentary dysfunction. You may be able to eat what you want because you just happen to have the kind of metabolism that prevents you from gaining weight. That doesn't mean that you're healthy. Thinking so may be dangerous.

In short, what promotes heart health, and defeats and prevents erectile dysfunction, will also make you look younger, fell younger, and extend your life in and out of the bedroom. 

I've compiled the most doable protocol for rejuvenation of your body and all the most important parts. It's a cafeteria plan. Select those things you can start right away, add a couple of others that might take some self control. Watch your weight stabilize, the strength return to your body, and approach the stamina of your youth.

HARD! Maintaining Potency, Eliminating Erectile Dysfunction, and Enjoying Healthy Sex for Life is not just for those with ED, but for all men who want to keep functioning throughout their life. A concise and powerful men’s health guide, HARD! provides a protocol for how to do everything right. 

Available at BN.com/Nook, Apple, and Amazon/Kindle.

Also available in all eBook formats for immediate download: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/65109.

Erectile Dysfunction, Orgasms, and Ejaculation: Part I

After reading some interesting perspectives by men suffering from erectile dysfunction, I thought it important to discuss the relationships and non-interdependence of the three quite separate man functions of ED, orgasm and ejaculation.

Ejaculation is an essential part of male sexual satisfaction. We men are in awe at a woman’s ability to achieve multiple orgasms; we wonder what that would be like to have even three in a row... or just two. But women can’t imagine that special sensation when a full prostate lets it rip and the physical sensation of ejaculation accompanies a well stimulated orgasm. That’s why the first one of the day is always the best.

But not all men can ejaculate, and that’s where we’ll start.

Most men believe that orgasm and ejaculation are part of the same process. That is, most men excepting those who suffer from a condition known as anejaculation. This term describes a condition in which ejaculation will not occur. There are two types of anejaculation: situational and total. 

Like ED itself, situational is a failure to ejaculate sometimes and under some circumstances and can have a large psychological component. Total anejaculation is the inability to ever achieve ejaculation.

Further, these can be broken down into orgasmic anejaculation and anorgasmic anejaculation. Yep, you figured it out, failure to ejaculate while still experiencing an orgasm, and failure to achieve orgasm and failure to ejaculate. Just to complicate the matrix, it is possible to have an ejaculation with no orgasm.

Because the prostate gland produces the majority of the fluid – semen – that is responsible for the volume of ejaculation, radical prostatectomy – the complete surgical remove of the prostate, usually due to disease – always causes anejaculation. It has more recently been reported that radiation therapy performed on the prostate as an alternative to surgical removal, also causes anejaculation in a majority of men receiving that treatment. Some men recover and begin to achieve ejaculation over time following the treatments, but never return to their pretreatment volume or sexual satisfaction.

Causes of anejaculation are varied and include, but are not limited to, damage to the spine or nerves involved in ejaculation, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, a condition called retrograde ejaculation in which the seminal fluid and sperm are pushed back into the bladder instead of out the urethra through the penis, or a blockage in the ducts that carry semen due to damage or infection.

Anejaculation can be more than an inconvenience or simply reduce your level of sexual satisfaction. It may be a symptom of something more profound occurring in your body, so you should seek medical counsel at its onset. Not just as a one-off (or not-off), but see a doctor if you find your failure to ejaculate becomes a regular occurrence.

In all the cases just described, orgasm is achieved, ejaculation is not. Ejaculation without orgasm has been reported as a result of taking certain anti-anxiety drugs. Serotonin re-uptake inhibitors – SRIs – such as Paxil, Zoloft, and Lexapro, have been associated with this condition.

Anorgasmic anejaculation is the inability to achieve either orgasm or ejaculation while awake. Often the sufferer can achieve both during a dream state. This is most commonly associated with psychological issues or extreme physiological states. That is, you’re too tensed, too drunk, or you just don’t want to be with the person you’re with. However...

...anorgasmy, the inability to have an orgasm which will almost always deny ejaculation, can also be due to a drastic reduction in the sensitivity of your penis. Too much masturbation or just too much sex can cause this problem. This leads to ED... Erectile Depletion. Just leave the freaking house for a few hours and take a rest. Penile sensitivity – and the snake-oil remedies available on the Internet – will be discussed in a future posting.

