More than 50% of men will experience erectile dysfunction (ED) at some point in their lives.

Erectile dysfunction, or impotence, is the inability to get and maintain an erection for sexual intercourse or activity.

The capability to get an erection and maintain it is primarily controlled by sexual arousal, a process that involves hormones, emotions, the brain, nerves, muscles, and blood vessels.

Many factors that contribute to this sexual dysfunction are beyond your control, like medications that can cause ED, but there are plenty that you can affect and help improve your sexual performance.

In the article below, we will discuss how to prevent erectile dysfunction.

Eat a Healthy Diet To Prevent Erectile Dysfunction

Maintaining a healthy weight is one key to preventing ED.

A diet high in foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fish and low in red and processed meats and refined grains has been shown to decrease the likelihood of ED. 

Studies have found that men who follow the Mediterranean diet or a similar diet were the least likely to experience ED. 

These diets emphasize eating vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, and fish or other sources of long-chain fatty acids (types of omega-3 fatty acids).

They also avoid red and processed meats.

Young men under 60 that follow the Mediterranean diet are 40% more likely to regain normal sexual function.

Following a healthy diet will not only help prevent serious health complications, but when you eat a heart-healthy diet, it also lowers cardiovascular risk factors, such as blood pressure, blood sugar, the risk for heart attacks, and cholesterol levels. 

These factors significantly contribute to the development of ED. 

Eating a balanced diet of fruits and vegetables can help you restore erectile function, but it isn’t the only thing you should do to help lower your risk for erectile dysfunction. 

Exercise Regularly

Being overweight or obese is one of the top causes of ED.

Being overweight leads to numerous health conditions, including type 2 diabetes, which can cause nerve damage throughout the body.

You can develop ED if your diabetes affects the nerves that supply blood to the penis.

Sedentary lifestyles are often linked to erectile dysfunction.

Walking, running, swimming, and other forms of aerobic exercise have been shown to help prevent ED and promote sexual health.

A man with a 42-inch waist is 50% more likely to struggle with ED than a man with a 32-inch waist.

Exercise helps your sexual function by keeping your heart and blood vessels healthy, your weight in check, lowering stress, and it makes you feel good.

Your training sessions don’t need to be extremely hard to provide immense health benefits.

Even a daily half-hour walk can reduce your chance of having ED.

Manage Your Blood Pressure

High blood pressure narrows your blood vessels, lessening blood flow throughout your body.

Vascular health and blood circulation are essential for achieving an erection.

If blood doesn’t flow properly to your penis, it will be hard to get an erection.

If you don’t regularly check your blood pressure, now is a good time to start, especially if you struggle with ED.

Many men have high blood pressure and do not even know it. Investing in a quality blood pressure monitor can help you keep track of your hypertension, but if you’re dealing with high blood pressure, it’s important that you speak to a health care professional.

They’ll be able to help diagnose it and may prescribe blood pressure drugs to help manage it. 

Improving impaired blood flow with blood pressure medicine can help you get back in the bedroom, but you also need to manage your stress. 

Control Stress

Stress casts a wide net over your mental health, physical health, and emotional health.

Men who experience a high amount of stress will often get anxiety, which means you’re in a flight-or-fight mode, and that can have an impact on your sexual health. 

In this state of stress, some hormones are suppressed while others are increased.

This can affect your ability to get and maintain an erection.

Chronic stress can overtake your mental and emotional health, and erections start in your mind.

That’s why, if you are struggling with ED, it’s a good idea to find ways to reduce stress.

Exercising, turning off the news, therapy, and learning relaxation techniques like deep breathing can go a long way toward reducing stress.

The effect stress has on the human body is often overlooked as one of the reasons many men can’t maintain an erection for sex. If you can curb stress, it can help you can help prevent ED.  

Check Your Testosterone

Testosterone levels often begin falling sharply around the age of 50, even in healthy men.

Every year after age 40, you can expect declines in testosterone of about 1.3%.

Having a lack of stamina, a low sex drive, moodiness, trouble making decisions, and erection issues are symptoms of testosterone deficiency. This may be a signal that you need testosterone replacement. 

Starting testosterone therapy can help improve sex drive and may help improve erectile dysfunction.

While decreases in testosterone can lead to ED, quitting smoking will help improve a wide number of health issues and help prevent ED.

Men who smoke are more likely to experience erection problems than non-smokers.

Smoking hurts your sex life because it narrows your blood vessels. Narrow blood vessels don’t allow enough blood flow to the penis for healthy erections.

To make it worse, erectile dysfunction treatment may not work as well for men who smoke.

Some recreational drugs will also have this same effect as smoking.

Excessive alcohol consumption can also cause the development of erectile dysfunction. 

You should always drink alcohol in moderation, but if you’ve been experiencing any symptoms of ED, it can only make erectile dysfunction worse.  

Quitting smoking and drinking can help prevent erectile dysfunction. 

Avoid Anabolic Steroids

Exercise is great, but taking an anabolic steroid won’t do you any favors if you are combatting ED.

These performance-enhancing drugs, often abused by athletes and bodybuilders, can shrink the testicles and inhibit your ability to make testosterone. 

As we covered above, drops in testosterone levels can cause low sex drive and may contribute to ED.

Contact The ED Specialist At Choice Men’s Health

If you are struggling with ED, remember that this is very common.

With certain lifestyle modifications like:

• Mitigating the effects of stress
• Dealing with psychological factors or seeking therapy for mental health concerns
• Increasing physical activity with moderate exercise
• Maintaining a healthy body weight
• Leading a healthy lifestyle by quitting smoking, drinking, or any recreational drugs

Following these steps can help you prevent erectile dysfunction. 

If you aren’t sure what you need to do, or if you need therapy or medication, Choice Men’s Health can help.

ED can be prevented or reversed, your sexual function can improve, and you can get back to having a healthy sex life.

If you or your partner is one of the tens of millions of men affected by ED, our ED Specialists can help you. 

If you have questions about erectile dysfunction, Choice Men’s Health is the best erectile dysfunction clinic in Atlanta that has been helping men have great sex again.

Schedule an appointment with The Best Erectile Dysfunction Clinic Today by calling (404) 400-3717 or filling out a form here.