Morning Erections - Gotta Have Em!
Few things are morning important to your penile health than those morning
erections. Why? Oxygenation. Oxygenation. Oxygenation.
I get emails all the time from men that have lost their morning erections for
months or even years. This is a tragic situation, because morning
erections, through oxygenation, help maintain healthy erectile tissues. Without
that oxygenation, researchers have noted that "fibrosis" sets in, which means a
hardening and aging of the structures. [1]
This is why I insist that men, if they no longer have morning erections, must
somehow, someway make sure they get several erections during the day. By the
way, this is one of the reasons that sex is so good for males: it
literally helps to maintain their sex life. "Use it or lose it" as they
say.
NOTE:
Morning erections, or the lack thereof, can be a good way to distinguish if you
have psychological (or psychogenic) erectile dysfunction. The idea is that
if you can achieve an erection by any means, nightime or otherwise, then your
issue is probably not physical (organic). In fact, this has been used by
diagnosticians for literally decades as an excellent tool. [4] In fact, one
study noted that "the single best predictor was the presence or absence of early
morning erections as reported by the patient." [5] (Now my opinion, and I cannot
back this up with a study, is that this might be confounded by depression and
other mood disorders. Perhaps depression can suppress morning erections before
an underlying testosterone or nitric oxide issue has developed.)
So what causes morning erections? They seem quite mysterious in many ways
and even "automatic" and "random" at times, i.e. they occur even without an
erotic or sexual dream involved. However, researchers have noted many lines of
evidence and studies that show morning erections are primarily androgen-dependent, i.e. they
are regulated by testosterone and DHT. [3]
In My Book on Testosterone I point out that several studies have shown that when testosterone
falls far enough, you are likely going to lose and/or greatly diminish the number of
your morning erections. That doesn't necessarily mean that you won't still be
able to "get it up" during the day, however. The reason is that a normal
erection is achieved through a different pathway involving the senses of touch,
sound and sight. However, if you allow your testosterone to remain at low enough
levels for a long enough period of time, you are opening the door
to Venous
Leakage and other erectile difficulties.
CAUTION: Some men think that DHT (dihydrotesteosterone) doesn't
really matter and just causes hair loss. However, DHT is an incredibly
important androgen and has been shown to be partially responsible for morning
erections. [2] Before you take any DHT-blocker, be it Saw Palmetto or a drug,
read this link on
Propecia Risks.
Morning erections are not just dependent on DHT and testosterone, however, and the
evidence points to the critical role of nitric oxide as well. Nitric oxide
within the corpus cavernosum, the "erection cavity" within the penis is what
dilates the penile arteries and causes the morning erections.
And that leads to this important question:
"What can one do to get his morning erections back?"
Below we give you few ideas:
1. Testosterone. This may seem obvious, but many men don't make the
connection: you have got to have adequate testosterone levels in order to
fire
2. Nitric Oxide. Many men notice that when they begin to take one
of the PDE5 Inhibitors (Viagra, Cialis or Levitra), their morning erections
improve. I have also received letters from many men who have noticed the same
thing after taking various
Erectile Supplements - maybe
even an Erectile Supplement Cocktail
- or
increasing their exercise.
The reason, of course, is that all of these usually increase arterial nitric oxide
levels, including those in the penis, and this will in turn help with morning
erections.
3. Sleep. The importance of sleep to morning erections is often
ignored. Nocturnal erections occur during REM sleep and some men with
erectile struggles report that they seem to be able to achieve nocturnal
erections if they sleep long and thus get that last all-important REM cycle.
4. Sitting. One reader has a novel approach, where he sat slightly
erect, and found that his morning erections re-commenced. See this link on
A Novel Approach to Morning Erections for an example.
REFERENCES:
1)
The Journal of Sexual Medicine, Nov 2005, 2(6):771–784, "Testosterone and
Sleep-Related Erections: An Overview"
2) The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Apr 1 2002,
87(4):1467-1472, "The Effects of Transdermal Dihydrotestosterone in the Aging
Male: A Prospective, Randomized, Double Blind Study"
3) Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 1983, 9(1), "Serum testosterone and
prolactin levels in erectile dysfunction"
4) Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 1975, 1(4), "The assessment of nocturnal REM
erection in the differential diagnosis of sexual impotence"
5) ARCHIVES OF SEXUAL BEHAVIOR, 1987, 16(2):125-137, "Use of sexual history to
differentiate organic from psychogenic impotence"