Finally, let’s bring erectile dysfunction back into the conversation. Just because one cannot achieve an erection does not preclude being able to achieve both orgasm and ejaculation. This, most of you already know from practice... but it’s worth stating for those newer to the game.

More about erectile dysfunction, orgasms, and ejaculation, including some issues you may have to address in Part II.

HARD! Maintaining Potency, Eliminating Erectile Dysfunction, and Enjoying Healthy Sex for Life is not just for those with ED, but for all men who want to keep functioning throughout their life. A concise and powerful men’s health guide, HARD! provides a protocol for how to do everything right. 

Available at BN.com/Nook, Apple, and Amazon/Kindle.

Also available in all eBook formats for immediate download: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/65109.

High Blood Pressure, Erectile Dysfunction, and awareness

I just received an email from a Mr. Ken Martin suggesting that my readers -- that's yous guys -- may be interested in reading the blog post 15 Facts You Need to Know for Blood Pressure Awareness Month whose link is at the bottom of the page.

There is valuable information contained in this blog message.

First... It needs to be underscored that ED may be the first symptom of any number of more dangerous, and perhaps life threatening, conditions which have not otherwise made themselves known. With the first sign of erectile dysfunction -- that's repeated attempts at sex over a few weeks and you can't perform -- you should see your doctor and be checked out. I won't enumerate them all, but prostate and blood pressure issues are high on the list of possible root causes of ED. It may sound strange, but you will be very relieved to find out you just have a weak wanger and not more ominous situation. Then you can address why your putter punked out.

I always thought the leading cause of high blood pressure was Kate Beckinsale running across my TV screen wearing rubber pants. Special note: while Kate Beckinsale in rubber pants may be the only reason to see Underworld, it's enough reason.

(Next blog post: a photo of a teenage Jennifer Connelly, also having absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand.)

However, it begs the question: If this is Blood Pressure Awareness month, does that mean that the other eleven are Blood Pressure Oblivious months? Shouldn't something as important as a life threatening disease that's brought on, all to often, by bad eating and lifestyle habits, be something that one is "aware of" on an ongoing, daily basis. What happens in June. Forget the 15 facts listed in the blog post?

About the 15: #6 and #9 are the most important ones. I take issue with #12 because #6 omits ED as an early warning of high blood pressure -- your dick sometimes being the NORAD for your blood pressure.

Your entire body is connected. Every cell communicates with every other cell. Every organ sends signals to every other organ and every organ system -- neural, circulatory, immune, skeletal, reproductive, digestive -- they all interact on a minute by minute basis. Example: A condition called "clubbing" of the fingernails, could be an early sign of lung cancer. Fingernails? For lung cancer? Yep. 

So the pecker-pressure connection should be a lot easier to understand. What may be more challenging is whey HIGH blood pressure everywhere else results in LOW pressure where you really want it. But that's a discussion for another day.

15 Facts You Need to Know for Blood Pressure Awareness Month:
http://www.nursingschools.net/blog/2011/05/15-facts-you-need-to-know-for-blood-pressure-awareness-month


Now published:

HARD! Maintaining Potency, Eliminating Erectile Dysfunction, and Enjoying Healthy Sex for Life is not just for those with ED, but for all men who want to keep functioning throughout their life. A concise and powerful men’s health guide, HARD! provides a protocol for how to do everything right. 

Available at BN.com/Nook, Apple, and Amazon/Kindle.

Also available in all eBook formats for immediate download: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/65109.

Snore Loudly and You'll Snore Alone!

From time to time I'm going to post interesting -- or humorous --  blurbs upon which I stumble. Here's just a quick one that I picked up here about snoring.

Erectile health is meaningless unless you've got an object of your turgidity. To promote the likeliness that you'll be invited back to a partner's bed... or even allowed to sleep in the same room if you're in a relationship... sometimes you have to make sacrifices.

Please note the very first and third items the AAOMS lists which also feed directly into overcoming ED. The last item, about sedatives, is obvious; your dick will fall asleep before you do.

The American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons lists these lifestyle changes that can help to curb snoring:

• Try losing weight -- even just 10 pounds.
• Instead of sleeping on your back, try sleeping on your side.
• Avoid alcohol and caffeine, and don't eat large, heavy meals -- particularly within about two hours of heading to bed.
• Don't take a sedative, which relaxes the muscles in your throat and increases snoring.

