Complaints & connections · borters.ch
Often an early pointer to the vessels overall — which is why looking beyond the symptom pays off.
Also known as: erectile dysfunction · impotence
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
Persistent difficulty getting or keeping an erection. Often physical (circulation/vessels, diabetes, hormones, medications) and often psychological (stress, anxiety) — usually mixed. Important: it can be an early warning sign of cardiovascular problems (the fine penile vessels react early). So take it seriously and get it checked — it is very treatable.
Erectile trouble alone usually speaks for the vessels. If fading desire, fewer morning erections and muscle loss are added, testosterone is worth a look — measured in the morning, twice.
Most testosterone is released during sleep. A single week at 5 h/night measurably lowers it — one of the strongest, cheapest levers.
Heavy resistance work (legs, back, large muscles) raises testosterone acutely and improves body composition long-term. Excess endurance can lower it.
Fat tissue converts testosterone to oestrogen via aromatase. Less visceral fat = less conversion = higher free testosterone.
PDE-5 inhibitors strengthen a signal that only arises with sexual arousal — without arousal nothing happens. They do not treat the cause: in many men a vascular change is behind it, and the erection problem is its first sign, often years before the heart.
About four in ten men from forty are affected, more with age. PDE-5 inhibitors work in about seven out of ten, need thirty to sixty minutes and sexual arousal — without it they do not work, which is often taken for failure. A fatty meal clearly delays the effect of sildenafil, not that of tadalafil. Four to eight attempts count as a sufficient test before a drug is judged ineffective.
If morning or night-time erections still occur and it works alone, that speaks for a situational share. If they are absent over months, they point more to vessels, nerves or hormones.
The arteries of the penis are narrower than those of the heart and narrow earlier. A gradual onset precedes angina by years on average — which makes this complaint a valuable occasion for a heart and circulation workup.
Less desire, tiredness, loss of muscle, low mood: that shifts the question towards testosterone and the thyroid. A milky discharge or visual disturbances point to prolactin.
Certain blood pressure drugs, water tablets, drugs for depression, the prostate drug used for hair loss, alcohol and smoking are among the most common reasons — and many of them can be swapped.
A growing curvature with a cord that can be felt and pain on erection is a picture of its own with a treatment of its own — better treatable early than later.
An important value, because the erection depends on small vessels and fine nerves. It is not rarely the first sign of a diabetes not yet recognised.
The same vessels that show up first here supply the heart later. So this value is more than a footnote.
Measured in the morning and a second time if low, together with SHBG. A shortage explains missing desire rather than a missing erection.
Belongs alongside when desire and erection fade together. Several commonly used medicines lift this value.
Both an overactive and an underactive thyroid can play a part. The value is cheap and quickly settled.
They lower the blood fats and act on the excitability of the heart muscle. Oily sea fish twice a week is the best-supported route; very high doses from capsules are not a harmless more.
Keeps the rhythm steady and lowers blood pressure. Water tablets drive it down, certain blood pressure drugs and a weak kidney drive it up — which is why it is checked under treatment.
A lack favours extra beats and at the same time keeps a potassium deficiency going. Anyone replacing only the potassium sees no success while the magnesium is missing.
Less salt lowers blood pressure measurably, and most of it is not in the salt cellar but in bread, cheese, cured meat and ready meals. With very low blood pressure the opposite applies.
A precursor of nitric oxide, the same route the well-known medicines work on. In studies at 1.5–5 g a day over 4–6 weeks improvements showed in mild forms — distinctly weaker than the medicines.
Red ginseng is best studied for this — 600–1000 mg three times daily over 8–12 weeks. The studies are small and come mostly from Korea.
The most important pointer on this page: erection products sold as “herbal” regularly contain undeclared drug substances when analysed. Together with nitrates for heart complaints that is life-threatening.
Effects on inflammation and triglycerides established; cardiovascular prevention is mixed. Watch quality and freshness.
Effective when deficient; effects on sleep and stress plausible but moderate. Too much causes loose stool.
Erection depends on vessel function. In controlled trials a Mediterranean pattern measurably improved function over 2 years — it works through the same vessels as for the heart.
Short term alcohol lowers sensitivity, long term over years testosterone production. Both hang on the amount — occasional and daily drinking are not the same.
It works on the same vessels as the medicines — and is often the first warning sign for the heart.
Where performance pressure plays a part, it works directly on the cause.
The Kidney is the functional circle of reproduction in TCM. The more important sentence is a different one: newly appeared erectile difficulty is often the first sign of vascular disease — years before the heart.
A classic strengthening remedy — and an example of why origin matters. Preparations from animal parts are poorly controlled, and some contained banned additions such as sildenafil.
Seahorse, tiger bone, rhino, pangolin: what stands in old formulas is today partly strictly protected and partly banned. Effective alternatives exist — the formula is no reason.