A
good friend of mine recently passed away from colon cancer. He was only
54. I was at his bedside the night he passed and his needless death
haunts me. I had known Kelly for almost 20 years and yet I had never
done much to encourage him to switch to a plant-based diet. Kelly’s
death caused me to take a deeper look at what is important in my own
life. As part of that self-appraisal and in memory of Kelly I decided I
want to encourage my friends and family to live long, healthy and
compassionate-filled lives. After all, I don’t want to be golfing by
myself when I am 70. Accordingly, I decided to write a monthly article
on topics that perhaps males, my friends and yours, will find
relevant to their lives. Thank you to VegansEatWhat.com for including
these articles in its monthly newsletter and on its blog.
I
must start out this first article by apologizing to my children if they
are reading this. No child should read an article on erectile
dysfunction (ED) by his or her father. But now that I am in my
mid-fifties (okay, slightly more) it seems like a relevant topic for my
first article based on all the Viagra, Cialis and Levitra commercials I
see on television- and I rarely watch TV.
You
might be asking why I titled this article “Guys, If You Have ED it
Might be Your Lucky Day.” That is because from the onset of symptoms of
erectile dysfunction to the first manifestation of coronary artery
disease (heart attack, serious arrhythmia, or sudden cardiac arrest)
there is on average only 2-5 years.
67% of men who suffer a heart attack had the onset of erectile
dysfunction about 3 years earlier. Not all men have ED as a warning—they
have a heart attack first. The lucky ones are the men who develop ED
first because they have a warning that the clock is ticking.
Approximately
45% of men in the USA over the age of 40 suffer from ED. The advent of
ED is associated with a 50-fold increase in heart attack risk in men
40-49 years old. Companies have built billion dollar businesses around
pills for erectile dysfunction. While these medications work well to
maintain erections, they only mitigate the symptoms. They do nothing for
the underlying cause. The solution is on your plate not in the form of
pills. Companies have built billion dollar businesses around pills for
erectile dysfunction. While these medications work well to maintain
erections, they only mitigate the symptoms. They do nothing for the
underlying cause. The solution is on your plate not in the form of
pills.
Coronary
artery disease and erectile dysfunction are different manifestations of
the same disease—atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is a disorder that
destroys all our arteries with inflammation, calcification and
thrombosis. It is caused by plaque from fatty foods such as meat and
dairy and gradually accumulates inside the arteries impeding blood flow.
ED often manifests itself before coronary artery disease because the
penile arteries are only half the size of the coronary arteries. The
same amount of plaque will narrow the penile arteries more significantly
than the coronary arteries. The organs connected to the smaller
arteries manifest symptoms first.
In
summary, decreased penile artery blood flow accurately predicts the
onset of coronary artery disease. The good news is that we can listen to
the warning signs and reverse the process that underlies both
atherosclerosis and ED.
A
study published in 2011 involving hundreds of men with ED showed that
dietary changes had a significantly greater effect on reversing ED than
the taking of statins. Those taking statins had a zero difference in
improvements compared to the placebo group. On the other hand, almost
50% of the men who changed to a plant-based diet regained normal sexual
function within only 2 years. Plant-based foods shown to improve
erectile dysfunction and decrease blood pressure and cholesterol are
watermelon, papaya, grapes, apples, onions, arugula, rhubarb, kale swiss
chard, spinach, beets, pistachio nuts, pine nuts, peanuts, walnuts, and
almonds. Oats, wheat germ, garlic and green teas will also improve ED.
In addition to improving ED, numerous studies by doctors such as Dean
Ornish and Caldwell Esselstyn prove with certainty that a vegan diet
will prevent and even reverse coronary artery disease.
Please
don’t eat a burger with blue cheese and then reach for the blue pill.
It is only masking a larger problem than ED. Instead, consider a
plant-based diet.
Doug E. Meier
5/1/14
Doug
is an attorney who practices in Colorado. He ate a vegetarian diet for
many years prior to changing to vegan in January, 2013.
