Keeping It Hard And Fast, Ensuring You Don’t Succumb to Alcohol Induced Impotence

Alcohol

We’ve all done it, drunk a little too much alcohol and then found out that the great night we were having turned into a disappointment because we weren’t able to perform. That’s embarrassing but not the end of the world. The occasional over-indulgence in alcohol rarely causes permanent damage, most problems occurring as a result of secondary problems such as falling over a lot and acute embarrassment the next morning.

What can cause a problem that will take more than an Alka-Seltzer to fix is persistent and heavy consumption of alcohol.

At a general level drinking too much and too often will leave you unfit. You don’t have to develop a beer belly to be unfit either, alcohol affects your body’s ability to metabolise food and can therefore leave you feeling general lethargic and susceptible to illnesses. One specific problem associated with heavy alcohol use is that your body stops being able to properly metabolise vitamin A which leads to lower sperm quality – not good if you and your partner are trying to conceive.

When it comes to the body chemistry of sex, alcohol also affects the levels of testosterone in the body leading to a lowered sex drive. Alcohol also directly inhibits sperm production by destroying the cells in your testes and eventually causing them to shrink.

Of course heavy drinkers experience shifts in mood and behaviour that can affect their relationships both in the bedroom and outside. If drinking is affecting your personality this much erectile dysfunction may be a secondary problem as the whole of your relationship may be undergoing a change for the worse. The stress and depression that the regular consumption of large amounts of alcohol will induce place pressure on the relationship and directly on the male partner. The psychological element of erectile dysfunction is incredibly important. Even if a guy is still physically capable of maintaining an erection stress of any kind, especially stress compounded by mood altering chemicals like alcohol can be disasterous.

The most direct effect that excessive alcohol consumption has on a man’s ability to gain and maintain an erection is by interfering with his nervous system. By upsetting the ability of a man’s body to control blood flow in his penis alcohol can make it incredibly difficult to attain and maintain a firm erection.

Prolonged heavy drinking can permanently affect your ability to perform so for the sake of you, your partner and your general health ask yourself if you are drinking a little too much. If you are worried about your drinking, or how other aspects of your lifestyle like diet, exercise and stress might be affecting your performance then contact your family doctor for a chat. The advice they give is often simple, practical steps to help you make small adjustments to your daily routine that can keep you healthier and make a huge difference to a problem that affects many men, for many reasons at some point during their lives.