Penile Use-It Or Lose-It News

Further evidence that we become what we do – a study by Finnish researchers shows that older men who have more sex are less likely to develop erectile dysfunction. However, we here at the skeptical Doc Gurley headquarters advise readers to keep these important caveats in mind: First, erectile dysfunction tends to occur gradually over time – that baby is not (repeat: not) an on-off toggle switch. If you’re gradually becoming a bit slower off the mark, you may already be decreasing the amount of sex you’re having. Second, by far and away, the most common causes of erectile dysfunction are diabetes, high blood pressure, and smoking – pretty much all of these can be causes of vascular/nerve compromise – especially by the time you’re 55-75 (the ages of men in this study). Many other studies already have shown that people with chronic disease tend to have (as a group) less sex. So when it comes to ED results, we may be self-selecting here for people who are both less likely to have sex (due to more severe chronic disease) and more likely to get ED (due to more severe chronic disease).

All that being said, it’s been clear for quite a long time that nerves stay vibrant when you use them – in fact, urologists for years have been recommending regular bedroom calesthenics as a way to improve erectile recovery after prostate surgery – even if the results are, at first, somewhat (ahem) compromised.

Bottom line: Heck, why not use it?

P.S. A limp cigarette would be a good anti-smoking campaign (Egypt uses one for a warning label).

Comments are closed.