Did you know that your gut can affect your sex life? Here are 5 ways

Your gut and sex life are closely connected. This means that having digestive problems can have an impact on your sexual health. Read on to learn more.

Aayushi Gupta Updated: 1 Sep 2022, 19:35 pm IST

This article is a repost which originally appeared on healthshots

Edited for content. The opinions expressed in this article may not reflect the opinions of this site’s editors, staff or members.

Do digestive problems affect your ability to engage in sexual activity? If so, you’re not alone in this. Many people who have digestive problems also have discomfort during sex. This is merely a piece of knowledge regarding the link between sexual and digestive health. There are many ways in which gut and sex life are connected.

HealthShots spoke to Dr Sanjay Kumavat, Consultant Psychiatrist and Sexologist, Fortis Hospital, Mulund, to find out how gut health and sex life are interlinked.

What’s the link between gut health and sex life?

Most of us have watched the movie ‘Piku’, in which the character played by actor Amitabh Bachchan has a preoccupation with his bowel movements. Well, in this context, we aim to understand the “feel good” feeling that a person experiences during both bowel evacuations and while eating food when hungry. Well, this feel-good phenomenon occurs because of the hormone serotonin that’s released following both gut acts. Dr Kumavat says, “The serotonin hormone is a ‘happiness hormone’ of the body and is present in the entire gut. This establishes that gut health relates to sexual health as its activity of happy mood also positively affects our libido.”

Can gut health issues affect sex life?

A healthy gut has an adequate secretion of serotonin. However, gut health depends upon the microbial flora, which helps in the secretion of serotonin. “Any inflammation of the gut disturbs the serotonin secretion and, thereby, the libido,” says Dr Kumavat. All the symptoms related to the gut can adversely affect a person’s physical, emotional, and sexual life.

Ahead are 5 ways in which gut health affects your sex life:

1. Indigestion can lead to discomfort

According to Dr Kumavat, “If you’ve eaten a lot of food or are experiencing indigestion, the pain and discomfort can impact your sex life.” In fact, having irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which causes constipation, diarrhoea, stomach cramps, and bloating, can make having sex painful and add emotional stress to the act of sexual activity. Additionally, having sex can make some people experience symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), such as heartburn and acid reflux, which can also make sex uncomfortable.

2. Indigestion can decrease serotonin levels

Serotonin is a neurotransmitter, or chemical messenger, that works in the brain to regulate and stabilise mood. The person feels less anxious and depressed thanks to this chemical, which makes sex more enjoyable. The serotonin system can be altered by irritable bowel syndrome, functional dyspepsia, nausea, and vomiting, which makes it harder to experience sexual pleasure.

3. You may develop UTI

Urinary tract infections (UTI) are quite common in people with digestive issues. Indigestion can promote bacterial growth that causes vaginal infection and, in severe cases, it can even lead to kidney issues if left untreated . Additionally, if you already have a UTI, you are more likely to develop digestive problems that could have an impact on your abdomen, particularly your lower abdomen. You might feel a lot of pressure and agony during sex because of everything.

4. Gut microbiota can affect erectile function

Microbiologist Susan Erdman’s research suggests that a key component of sex may be the gut microbiota. According to Dr Kumavat, “The gut microbiota can control hormone levels, inflammatory mediators, and other aspects of male erectile function.” Due to this, preserving the proper balance of these bacteria is essential for sexual, mental, and physical health.

5. Gut issues can cause stress

“Stress concerning gastrointestinal issues may take the fun out of the most intimate scenarios and even impede attempts to conceive a child. Instead of producing serotonin, the body will feel stressed, secreting cortisol,” says Dr Kumavat.

Now you know that your gut health is crucial for your sex life. So try to keep digestive issues at bay by eating healthy and adding probiotics to your daily routine because it can help alleviate the physical symptoms of the gut, thereby improving mood and libido.

 

 

More than human: What is biohacking?

FROM OUR ARCHIVES: More Than Human?

By Emma Dollery 06 May 2022

From age-old practices like meditating and fasting, to cutting-edge genetic engineering software like CRISPR, and Elon Musk’s brain-machine interfaces, Neuralink. What is biohacking?

