PIED? Don't forget exercise & nutrition.

Wow, Larry, no one responded to this??? I think this *could* be my issue as well, but I've been taking a NO (L-Arginine and L-Citrulline) supplement for about a month, and recently added Maca and Pycnogenol based on research/comments I found online and on Amazon. I had also done significant ED research that eventually led me to read comments from individuals regarding books on Amazon that referenced nofap. I'm pretty sure I had heard of nofap before but didn't know what it was all about. At any rate, I read your post with significant interest, as I have also done the same - went from a high protein diet with heavy weights and very little cardio to now doing much more cardio-heavy classes at the gym and been doing fresh squeezed juicing some and salads every day for the last few weeks or so.

To confirm, I had intentionally gained 20+ pounds via diet and gym but was just about nil on anything cardio and I think that could have contributed to my ED/PIED issues. I had more of a gut, but not bad (34 waist). Also, I had tried a cocktail of stuff, including Yohimbine, recently and that causes high heart rates and raises your blood pressure. With mild blood pressure issues I took the advice of someone saying to take 500 mg of the stuff and the bottle I had was 135 mg so I took three of them (when the bottle said take one daily). Needless to say I ended up in the ER after I almost passed out, so please be very careful with this one herb, Yohimbine. It's well known to cause blood pressure issues.

At any rate, with the recent diet/exercise changes, along with the above supplements, had sex with good erection and little diminishing hardness a little over a week ago but we were "interrupted" so I didn't get to O. I think I could have had some anxiousness to account for the diminishing problem, and I started to overthink things and get turned off. But, I think physically I'm okay at this point, so I'm looking forward to future endeavors. I'm curious what the diet changes and add'l NO supplements will do, but seems I'm on the right path. I've also read about the benefits of beet juice, but didn't know spinach/kale would help. I had fresh squeezed carrot/beet/kale/celery/bell pepper juice two days ago. Very interesting... Thanks again - hope you're still active here...

 

Solid post. Working out does wonders as does diet.

 

Okay, I hear you loud and clear. My ED may not be solved yet either, only time will tell. I know for me, when I don't MO I seem to have a tendency to have issues with PE. It gets real sensitive... Will see. That's my new fear and something else to be anxious about. Lol. And we all know anxiety is not good for wood...

My main issue when I could get an erection for sex, is that it waned. Getting an initial erection was not typically a problem. Keeping it was. This produced feelings in my SO that she wasn't turning me on, which is totally not true. She then becomes frustrated and it somehow becomes her concern, even though I'm the one with the real problem. So I've got a whole new problem to have to deal with..

Along with my intentional weight gain and restricted cardio plan, I also was on a sertraline antidepressant for several months and that's well known to cause ED too. Even after learning that and suffering from the worst ED in my life, getting off that antidepressant seemed to help immensely. But I also switched meds and added c1alis to combat frequent nighttime urination, but in the back of my head, I'd hoped it would fix my ED too. It was much better then but by that point and several failures later, my head (no, not that one...) was screwed up big time.. My anxiety was through the roof when it came time to "perform," and that combination just didn't go well together...

I wonder with you Larry if you need to go on a longer reboot without MO? Hard mode. I've read that guys that are still suffering from ED go on longer reboots and it fixed their problem eventually. Sounds like you've gone some long stints, but we're all different and we all have differing levels of addiction and/or resultant levels of impact on our brains. Or then there's stress and anxiety in our lives too. I know you probably don't want to hear that but... What do you think? For me, I have absolutely no problem with ED when I'm going solo, so I think I have more issues with desensitization and psychological problems due to failures. It doesn't appear to be a major physiological problem in my case. But make no mistake, I've definitely got a problem. So to get personal, is ED a problem all the time for you? Just trying to help...

I've also been doing PC muscle contractions/kegels within the last few weeks after hearing one guy via an audible book named "The Dating Playbook for Men: a Proven Seven Step System to go from Single to the Woman of Your Dreams" talk about it. He said in his early twenties, he had ED issues and he found that pelvic floor exercises and yoga solved his problems. He said yoga and pelvic area stretches allows blood to flow better into that region. Kegels are well known to strengthen the PC muscles that allow for a firmer erection. Why would we ignore the very thing that is critical to trapping blood to get/maintain an erection? I'm convinced that is one of the disciplines we need to incorporate into our lives along with diet, exercise, proper sleep, stress reduction, and a PMO free life!

 

Yeah I was prescribed an antidepressant when I was going through my divorce by my primary care doc but I failed to realize the extent of the "side effects." And he failed to point that out... He thought it would be a good idea, but I'm not so sure. But like you say I was also on a high protein diet and no cardio so that may have kicked both of us in the balls.. Needless to say I was more depressed when I found out I was suddenly unable to even get a 50% erection, even when fapping. I just thought I wasn't turned on when by myself, but when I couldn't get it up with hot oral sex? Wow, that gets my and attention and my girl's! The high protein diet, as I'm sure you know, may have caused thick blood or blood flow problems, i.e., cardiovascular problems, and we know that's a major contributor to ED. I also have what my doc says is hereditary high blood pressure, and I'm on high blood pressure meds too. Not sure if that's effecting things or not, as I haven't been on them long. I have a tendency to agree with your assessment on more-fruits-and-veggies approach. I was even on an ovo lacto vegetarian diet for about 10 years from 2001 to 2011. So I've never considered myself to have had cardiovascular issues. High blood pressure yes, but my blood work including cholesterol comes back good.

If also recently read comments in the search for solving ED with supplements. I had read things like L-arginine and L-citrulline are helpful, including maca root and pynogenol. Via comments on Amazon. I also tried Yohimbine but it raised my blood pressure too much, as that's a known side effect, so I dropped it. I also tried Testo Boost but that also raised my blood pressure too much. Seems my blood pressure has been staying high even with these diet/exercise changes so I'm dropping everything except the L-arginine and L-citrulline for now. Not sure it's helping but everything im doing seems to be making things better so I may drop that last supplement after a while and see how things go after I make some headway..

Dude - sex *at least* every other day? And sometimes more often??? Whoa. Life must be good! Wish I could say that! No need for any anti depressants in that scenario!!! Sweet!

So, I'm hoping to see the next time my SO is ready how sex goes. I hope to experience the no diminishing erection like you.. It sounds like we're very much on the same path in a lot of ways. For me, I'm hoping to keep full etections all the way to the end is my immediate goal. You say yours are no longer waning but are you getting a near full erection? It sounds like sex is very frequent so something must be going right! Sounds like from your comments that you're just not quite happy with things... I'm very much in the beginning stages of fixing my problem so hoping to get to where you're at. Oh yeah, including that whole sex at least every other day thing...