HARD! Maintaining Potency, Eliminating Erectile Dysfunction, and Enjoying Healthy Sex for Life is not just for those with ED, but for all men who want to keep functioning throughout their life. A concise and powerful men’s health guide, HARD! provides a protocol for how to do everything right. 

Available at BN.com/Nook, Apple, and Amazon/Kindle.

Also available in all eBook formats for immediate download: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/65109.

Low-T, Hormones, and Male HRT

The origins of HRT: Hormone Replacement Therapy is an all-to-common medical approach meant to stabilize a woman's metabolism after menopause. Menopause is characterized by a significant change in the production of sex hormones – steroidal hormones – that cause a woman's ovaries to stop producing eggs, the end of her reproductive life. Menopause is normal and every woman that survives into her fifties and certainly her sixties with her female organs (ovaries, uterus, etc) intact, will experience menopause. It's natural. Nature meant it to be that way.

Not so for men.There is no built-in shut-down for male hormones; there is no automatic end to a man's reproductive career. Actor Tony Randall, most famous in my mind for his role as Felix Unger on the 1970s television show Odd Couple, remarried in 1995 at the age of 75 – to a woman of 25. Gotta love that guy. He fathered two children with her, the second being born when he was 78. This guy was still screwing – pardon me, making love – at least until he was 77 with sufficient sperm density to sire a son.

Randall, of course, is not the only one. Any man still capable of ejaculating – erect or not – is still producing sperm and remains, absent a vasectomy, to some degree fertile. The quality, viability and concentration of sperm may vary, but that's a discussion for another time.

The production of sperm requires male hormones – predominantly Testosterone – and those hormones continue to be generated throughout our lives.

When a woman enters menopause – or has has her hormone-producing ovaries removed surgically – the levels of her hormones become out of balance. There are three big-gun hormones in female metabolism and their relative proportions are essential to her health and mental acuity. Outward signs of imbalance may include a variety of symptoms from the growth of facial hair to wild and aberrant mood swings.

Pharmaceutical firms seized upon the opportunity and leaped into the breach. Their researches suggested replacing a woman's natural hormones with industrially manufactured versions. HRT was formulated, and an insane price tag was put on this essential treatment that would make women “whole” again. Doctors all across the country (world) were treated to fancy dinners, cocktails parties, and golf weekends that are so important to their education in this new modality.

The application of HRT spread like wildfire, but even a controlled burn can have devastating unintended consequences. They fucked up a lot of women. Our women. So few actually had a clinical requirement for this drastic type of treatment that the majority suffered more from the side effects than from the initial condition. HRT has fallen into disfavor except in the most needy cases.

And now they're trying to do the same to men.

Low “T.” Their damn commercials don't have the balls – there's an irony there – to call it Low Testosterone, though they do mention that term just once... quickly... you gotta listen for it.

A digression:

I was watching television with my parents. A commercial came on promoting the use some medication for PMS. The ad went on for some time. My parents married at the end of WWII and led a traditional lower-income life, with two children. My mother was moved to comment that while she was a young housewife, raising two boys in the 1950s, she didn't have the time or resources to have PMS. Nor could any of her friends. It was unheard of. If a woman felt lousy – whether it was her period or the flu – she just toughed it out... just like so many men do when they can't miss a day's wages or cancel an important business trip just because they're hurting.

PMS is real. There are women – a relatively few women – whose hormone swings are so severe that clinical symptoms ensue; they truly suffer. But there are those women – and some men, too –   who take full advantage of every sick day they accrue from work, and wring every bit of sympathy from family and friends just because they've got a few pains. They are self indulgent. They're wusses.

Like PMS, "Low-T" is a mythical disease manufactured by Big Pharm for the purpose of selling you high-priced pharmaceuticals regardless of the many side-effects which you may suffer, including a shrinkage of the membranes around your wallet.

End of digression.

Here are the symptoms that Big Pharm wants us to believe are signs of Low “T:”

• Reduced sex drive
• Decreased energy (sitting in chair with image of golfer in the background)
• Body changes: weight gain, belly fat
• Mood changes: depression, etc.
• Sexual dysfunction

Just as Madison Avenue and corporate America are pounding you with the notion that men have to use body wash instead of soap – a personal peeve of mine that I've mentioned before – and are emasculating men in every other way possible, now they want us to think that we have hormone problems and we have to take some expensive medical treatment so we can play golf and screw like we used to.