This article is a repost which originally appeared on DAILY MAVERICK

Edited for content. The opinions expressed in this article may not reflect the opinions of this site’s editors, staff or members.

Our Takeaways:

· Biohacking can best be described as optimizing physical and mental function

· “Biohacking celebrities” are known for taking the concept to extremes

· Actions as simple as controlled breathing can have profound effects on the body and mind

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey does it (he only eats once a day and never on a weekend); so does Elon Musk (he’s developing a microchip that can be inserted straight into the brain); and even the half-naked guy shivering in the frigid tide-pool at 7am – biohacking.

In its most rudimentary form, the practice of biohacking can be described as doing things that optimise your body and mind’s function. Essentially, having a regular sleeping schedule or cutting out sugar could be considered a biohack (though most of us would just call that healthy living). American entrepreneur and founder of Bulletproof nootropics Dave Asprey who has been boisterously claiming that he is the “father of biohacking”, provides a second definition: biohacking is “the art and science of becoming superhuman”.

In fact, “biohacking” personalities like Asprey, Josiah Zayner, Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey are doing all that they can to transcend what we have come to think of as “regular” humanness. Often claiming to be at the forefront of life-hacking technology and theory, they are constantly experimenting with the human body in attempts to make it stronger, faster, smarter, younger, more efficient. Some of their fellow biohackers around the world – painstakingly track every bodily consumption and function in order to reach optimum performance, or implant chips into their hands for maximum technological efficiency, or engage in the vampire-like practice of replacing one’s blood with that of young donors in an attempt to find the fountain of youth.

There is a reason these biohacking celebs have become people of intrigue: they often take things to the extreme, further than most of us would be comfortable. And indeed, using science and technology as a sort of shortcut to enhancing your body and mind, as well as potentially increasing your lifespan, is arguably appealing to most people.

But luckily there are also ways to biohack that don’t involve endless hours of tracking, calculating and inserting foreign objects into your body, methods much closer to the realm of comfortable that are purported to actually help with things like boosting the metabolism, the immune system and concentration without going all the way cyborg.

All the way to extreme wellness

Remember the guy, semi-naked, frigid in the tidepool at 7am? This practice, a combination of cold therapy (diving into very cold water), dynamic stretching and breathing techniques is part of the Wim Hof method, which is said to help you “realise your full potential”.

As per the many deep breathing, scantily clad bodies on the beaches and in the tide pools early in the morning, the method is seemingly popular in Cape Town (perhaps because of the accessible ice water that is the ocean) and is thought to do a wealth of awesome things, including burn fat, reduce stress and boost the immune system.

The Wim Hof method is named after its founder, a self-proclaimed “crazy Dutchman” from the Netherlands. Also known as the “ice-man” for the varied but equally death-defying feats he has accomplished in exceedingly cold climates, including (but not limited to) climbing Kilimanjaro in shorts, running a half-marathon above the arctic circle barefoot, and finishing a full marathon in the Namib desert without drinking a single drop of water, Hof has made it his mission to spread his superhuman, cold-enduring abilities to those of us lesser beings who struggle to get our noodle arms out of bed in the winter.

According to Hof, all noodle arms can get out of bed and “tap into happiness, strength and health” by following his simple three-tier method. The tiers –breathing exercises, gradual exposure to cold and training of concentration and commitment – must be done in parallel with one another to feel the full effects.

The practice, usually done in the morning before breakfast, should look like some iteration of this: The first step, the breathing exercises, are surprisingly simple. They include breathing in and out purposefully (but without forcing anything) for a couple of minutes. The idea is that there is no pause between the inhale and exhale, “like a cycle” Hof explains in a tutorial video, “like a wave.” At the end of this short but intense breathing period, Hof asks you to exhale and hold your breath – the tutorial starts with holding for one minute, but the idea is to hold for as long as you feel comfortable (which will get longer and longer with practice), after which you release and start all over again.

