DO you arrive before the journey begins? Have you been forced to become a prayer warrior in your home because you’d much rather pretend to be interceding rather than to turn your wife’s world upside down? It seems erectile dysfunction is increasingly becoming common. In fact, I have observed that some enterprising young men along most busy roads in Lusaka are now stocking Congo dust and other ‘solutions’. Once there’s a traffic jam, they come and display their merchandise, promising that for sure, you will be able to make her see fireworks and rainbows tonight. So, as I was doing chimpwena on Twitter last week, I came across an interesting space on this subject matter, which I couldn’t help but share.
Titled Erection, Erectile Dysfunction and Erectile Stamina, the Twitter Space was hosted by Kenyan reproductive medical specialist Eric Amunga, popularly known as Amerix. He offered a holistic approach to “resurrecting the lions”, speaking against Viagra and other quick fix solutions. He demonstrated how most mouth washes which we buy in the super markets could be hindering men’s ability to erect and prescribed several pelvic floor exercises as well as dietary patterns which can help you achieve your sexual goals.
For starters, he identified three levels of erectile dysfunction.
“The first one cannot erect completely, so that means there’s no stimulation or trigger to release the neurotransmitters from the brain to erect. The second one erects but fails at penetration. So that means there’s blood that goes into the penis, an erection is created but the blood is easily released and the erection becomes flaccid. The third one, they can erect, they can penetrate, but they cannot maintain an erection for more than a minute or two. So, that means there’s good stimulation, there’s blood rushing there but they are unable to withhold the pressure of blood in the penis possibly because their penile muscles are weak or they have lost focus or they have a weak whole muscle architecture,” he said.
If you are an ardent reader of this page, then by now you know that if there’s something you need to control in your body, it is insulin. Once you have chronically high levels of insulin, it causes a plethora of issues, one of which is erectile dysfunction – but there are other causes too.
“The causes are vessel related. Possibly, your blood vessels have been affected or something. Hypertension, diabetes, calcification, you take a lot of calcium supplements so your blood vessels are calcified. The other one could be because of your neurons, your nerves are in a mess, maybe they are inflamed because of chronic inflammation in the body. It could be because of anatomical problems in the penis, maybe you have a micro penis, maybe your testes are undescended or maybe surgery was done on you, any surgery around the pelvic area, and it affected your ability to maintain an erection. The other thing can be hormonal, maybe you have low testosterone, that is the most common or you have insulenemia…lack of sexual trigger…you are not interested in sex or you have a problem with sexual intimacy with a woman,” he said.
“And if you cannot erect, the problem is deeper, it can’t be the penis only. Maybe you masturbate, you watch pornography, you see, when you masturbate and watch pornography, you are telling your brain, this is the only way I get sexual gratification. So, when you have a woman, the moment you penetrate, the brain tells you, ‘boss! Boss! That is not the way we do it, we are not used to this one’. So, masturbation and pornography has rewired your brain circuits, it is upside down so you cannot have sex with your woman normally…so others just get in and ejaculate and then they say ‘today I was just not in the mood’. You have messed your circuits in the brain. No matter how many Viagras you swallow, you will not sustain an erection. So, you can see that an erection is a whole process, it is not just what happens when your penis is hard.”
Amerix suggested doing some introspection in order to identify the root cause of one’s erectile dysfunction and then resolving it.
“If you have erectile dysfunction at whatever level, please go and understand which part of the process is in a mess. Is it the spiritual domain? Is it the soul domain? And in the soul, we said we have the subconscious layer that has the information that you have been uploading, watching pornography, masturbating…that information is in your subconscious, it is blocking the flow of information from the spiritual domain to your penis. So go and understand, it is you who understands yourself better than Amerix, go and sit down alone in your house and ask yourself, which part of this process is the problem, then go and fix it. The first place to fix it is your diet, if you are fat, lose weight, go and build your core muscles, if you don’t fast, go and fast. A man must fast, it is mandatory because fasting connects you with your masculine self, it helps you to see things that others can’t see. You know there’s sight and then there is vision, most men have sight but few have vision,” he said.
“That unnecessary fat is hindering you from achieving your sexual potential, lose that weight and even as you lose that weight, you must have a very strong musculature, especially in your core area. Have a powerful core, this will support you to maintain an erection. Do some pelvic floor exercises. Those pelvic floor muscles support the acceleration of the pressure or the hydraulics of erection so if they are weak, definitely, you cannot support an erection so you have to lose that weight and maintain a very strong core. The easiest exercise you can do even in your bathroom is the kegel exercise every morning and every evening. We also have the stronger ones like doing the squats, pelvic thrusts, hip bridges, hip thrusts, Jefferson squats, those will support your core and pelvic floor muscles when you are having sex.”
I also learnt that mouthwash could also be affecting people’s erections and that cholesterol was necessary for the production of testosterone.
“There’s something called nitric oxide. I mentioned that the penis is one big artery so these arteries, the dilatations and potency of the arteries is maintained by something called nitric oxide. One of the things that hinder the synthesis of the nitric oxide is the mouth wash, I know you didn’t know this, these mouth washes that we buy from the super markets. The nitric acid supports the potency of an erection the way it supports the potency of arteries when they undergo dilatation and pushing blood through them. Nitric acid also supports the erection of the penis. We mentioned that the first thing is dilatation of the arteries by increased blood flow then this blood is trapped inside the sinusoids and these sinusoids are compressed and then when they are compressed, there’s reduced outflow of blood. The thing that supports all this is nitric oxide and nitric oxide, diet will improve the synthesis of your nitric oxide,” Amerix said.
“Then testosterone, it is a hormone that supports male characteristics both primary and secondary and it also supports erection. Testosterone is built from cholesterol so anyone who tells you cholesterol is bad, tell them no, because cholesterol is the mother of testosterone. So when you are blocking cholesterol, you are blocking testosterone. That’s why people who are on these drugs that block cholesterol have no testosterone, no muscle mass, they have dementia, they have a lot of problems. So, you must support the synthesis and production of testosterone by eating your cholesterol; meat, eggs, animal fats, they will give you cholesterol which will give you testosterone. And on top of this, you need to do training, resistance training because that will support your muscles to grow and when muscles grow, testosterone is maintained.”
He insisted that taking Viagra and other sex boosters was not the solution because you would keep increasing the dosage until the sleeping dogs stopped waking up.
“So instead of rushing to swallow those medicines, have you fixed the process? How is your soul? Is it dirty? Do you fast? Fasting is good, apart from supporting your metabolic health, it also helps you cleanse and purify your spiritual domain. Eating all the time is taking away yourself from yourself because the body is busy digesting food all the time but when will the body be by itself if you are always filling it with food? The body also needs to rest, sleeping alone is not enough, you have to fast. Last week, we went for 72 hours, connecting with your inner self, looking at your mistakes as a human being because all of us have mistakes in life. Looking at areas you have messed and then correcting those areas. Before you swallow Viagra, before you get honey and smear on your penis, before you buy those gels, how clean is your spirit? How is your soul? Are you masturbating? Then stop masturbating. Are you addicted to pornography? Stop it! Start healing. Swallowing these medicines comes at a price, they have very weird side effects, they will destroy you. Nature didn’t create us to be on medicines. If something in you is not working, then something is wrong and medicines cannot cure that. It is you. You have the potential and the power to heal,” said Amerix.
