Today we return to the fitness- and bodybuilding website T-Nation who once again tackled the subject of erections. Last time, it was TC Luoma who shilled for the supplement market with pseudo-science nonsense and fell flat, literally.
This time it’s the “Chief Content Officer” Chris Shugart, which means that he is responsible for the brand development, so I guess the topic of erections fits their business model. Anyhow, let’s see what he has to say this time, and if he actually gets something right, or if he, like Luoma, comes out limp-dicked.
Shugart begins his article with mentioning Viagra, and that everything seemed fine before it hit the market in 1998, However, according to the trustworthy (sarcasm) Big Pharma, Viagra banked 20 billion dollars in the following years, telling us that there apparently was a problem.
Well, “20 billion” or not, considering that humans have been heavily brainwashed since World War I about inverted and unhealthy nutritional advice, as in consuming grains and seed oils, it’s no surprise that a lot of men experience erectile dysfunction from hormonal changes caused by malnutrition and toxicity – and that goes for women as well.
Now, Shugart used a recent study as the foundation for his article, so we’ll let him summarize it for you.
The Erectile Fibroblast Study
“The more frequently you get erections, the easier it is to keep getting them. But the opposite is also true: fewer erections decrease the future ability of your brave soldier to stand at attention.
This was a mouse study, but that’s fine in this case because the research centered on fibroblasts (connective tissue cells) and they’re the most abundant cells in the penises of mice and men.
It turns out that fibroblasts take up the neurotransmitter noradrenaline. That causes blood vessels to widen and pump blood in the right direction. This process works smoothly if you have plenty of fibroblasts. And the more erections you get, the more fibroblasts you have.
The senior researcher said it’s a lot like working out. The more you run, the easier it is to breathe while running. “If you exert yourself a lot, your body adapts,” he said, probably while winking.”
Well, research on “cells” are wonky at best, as we don’t even know how a fully working “cell” looks like and it has to be done on separated tissue samples in an isolated container that can be watched via a microscope. However, the “if you don’t use it, you lose it” context is still quite logical. Your body will always adapt to the circumstances, kind of like the analogy used in his quote.
If you get aroused/stimulated often, the tissue will adapt to the continuous increased blood flow.
What About Women?
“Lady parts also contain fibroblasts, and lady sexy-time is all about blood flow too, only with the obvious anatomical differences. So, we can assume the same general idea (getting excited often) also increases or maintains the number of fibroblasts “down there”.”
At least that assumption is quite logical, so I agree.
With that said, after this meager introduction, Shugart jumped right into shilling for the bogus pseudo-scientific supplement market, which had absolutely nothing to do with the study whatsoever.
Four Supplements of Wishful Thinking
Before stumbling into the bogus supplements, Shugart sets the stage for luring the reader into finding shortcut solutions, as in buying their supplements, making them a ton of money.
“Erection problems are caused by a variety of issues, both physical and psychological. An unfit guy with underlying health conditions may have problems, but so can a fit guy who’s stressed and anxious, or even overtrained.”
Kind of true. If you’re extremely stressed, as in an overtaxed nervous system, it can be more difficult to get a really hard erection, or at least keeping it for longer period of times. With that said, it’s mostly because you’re so worried and tired that you are somewhat sexually and emotionally detached, you’re simply not as interested in sex when you feel everything is crumbling around you and you have no energy at all.
So, the main reason is always hormonal, and while extreme stress can make your testosterone tank a bit, the real problem is your nutrition and toxic load.
I covered this in many, many, articles, so check my nutrition quick-start archive for more information on what humans should eat (humans are obligate hyper carnivores and without animal protein and especially animal fats, as in saturated fat and cholesterol, your hormones will be totally out of whack.)
“The knee-jerk response might be, “Gee, I guess I should watch more porn!” However, according to a few studies, excessive consumption may cause erectile dysfunction in some men for various reasons. So, that’s tricky.”
People need to separate sexual stimulation from ejaculation, which has nothing to do with “finishing the act.” You can have sex, or masturbate, without ejaculating. You can even have orgasms without ejaculating. It’s the ejaculating part that will drain you of energy if it happens too often. Still, a healthy man should ejaculate at least once a month or every other month, all while having sex and being stimulated as often as possible. Sex is about stimulus, pleasure, and pleasing and enjoying each other, not about ejaculating, which takes us to the false programming of porn where ‘ejaculation’ is always the “finisher.”
So, as for porn, it’s completely agenda-driven trash. It’s programming, conditioning, and desensitization. If you’re single, use your imagination instead.
“A better idea is to make sure the underlying engine is firing on all cylinders. This involves all the usual stuff, most of it revolving around not being fat, not smoking, staying mentally and physically fit, and avoiding the use of antidepressants (SSRIs and SNRIs, particularly). But you know all that.”
Actually being “fat” has nothing to do with it; it’s what caused you to become fat that is the problem — as in the wrong food choices and high toxicity. It’s those food choices and that toxicity that wrecked your hormones and caused erectile dysfunction, not the weight gain itself. This is important to separate and understand, as we always need to look at the real underlying problems. You can lose that excessive body fat and still perform poorly if you continue to consume carbohydrates, vegetable/seed oils, and expose yourself to a lot of toxins.
Same with smoking. It’s toxic, but only one of many toxic stressors. It’s the total amount of toxicity in comparison to what you body can handle that determines if your health suffers or not. Smoking can contribute, but it’s not a single factor. However, a lot of smokers also consume shitty foods and live slave-like lives as most of the dumbed-down masses, so of course, they will be highly represented in the statistics. But hopefully you, the reader, understand that we need to look at the causes of hormonal changes, as in all the toxic variables and the influence of nutrient deficiencies due to bad quality food choices.
“The idea of losing our ability to perform in the bedroom is scary. For peace of mind, invest in some “erection insurance.” These are health supplements that ensure long-term functioning on several fronts.”
And there we go, the easy way out, the sales pitch finished. Unfortunately, supplements will do absolutely nothing. They are toxic. They simply suppress some symptoms by stopping the healing process, or they increase something due to the body trying to neutralize the poison, which might seem as a temporary benefit, but it’s from your body taking damage, and that in never a good thing! We covered these shitty and dangerous supplements in Luoma’s garbage article.
What you need is as simple as consuming food that are species-appropriate, foods that are specific for our human physiology, and these foods are all animal-based. By doing this, you will give your body all it needs to correct your hormone production and imbalances, all the nutrients needed to detox. And if you want to speed-up the process, all you need to do is some fasting once you have been eating correctly for a few weeks and made sure that any nutrient deficiencies have been corrected. And guess what? Fasting costs nothing! It actually saves you some money! Same with most animal-based foods, as your will never touch any other garbage ever again. It’s cheaper and healthier. Imagine that!
The only supplement Shugart mention that has a little bit of validity is “fish oil.” Unfortunately, most oil-based supplements (as in unsaturated fatty acids) are rancid, producing a lot of toxic aldehydes. So, while “omega-3” is beneficial, it should only come from natural food sources such as grass-fed animal meat and fatty fish. Omega-3 does not exist in plants or in toxic nuts and seeds. And “ALA” is totally worthless to humans, do not get fooled.
So, again, if you follow our species-appropriate diet, you should never experience anything even close to erectile dysfunction. I always get the exact opposite reports. Every client I’ve helped has reported a greatly improved confidence, calmness, sexual life and sexual performance after switching their diet to what is our natural way of eating. Even when extremely stressed, a man or woman following our natural human diet will never have such problems, as we are extremely resilient when fully nourished.