In simplified terms, the breathing technique has been developed over time by Hof to expand the diffusion surface of your lungs, thereby increasing oxygen and decreasing carbon dioxide levels in your blood. The altered ratio of oxygen/carbon dioxide allegedly raises the PH of your blood, alkalising your body and lowering the number of acids (like lactic acids) produced by your cells that are often responsible for feelings of pain. Oxygen, while not always essential, is a pretty central aspect of energy production on a cellular level, so the heightened levels of it in your blood should – said Hof – energise your entire body.

Next, Hof recommends push-ups and yoga-based stretching. To get your body warmed up, of course, but also to flex just how much energy the breathing exercises give you.

The last physical step of the process is the cold exposure. This can take the form of an ice bath, a very cold shower, or floating around in a freezing tide pool for a significant amount of time. “Significant” here, means at least one minute when you are starting out with the method, but for as long as you can once you have been practising for a while.

It is believed that the shock that your body experiences when suddenly exposed to the cold water triggers a release of norepinephrine, which, similar to adrenaline, mobilises the brain and body into action. This represses the immune system, which decreases the number of inflammatory proteins (which cause swelling and aches and pains of all sorts) produced and catalyses the cardiovascular system to redirect blood around the body in order to warm itself up. It also supposedly causes the body to burn “browned fats” which are energy-rich fats that burn immediately for the sake of providing the body with heat and energy. If practised regularly, the physiological systems learn and become more efficient (your veins are strengthened and white blood cell count increased) and you may even become (somewhat) cold resistant. A more in-depth explanation of the biological details (how exactly the mitochondria break down the fats into energy) can be found here.

The third tier, the training of concentration and commitment, is a little less concrete. The idea is that you have to commit and concentrate while going through the steps of the Wim Hof method, but also that, through the practice of doing the method, you will strengthen your powers of concentration and commitment. A winning cycle.

Some studies, like the one published in 2018 and dubbed “‘Brain over body’ – A study on the wilful regulation of autonomic function during cold exposure”, raves about the positive effects of the Wim Hof method, especially those pertaining to a decrease in inflammation, an increase in metabolism and a strengthened immune system.

In fact an experiment was done on Hof himself in 2010 by scientists from UMC St Radboud, in which he was injected with components of E.coli that, while harmless, would make a normal person pretty sick with flu-like symptoms. Hof believed that through his method he could regulate the autonomic nervous system (the system that regulates breathing, internal organs, digestion, heartbeat and all the other things we do subconsciously) and thereby directly influence his immune system. Hof not only did not feel any symptoms from the E.coli, but also produced fewer than half of the inflammatory proteins that usual test subjects produce.

In 2014 a follow-up study titled “Voluntary activation of the sympathetic nervous system and attenuation of the innate immune response in humans”, was done to determine whether Hof was an innately superior human being who could control his own immune system, or whether other people could learn how to do it, too.

Twenty-four volunteers were involved – half of them trained with Hof beforehand and half were controls. Incredibly, the 12 that were trained in the Wim Hof method showed significantly fewer flu-like symptoms, lower body temperatures and fewer inflammatory proteins in the blood. They too had benefited from Hof’s teachings.

What would it mean to be able to control our immune systems? Imagine being capable of out-concentrating a disease! In the context of today’s Covid-riddled world, it sounds like an incredible promise.

However, the studies only proved that Hof and his trainees were able to suppress the immune system by stimulating cortisol, a stress hormone. A suppressed immune system means fewer inflammatory proteins in the blood, which means fewer symptoms. But the E.coli components injected into Hof and co were dead, they were harmless; the symptoms they should have felt because of the injection would have been the body’s reaction to a trick, a reflex. When it comes to active and harmful diseases, there is a reason our immune system flares up. These studies did not prove that Hof could by any means avoid a real illness at all.

On that note, it’s important to point out that some of the more complex alleged benefits, like fibromyalgia relief, autoimmune disease relief, COPD management, and the ever-expansive and ambiguous umbrella of “health improvements” are not well researched enough to be considered as conclusive.

In addition, as with any method or experiment on one’s body, one should be cautious about practising the method without the supervision of a medical expert or advice. In 2017, it was reported that two people had died while trying a breathing technique called “controlled hyperventilation”; they allegedly “drowned from doing these yoga relaxation exercises in the water”; the method is one promoted by Hof, although his website warns not to “practise it before or during diving, driving, swimming, taking a bath or any other environment/place where it might be dangerous to faint”.

