Can berries, citrus help prevent impotence?
According to a recent article in the Chicago Tribune, “Foods rich in these flavonoids are associated with reduced risk of erectile dysfunction, researchers reported Jan. 13 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition”.
The study involved more than 25,000 middle-aged and older men who have filled out regular health surveys since 1986.
Eating a flavonoid-rich diet may be as good for erectile function as briskly walking for two to five hours a week, researchers from Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the University of East Anglia in England reported.
Flavonoids are various compounds found naturally in many fruits and vegetables. They’re also in plant products like wine, tea, and chocolate.
What do flavonoids do?
Flavonoids help regulate cellular activity and fight off free radicals that cause oxidative stress on your body. In simpler terms, they help your body function more efficiently while protecting it against everyday toxins and stressors.
Flavonoids are also powerful antioxidant agents. Antioxidants help your body fight off potentially harmful molecules that can be introduced to the body. Your body produces antioxidants naturally, but they’re also found in dark chocolate, legumes, and many fruits and vegetables.
Inflammation is one of your body’s immune responses. Allergens, germs, toxins, and other irritants can trigger inflammation that results in uncomfortable symptoms. Flavonoids may help your body dismiss that inflammatory reaction so that those symptoms are reduced.
Flavonoids give fruits and vegetables their vibrant colors. The study found that three specific flavonoids — anthocyanins, flavanones, and flavones — offered the greatest benefits in preventing erectile dysfunction.
Anthocyanins are generally found in blueberries, cherries, blackberries, radishes, and red wine. Flavanones and flavones are found in citrus fruits.
“Men who regularly consumed foods high in these flavonoids were 10 percent less likely to suffer erectile dysfunction,” lead researcher Aedin Cassidy, a professor of nutrition at the University of East Anglia, said in a university media release. “In terms of quantities, we’re talking just a few portions a week.”
So men, after dinner to get a boost in the bedroom, eat berries. It turns out that berries are full of flavonoids and other great chemicals that help prevent erectile dysfunction or improve erections.
And berries are not unique. All of these great ingredients in fruits and vegetables, and particularly berries which are really concentrated, help promote the health of your blood vessels of your heart. Urologists always talk about the importance of the heart in that it pumps blood to the penis. Yes, if your penis isn’t getting the blood pumped to it adequately you won’t get an adequate erection, and that could be an early sign of heart disease.
So if you want to lower your risk of heart disease and improve your performance in the bedroom, eat healthily.
But know that the blue the little blueberry is not gonna work like a little blue pill. You can’t just eat a bunch of blueberries and an hour later expect to find your thrills on Blueberry Hill.
Start early and get into the habit of eating healthy, combined with exercise, and your lifestyle stress reduction. The earlier you do it the longer you’re gonna run that race. If you wait to start your healthy regimen at age seventy or eighty, well it’s good for you but it’s not gonna undo decades of damage.
If you have erectile dysfunction, the little blue pill is for thirty minutes later. The little blueberry is for thirty years later.
