Most men, engaging in professional sports, wonder whether heavy exercises can cause erectile dysfunction. The answer is: hardly. Doing sports is not something that can trigger erectile frustration. In fact, regular physical drill has a beneficial effect on the overall health, including virility.
Most men, engaging in professional sport, wonder whether heavy exercises can cause erectile dysfunction. The answer is: hardly. Doing sports is not something that can trigger erectile frustration. In fact, regular physical drill has a beneficial effect on the overall health, including virility. Athletes who do not skip training and exercise routinely have a healthier blood circulation – the factor that determines an ability of a man to “get horny” and maintain the erection, as is specified by leading pharmacists of My Border pharmacy center, Dr. Mel Belraus.
Surely, the professional sports involve certain health risks, and some activities that an athlete gets into might contribute to sexual impotence. It is not only physical injuries that may cause an instant damage and sabotage sexual vigor, but also a number of other factors which may gradually harm the health as the years go by.
How Can Sports Compromise Sexual Function? A Few Examples
Bodybuilding is the first example to come to mind when speaking about professional sports and sexual impotence as its undesired consequence. In a broad manner, bodybuilding itself is not the reason for erectile dysfunction, because such a sport does require regular workouts, healthy eating, and quitting bad habits. However, we are used to thinking that bodybuilders are one and all impotent. How comes it? The matter is that many professional bodybuilders (and powerlifters alike) take special substances like androgenic drugs to obtain lean muscle mass and ditch subcutaneous fat layer. When overused or used improperly, hormonal supplements can trigger a hormonal imbalance in the body, which, in its turn, may lead to potency problems.
Honestly speaking, testosterone is a very tricky hormone. Many men, devoting themselves to top-class sports, take so-called testosterone boosters to enjoy higher professional achievements. As long as an athlete continues to use such supplements, they can perform at their best in the playfield (as well as become a beast in the bed). At the same time, the endocrine system will try to deal with an excess concentration of testosterone and tend to decrease the natural release of this hormone in the body. When a sportsman decides to stop taking a testosterone booster, his own organism will continue to produce less testosterone because it has already adapted to this. And this may take quite a long while to teach the body to produce sufficient testosterone again. During these periods, an athlete may experience all symptoms of erectile dysfunction: a difficulty with gaining and sustaining a full erection, low sexual desire, and premature ejaculation.
Another example revolves around pro-athletes on the whole. Often, the mind and body of a professional sportsman are exposed to severe stresses and emotional pressures. You know, one of the origins of erectile dysfunction is psychological, and stress is one of the most frequent psychological factors to blame. How is it possible that stress can hamper a sound erection? The truth is that stress inhibits testosterone in the male body. Cortisol (stress hormone) and testosterone (masculinity hormone) work against each other. Cortisol reduces the testosterone levels, evoking many unpleasant events (such as low libido, depression, fatigue) including flaccid erections.
Competitive sports (especially contact ones) are highly dangerous for a man’s sexual power. Impossible without physical traumas, contact sports bear more risk than any other. Groins, pelvic and lower abdominal zones are especially vulnerable, because injuries to them are fraught with serious erectile complications.
Can Viagra Help Athletes?
So, professional athletes may develop erectile dysfunction, too, because of injuries or the misuse of certain drugs, and the healthy lifestyle and well-balanced diet are not a guarantee against it. But can Viagra help athletes? Surely, it can, provided the man takes it for a personal use and does not have preexisting conditions, under which the use of Sildenafil Citrate (the wondrous component of Viagra) is contraindicated.
The performance-enhancing effect of Viagra is well-documented, but there are also suggestions that the drug can give sportsmen an edge over rivals in the sporting arena. Viagra can relax blood vessel walls, improving blood flow and, thus, allowing more oxygen to move to the cells, what eventually increases physical endurance.
Since not being included into WADA list of banned substances, Viagra can be safely taken by pro athletes, suffering from ED and conscious about their reputation (and career).
Still, an athlete should understand that the medication has several side-effects, and taking it just to boost professional performance without having an established medical need is not a good idea, says the consulting pharmacist, Dr. Mel Belraus.