Yet, Hof, having once been thought of as a fringe character – a freak of nature if you will, capable of unbelievable and inhuman accomplishments – is beginning to make waves in more mainstream science: from appearing in 2008, on EenVandaag, a Dutch television programme, saying, “I want to take it from circus act to scientist, my body is my laboratory”, to being part of a 2020 episode of Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Lab series.

The episode in question features the Goop ladies on a trip to Lake Tahoe, California, to do a workshop with Hof himself. After jumping into a dangerously cold body of water, Goop executive editor Kate Wolfson, twitching in her chunky knit sweater with tears in her eyes, tells Hof: “Like… I don’t mean to sound cheesy. But that was like a turning point in my life.” Her vocal fry touches Hof in a way that the ice never could.

To do the Wim Hof method safely and effectively one needs an instructor, or to buy a subscription to Hof’s video series, starting at $300 (about R4,280), for the fundamentals course.

In the realm of biohacking products, and for something a little less extreme, there are Dave Asprey’s Bulletproof products, called nootropics and known to some as “smart drugs”.

Avowing cognitive enhancement, these little nuggets of (alleged) genius come in the form of prescription drugs, like Adderall and Ritalin, as well as less-regulated alternatives. Asprey’s brand Bulletproof falls into the latter category. The brand is most famous for its coffee, a mixture of coffee beans, MCT oil and butter which the website maintains helps you feel full while increasing your focus and metabolism. Other nootropics that the site offers include supplements that aid your mood, memory, gut health, performance, immunity and sleep. With Bulletproof, the idea, as mentioned by Jenna Wortham in a New York Times article from 2015, is “that you can outsource that work. ‘That fundamental laziness, where I want everything to be easier, is part of what drives me,’ he (Asprey) told me that first day. ‘I don’t want to do more work than is necessary to do great things. I don’t see why anyone should do more work than is necessary to do great things.’”

But, as Wortham also pointed out in this article, “there are more than a few nutritionists who are dubious about Asprey’s bold claims. It’s hard not to be – there’s little research outside his own that backs them up […] We all want to live forever, and if changing one thing in our diets can do that, we can all hope. The success of the dietary-supplement industry is best explained by wish-fulfilment fantasies.” That’s not to say that other nootropics do not work, just make sure to do your due diligence before spending any significant amount of money on them.

Apart from his own products, Asprey is also an advocate for intermittent fasting, an increasingly popular diet that calls for extended periods of not eating. There are a few different ways to do it, the most popular being the 16/8 method, in which one fasts for 16 hours and has an eight-hour feeding window. Within the feeding window (usually falling between 12pm and 8pm), an intermittent faster may eat what they want. Other approaches include the Eat-Stop-Eat (a 24-hour fast two times a week), and alternate-day fasting (fast for a day, eat normally for the next, and so on.)

Intermittent fasting is reportedly highly effective in weight-loss endeavours, though it’s up for debate as to whether it is superior or similar to other calorie-restrictive diets. The reason for its alleged effectiveness has to do with metabolic switching – the idea is that after 10 to 12 hours the body depletes its glycogen (stored glucose) and starts burning ketones (energy made in the liver by breaking down fat.) Ostensibly, the presence of ketone bodies also has some influence over glucose regulation, blood pressure, heart rate and abdominal fat loss.

In 1988, a study called “Retardation of ageing and disease by dietary restriction” showed that intermittent fasting has a direct correlation to extended life span in rodents, although it is still highly debated as to whether this translates to humans. It has become clear that a number of variables, like sex, genetic composition and age, also determine whether or not intermittent fasting works for you.

Still, as mentioned before, Dorsey eats one simple meal (usually salmon or chicken) on weekdays, and on the weekend he fasts from Friday to Sunday. The man is, one could say, robotic in his discipline, but his method also raised concerns, drawing parallels with diets that can sometimes trigger more obsessive behaviours around food, such as eating disorders.

The Wim Hof method, nootropics and intermittent fasting are really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to hacking life. Some biohackers, like Asprey, believe that the first person who will live to be 1,000 years old is already alive today. The question becomes, if you lived to 1,000 years old, what would you look like?