Wake UP! You're not 25 anymore and you can't screw like you used to. As far as golf, you probably could play better than you ever did if you just got your fat ass off the couch in between rounds on the course.

Allowing for that small percentage of men – like their female counterparts – who have a real condition that can be clearly medically pinpointed – or have been castrated – there is nothing wrong with your hormones that a decent diet and some exercise can't cure.

You eat like a pig, drink like a fish, and lay around like a sloth. You're a fucking zoo all rolled into one bag of crap.

Of course, blaming the hormones is an easy way out. A trip to the doctor is a lot easier than using the gym membership you're still paying for. Blaming Low-T is far less offensive than eating a damn salad a few times a week instead of Nachos Supreme for lunch.

“I'm sick. I have a condition.” Yes, you're stricken with Wussyitis. You're a twat with testicles.

I repeat. There is nothing wrong with your hormones. Clean up your act. Work with your woman and both of you can get back some of the youth you think you've lost. It's not gone. It's just hidden under layers of self-indulgence and self-pity.

Oh – and about your erectile dysfunction, whether intermittent or perennial, that will go away, too, when you start to eat healthier and get off your freaking ass.

Just to make it a bit easier, some specifically designed, high-quality supplements may help. I'm working with a Naturopathic Doctor, and if her formulations prove helpful – and affordable – I'll be writing more about those later. So, if you're not “following” this blog, sign up and you'll get that information when it becomes available.

I've put together a cafeteria plan of actions you can take to rejuvenate and address those "symptoms" the commercials associate with a make believe disease. You can pick and choose, find a few that suit you, and implement them immediately. Your life will change.

2nd Edition updated May 2012.

HARD! Maintaining Potency, Eliminating Erectile Dysfunction, and Enjoying Healthy Sex for Life is not just for those with ED, but for all men who want to keep functioning throughout their life. This concise and powerful men’s health guide provides a protocol for how to do everything right.

Available at BN.com/Nook, Apple, and Amazon/Kindle.

Also available in all eBook formats for immediate download: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/65109.

Bicycling & ED: A bad fitting seat can do you damage

An excerpt from my book; just one of many suggestions on how to prolong your sex life:

As long as we're discussing nerves and neural connections that bring good things to life, let's talk cycling. Especially if you're an enthusiast that spends hours each week spinning over hill and dale, but even if you're just a casual weekend rider, beware the damage you may be doing to yourself due to a poorly positioned or badly fitting bicycle seat.

Your perineum is that area between your anus and your scrotum (vagina in women). Through that thin area run the dorsal artery of the penis, the deep artery of the penis and the dorsal nerve of the penis. For women, the dorsal nerve of the clitoris replaces its male analog, so advise your ladies of this issue as well.

These blood vessels and nerves can be squeezed tightly and potentially damaged when they are compressed between the bicycle seat and the pubic arch of the pelvis. As an avid rider in my younger days, I remember having my dick go completely numb due to restricted blood flow; there were fewer options in those days.

I'm back to frequent riding again; it's my primary exercise and I truly enjoy it. The first time I got back on the saddle, however, I could feel that uncomfortable pressure between my legs. But now, I had the savvy to go directly to the local bike shop, describe my discomfort and – voila – $36 dollars later, I had a comfortable seat installed and I was out the door.

The key is to use a seat that supports you on your Ischial Tuberosities – the two protruding parts of your pelvis. When cycling, you don't sit on your butt cheeks as you do when in a lounge chair. On a bicycle, your body is supported at these bones. A poorly fitting seat that is too narrow or positioned badly will slip you forward so the saddle is sliding up between your legs and supporting you at the pubic arch; this puts pressure on the arteries and nerves that go directly to the guy – to repeat – this can crush the vessels and nerves that go directly to your pecker under the entire weight of your body. Got it Lance?

Prolonged abuse can cause permanent damage to the arteries, nerves or both. This is the kind of erectile dysfunction that you really don't want to have – physical injury to the apparatus.

Read my February 2012 review of the Nexride "Noseless" bicycle seat here.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

2nd edition, updated for 2012:

HARD! Maintaining Potency, Eliminating Erectile Dysfunction, and Enjoying Healthy Sex for Life is not just for those with ED, but for all men who want to keep functioning throughout their life. A concise and powerful men’s health guide, HARD! provides a protocol for how to do everything right. 

Available at BN.com/Nook, Apple, and Amazon/Kindle.