As Mark Grief, co-founder of literary magazine N+1, aptly puts it in his book Against Everything, “the haste to live mortal life diminishes. The temptation towards perpetual preservation grows. We preserve the living corpse in an optimal state, not so we may do something with it, but for its own good feelings of eternal fitness, confidence and safety. We hoard our capital to earn interest and subsist each day on crusts of bread. But no one will inherit our good health after we’ve gone.” DM/ML

 

 

Surprising Facts About Erectile Dysfunction Or Impotence

Surprising Facts About Erectile Dysfunction Or Impotence

by George K.

This article is a repost which originally appeared on scubby

Edited for content

Erectile dysfunction, as taboo as you might assume it to be, is actually a much more prevalent and recurring disorder in the male population. That, whether of old, or of today. From https://www.numan.com/erectile-dysfunction, understand the basic facts from fiction of what ED truly is, and isn’t.

Common Erectile Dysfunction Yes’s And No’s

  1. Is Erectile Dysfunction Really Dangerous?

As it is, the answer is “no”. Erectile dysfunction is not a severe kind of ailment. In fact, most cases show that it is a very common (albeit frustrating) disorder that a majority of the male population experiences, at least once in each one’s lifetime.

To look at this through the lenses of practicality, erectile dysfunction transpires in 50 of men who are 50 years of age. 70% for those who are 60 years of age. And 80% for those who are beyond 70 years of age. It is also important to note that men as young as 25 to 40 may go through ED as well.

In the aspect of “danger” in terms of a health hazard, most erectile dysfunction cases are the contrary. They are disturbances, annoyances, to say the least, during coitus. But as long as you have been diagnosed and are declared “healthy” (i.e. clear of cardiovascular and/or nervous system diseases), then you will probably be able to trace ED back to simpler causes such as stress, lack of sleep, and the like.

  1. Is Erectile Dysfunction Permanent?

No, it is not. At least, with erectile dysfunction that is linked to environmental causes instead of to physical ailments and/or reasons rooted to ageing. ED is generally tied into how stressed or stress-free your bodily systems are.

The adrenal glands ramp up the production of cortisol whenever your central nervous system’s stress sensors are on the alert. One would think that this would revert to ramping up the reproductive system’s capacity to maintain an erection. Ironically, this isn’t so.

Instead, your body will go into a kind of slump post the cortisol-secretion. Almost immediately, in fact. Translated, it equates to a weaker prowess in achieving an erection in sexual intercourse. Cortisol narrows and tightens arteries, which is a direct impedance of blood flow towards the penile region.

Going back to the question proposed, ED will not be permanent. That is, provided you see to following-through with work-life balance, physical and mental health balance, as well as regular visits to your ED treatment medical practitioner.

  1. Is Erectile Dysfunction Treatable?

Yes. It is. This is where going for a diagnosis will be advantageous to you. As early as now (if you have gone through erectile dysfunction as of recent), you can ask your doctor about its possible causes, in parallel to your current health status.

Through a proper diagnosis, a series of bodily disorders can be ruled out, and it will be easier for your doctor to identify the major cause of ED. Afterwards, you can inquire about erectile dysfunction treatments.

Besides the medication itself which you are to partake of on a regular basis (and never beyond the recommended dosage, might we add), your doctor will provide you with a schedule and a fixed period for taking said medication.

First, for observing how your bodily systems will respond to the ED medication. And second, for observing how often and how long you may need to stay on the ED treatment.

 

A Doctor with Hard Flaccid – Updates and Advice

A Doctor with Hard Flaccid – Updates and Advice

by Romero MD

Original post: A Doctor with Hard Flaccid – Updates and Advice

Hi everyone I am 26 years old and I recently developed this mythical problem called Hard Flaccid.
I am a medical doctor. I finished medical school a few months ago, and I am currently applying for Obstetrics-Gynecology.

First, my story. I have been practicing PE, intermittently, for the past 4-5 years. Basically, only manual stretches (I am satisfied with my girth), but, like many others, I think my injury was caused by Edging and excessive Kegeling, which I have been practicing for over 10 years, for stamina training and erection quality.

And without knowing the extreme importance of Reverse Kegeling. Every time I have sex, I also do intense kegels, in order to last 60-90 minutes of penetration. I know, I know… maybe it’s a little too much… But my girlfriend and I have always liked long love sessions Almost 2 months ago, while I was having sex with my girlfriend, I started to lose my erection suddenly, after performing an intense Kegel, during a sex position that placed my penis at a downward angle (so, I did a “very weighted Kegel”).

I thought I might have torn a muscle or ligament, and we stopped at that moment. The next day, I woke up with a hyper contracted and cold penis. As it didn’t seem to be a penile fracture, nor did I have any skin lesions, hemorrhages or bruises, I decided to simply rest. Because I thought that any fellow urologist would tell me to simply do the same – to rest.

After two weeks of online research, I discovered my diagnosis – Hard Flaccid/CPPS. However, I only have/had symptoms related to the anterior/superficial pelvic floor (Ischiocavernosus and Bulbocavernosus Muscles). I don’t have pelvic pain, difficulty passing stools or other posterior/deep pelvic floor symptoms. But I have/had:

– Sudden erectile dysfunction (9-10/10 to 4/10)
– Sudden premature ejaculation (90min to 3-5min)
– Hyper contracted penis (Hard Flaccid). Which improves sitting, lying down, with Reverse Kegels and with heat; and worsens standing, with physical activity, with Kegels and with Involuntary Kegels
– Cold and soft glans (sometimes scrotum and penis too)
– Mild urinary retention
– Loss of morning and spontaneous erections
– Slight bend of the penis to the left, from the base of the shaft. (IC injury?)
– Slight downward curvature of the penis, from the middle of the penis (BC injury?)
– And a slight twist of the entire shaft, clockwise (IC injury?)

The next day, I visited the Urology Department at my hospital. I was observed by 4 urologists. As expected, none of them had ever heard of Hard Flaccid… After explaining the whole story, situation and symptoms, I was medicated with:

– Ibuprofen (anti-inflammatory), for 7 days
– Cyclobenzaprine (muscle relaxant), for 30 days
– Tamsulosin (alpha blocker, to decrease all sympathetic nervous activity, stressful or non-stressful, to the pelvic floor), for 30 days
– Total sexual abstinence (masturbation and sex), for 30 days, which I was already doing for 2 weeks.
After these 30 days, I will have an appointment with one of the best Andrologist in my country, which will be on August 27

So, after 3 weeks, I have been doing a lot of research (books, websites, forums) … And, according to my symptoms, I am almost sure that I had/have a strain of the Left IC Muscle (and maybe the Left and/or Right BC), which is, consequently, contracting the anterior/superficial pelvic floor and the penile smooth muscle (giving rise to the Hard Flaccid and the shortening of the penis, while it is erect) and, consequently, compressing the pudendal nerve, dorsal nerve and pudendal arteries, giving rise to all the other symptoms.

And that’s why REVERSE KEGELS are so important for the progressive relief of all the symptoms.

Treatments. What I have done to recover:
– Ibuprofen, Cyclobenzaprine, Tamsulosin
– Extraordinary healthy eating (Proteins, vegetables and fruits. Very important in the recovery of any injury) and supplementation (Ginkgo Biloba, Ginseng, L-Arginine, Fish Oils, Vitamins E, D, C, B complex and Zinc)
No masturbation, no sex, NO PORN. And no pictures, no Instagram girls, nothing. Just hugs and kisses from the girlfriend. (Alright… We make love, but only with my hands and mouth. I don’t let her touch my penis… I was in this hardmode for 4 weeks. In the last week, I have been trying very light Edging (5 minutes of very light massage, very soft touches, always with REVERSE KEGEL), every other day, to give a little physiotherapeutic stimulation to the tissues. But without ejaculation (to avoid the Involuntary Kegels associated with orgasm, to keep my libido high and to increase the likelihood of spontaneous erections)

– Lots of REVERSE KEGELS/Front Reverse Kegels, throughout the day.
Very light and Soft Squeezes (“massages”) of the flaccid penis, while Reverse Kegeling, to help relax tissues, throughout the day.
Belly Breath Combos, Hindi Squats and Happy Baby, along with Reverse Kegeling.
– Light external massages, on the anterior/superficial pelvic floor
– 1 hour of STRETCHING (flexibility training) every other day – Pelvic Floor, Hamstrings, Psoas, Piriformis, Quadriceps, Adductors and Abs. (All along with Reverse Kegeling and Belly Breaths). Again, hardmode – Static, Dynamic and Weighted Stretches. I’m literally training to do the front and side splits.