Also available in all eBook formats for immediate download: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/65109.

Screw Heart Health

Many of the same health-wise precautions an informed man might take for the preservation of heart and circulatory health as he ages, will also help extend potency -- staving off or completely preventing the onset of erectile dysfunction.

Atherosclerosis, more generally known as hardening of the arteries, is a disease that develops slowly over time. In the absence of a thorough examination by a cardiologist, most men don't know they're in trouble until they have a heart attack or stroke. ED may be an early warning signal.

What is atherosclerosis? “Atherosclerosis is a condition in which fatty material collects along the [inside] walls of arteries. This fatty material thickens, hardens (forms calcium deposits), and may eventually block the arteries.” From: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001224/

Arteries are normally elastic. They stretch and flex and bulge out with each beat of your heart. The ability to feel your pulse is the transient expansion of the diameter of the artery in response to the increased pressure as blood is pumped from your heart throughout your body.

The deposits of fatty material, and subsequent calcification, reduces the diameter of the artery, and reduces blood flow. So called “hardening” is really a result of what's actually happening. The deposits, also called plaques, stiffen the vessel, hence the term.

We all know of someone who has had cardiac by-pass surgery. The arteries of the heart itself, having become so blocked that vessels need to be taken from another part of the body – often a leg – and transplanted to go around – by-pass – the artery that no longer is able to supply blood to the heart's muscle. Some of you may have heard of people with a similar condition involving the carotid arteries which supply blood to the brain. Same thing; the opening within the vessels are being slowly reduced in size obstructing the flow of oxygen and nutrition to the brain.

Everyone who has made it past the age of 30 has some plaque build up in their arteries. Most westerners, especially in the United States, who have past the age of 50 have a lot of blockage. Our high fat, high carbohydrate, highly synthetic diets, filled with artificial sweeteners, manufactured food dyes, and pesticide and hormone saturated animal products, clogs our arteries. In recent years, autopsies of teenagers killed it automobile accidents have revealed that plaque formation begins much earlier than medical science presumed possible; the poor condition of the arteries of these youths was linked to their bad diets.

All your arteries, not just the ones in your heart or that feed your brains, but ALL your arteries are effected in this slow degenerative process.

Take a look at this:

Surprise, surprise, dude... yes, your penis is a hydraulic device completely dependent on the flow of blood and pressure through these arteries. Cut down the blood flow, you'll lose pressure, and your erectile becomes dysfunctional.

The main artery responsible for erection actually keeps blood out when you don't need your woody. Muscles in the walls of this artery constrict, so only a little blood flows in – just enough to keep the guy alive. When you need to go to work, these muscles relax and full blood pressure is supplied to pump up the volume. Block up these arteries with plaque and crap and the muscles might relax to let the blood flow, but there's not enough opening in the vessel to allow the pressure you'd really love to have and that you have to have to love.

More... there are veins that carry blood out, of course, and these, too, have muscles. But when the arteries open up to let blood in, the veins, using the same kind of smooth venous muscles, close down the outlet to keep woody full and happy until the deed is done. When these veins become less elastic, they can't close down to trap what little pressure you're able to get to stay in. Bummer.

Atherosclerosis, hardening of the arteries, a reduction in the elasticity of arteries and veins and their occlusion – narrowing of the opening... If left to run wild with the daily consumption of high-fat, low fiber foods, this may kill you... but these habits take their toll on your dick first, so you'll wish you were dead.

More bad news: Nicotine and other by-products of smoking cause the fatty deposits circulation in your blood to become – for lack of any other term – “sticky” and promotes the formation of plaque. That's the reason smokers are in the high-risk category for heart disease and stroke.

The message of this posting: All the things you need to do to get your blood pressure and cholesterol under control – all the dietary adjustments necessary to take off a little weight – all the hype about getting some exercise – just 30 minutes at least 3 times a week – forget about heart health... Do it for your dick!

For down-to-earth advice on exactly what you should do – and it's all doable – read my book:

HARD! Maintaining Potency, Eliminating Erectile Dysfunction, and Enjoying Healthy Sex for Life is not just for those with ED, but for all men who want to keep functioning throughout their life. A concise and powerful men’s health guide, HARD! provides a protocol for how to do everything right. 

Available at BN.com/Nook, Apple, and Amazon/Kindle.

Also available in all eBook formats for immediate download: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/65109.