HEAT. Heat relaxes muscles and dilates arteries, increasing blood flow and, consequently, relieving symptoms. I wear shorts, under my pants, during the day. When I get home, I wrap my lower body in a blanket and I use a hot rice sock sometimes. And I place a big and soft pillow under my buttocks, when I am sitting in my chair.

– Sleep. A lot. (Very important in the recovery of any injury)
– I am a very active person (running and weighted calisthenics), but I stopped this type of physical activity since the day of the injury (to avoid Involuntary Kegels). However, I am doing some bodyweight Squats and Hip Thrusts (along with Reverse Kegels) before stretching. I read somewhere that gluteal and posterior chain strength is also important.

ABSOLUTELY NO STRESS (!!!). I have always been a very calm and peaceful person, in all situations of my life. But, after reading that Hard Flaccid was highly influenced by stress and anxiety, I am now completely in a “ZEN state with the Universe” Buddhist monk style.

Not only to avoid any nerve discharge from the Sympathetic Nervous System to the pelvic floor (and, consequently, Involuntary Kegeling, which prolongs the contraction of the pelvic floor muscles, which worsens the compression of nerves and arteries), but also to prevent the rise of Cortisol and Adrenaline and, consequently, the drop in testosterone levels. And (as many of you claim) this is absolutely essential.

I was a little stressed during the first week (before I knew the real diagnosis) and my penis was terrible… Hard Flaccid like a rock, with a loss of 1.5inches in BPFL. After knowing that I really have to relax completely, I immediately felt the first improvements in 3-4 days.

However, on the other hand, I am very convinced that I did a muscle strain, at least, of the Left IC. Those left curvature and left twist… Hmmm… On August 27, I will ask for an MRI. If the radiologist tells me it is normal, I will try to take the images to more doctors.

So… after almost 2 months, I have improved a lot – Now, I only have hard flaccid if I’m standing. A few times, I don’t even have it standing. It happens when I get up after doing Reverse Kegels for a few minutes (or sitting for a while in a more comfortable position) and continue to do Reverse Kegeling while I’m standing. This was impossible 1 month ago.
– The morning erections are progressively coming back
– 3 days ago, I’ve managed to have a 8-9/10 erection during the mini Edging sessions.
– However, I still have a slight bend to the left and the clockwise twist, during erection (I no longer have the downward curve), and I lost about 0.5 inches in BPEL…

1- Now, I would like to ask Pegym’s brightest minds and everyone in this group who is still recovering from Hard Flaccid, what are the most recent updates on this disease/symptom? Regarding physical treatment, exercises, medications and supplements. What am I missing? Where can I improve to speed up recovery?

2- I have been thinking about starting to do a small daily session of Kegels/Front Kegels/IC kegels… In order to give a physiotherapeutic stimulus, just like any other muscle injury. But I’m afraid it could get worse… What’s your opinion? (See post 26)

3- What do you think about adding very light and soft manual penile stretches? (along with Reverse Kegeling) I feel a lot of relief with the soft squeezes. But, in these, the applied force is perpendicular to the penis. I’m not sure if extra parallel force will be beneficial for the tissues. (See post 26)

4- Okay, the last question might be a little funny, but I think it might be relevant. I think I have an injury mostly on the left side. So, is it more advisable to rest the penis in the left groin or in the right groin? It tends to get softer on the right, but naturally falls to the left. (See post 26)

Thanks a lot for reading my story Best regards to the entire PEGym community
And thank you so much, for saving me during the past 2 months UPDATES: post 21, post 23 (stress management), post 26, post 29, post 63, post 66 (HF & Stretching)