Transcription
And on top of that, you're like holding [music] a plank in a position you're totally not used to cuz normally [music] you're just on your laptop sitting down and going like this, right?
All right, imagine this. You're a 22-year-old guy working at a restaurant. You have a big crush on one of your coworkers, but she has a boyfriend. So, you just play it cool and you know, get to know each other at work and become good work friends. Eventually, they break up. So, you're like, all right, that was my chance. You ask her out and she says yes. You go [music] on a couple dates and you guys like each other. So, you find yourselves back at your place. You're kissing, making out, things are happening, and then it's showtime. But, there's a problem. Your little man, your guy, he's on strike. And you officially have brought a wet noodle [music] to a sword fight. Can you imagine? Well, me, I don't have to cuz that was my reality the first time that I was, you know, going to hook up with my now fiance, Chloe. So, I am innately in tune with this problem. Today, we're going to be watching why more men than ever can't get hard by Aesop Science. And stick around till the end cuz I'm going to give you my opinion on what what I think is the biggest problem that he doesn't mention in this video and my resolution to it. So, let's get it popping.
Erectile dysfunction rates have increased from 5% in 1999 to 34% in 2018.
By the way, guys, did you guys just hear the story I told you? Would any other YouTuber tell you that? I think that deserves a subscribe. Doesn't it? We get real on this channel. I won't hold back. So, I think it's worth just, you know, clicking the damn button, all right? It's right there. Somewhere.
Intense part of this data is this is all for men under 40. I repeat, men under 40 are suffering from increased erectile dysfunction at rates we have never seen before. A recent study found that by 2025, this year, 322 million men are expected to have erectile dysfunction up from 152 million men in 1995.
There's nothing worse than when you're in a situation with a girl that you're really into and your body is rejecting you. It's it's it's on strike. It's
[laughter]
it's failing to do the one main thing that it's supposed to do. That's our one main purpose is recreation, right? Passing on our genes and creating offspring and it you literally can't do it if the umbrella is failing to open. You know what I mean? At least for a girl like, you know, even if you're not into it or not, you know, the juices aren't flowing, things can still happen cuz you know, by you know, geometrically like it's just it's open an open an open You know what I mean? You you know you get what I'm saying.
Another study found young men are buying boner medication like Cialis and Viagra at the highest rates we've ever seen. So, what is the reason that in general penises are softening? It's hard to wrap your head around or should I say soft to wrap your head around?
Okay.
Let's get into the science of why. Erectile dysfunction is defined as the inability to achieve or maintain a sufficient erection to engage in sexual intercourse. To be honest, getting an erection is hard. I'm not going to make any more hard jokes. It requires complex coordination between your endocrine system, your nervous system, the vasculature of your body, and your penis.
That's what I'm saying, man. Like for guys, you have to have all these things working perfectly in conjunction. Your mental stimulation with your blood flow, your blood flow with your endocrine system, and your testosterone, and and the valves that you know, fill up your schlong, right? Like it's all got to be perfectly in tune. With women, you just got to like spread your legs open. That's it. It's [laughter] not fair. It's not fair, damn it. Write a letter to your governor.
Therefore, many things can go wrong along the way. In general, there are two specific types of erectile dysfunction. Physiological ED, this can be due to damaged or aged vasculature in the penis, hormonal issues, drug-induced, etc. Or you can have psychological ED. This is the most common type for young people right now. More on that later.
That's the one I had. It's like just randomly your your stress and your cortisol that's been building up from whatever just it becomes too much and your body goes into a fight or flight mode. It activates your um central nervous system. So, you're just your body's like, "Bro, bro, bro, we don't we don't need to be worrying about this right now." And for me it was always like super random. Like I'd have like a good streak where I'd go like months upon months, no problem whatsoever. And then randomly like one night I'm just like the inflatable tube man forgot his job. You know what I'm saying?
Let's start with some fascinating reasons for physiological ED. One shocking reason is due to decreased smooth muscle growth and arterial insufficiency in the penis and gooch due to biking. A survey of 160 cyclists on a Norwegian bicycle tour found 21% had penile numbness.
That's enough to keep me off a [ __ ] bike. Tell you that much. I'll stick to my just jogging on the treadmill. I'll do the freaking elliptical if I have to. [ __ ] a bike.
2% experiencing temporary impotence. A more recent cross-sectional study found that men who ride bikes more than 3 hours per week have an increased risk of developing physiological erectile dysfunction. As someone who bikes about an hour a day, that's 7 hours a week. That's more than 3 hours a week. Um I'm a little bit worried about this information. These were small studies. I'm going to choose to live in ignorance, continue to pedal, and slam my goochie against that bike seat.
Physiological Got a gooch max, bro. Got to build up that gooch muscle fibers. So, you don't deal with that.
[laughter]
Imagine you're just like laying there on your bed with your legs open spread eagle like smashing your gooch.
[laughter]
You got to build up the calluses, man. Protect yourself from that dangerous bike seat.
Logical ED can also be caused by smoking or vaping. I found five large studies on how smoking is a risk factor for developing physiological ED. And when it comes to vaping, one reason why young men are having more erectile dysfunction, some scientists think, is due to the trend in young men vaping. This is because vaping can mess up the vasculature of your dick. Nicotine is a strong vasoconstrictor. Therefore, it can significantly reduce blood flow to the male and female genitals during sexual activity.
You know what's a good vasodilator, so the opposite of nicotine? Beets. Cuz they have L-arginine in it. Seriously. Look it up.
This may also be why young women are suffering from lower libido rates as well. For example, a survey found 32% of women aged 18 to 29 had a lack of sexual desire, 26% were unable to achieve orgasm, and 19% had trouble lubricating. Some scientists think this could be linked to the increased consumption of nicotine in younger people. And then there's the weed smoking scared. One study found a 70% prevalence of ED in those using cannabis. That's an extremely high number, also a very small study, going to choose to live in ignorance again. I'm not going to live in ignorance, this is serious information. It does show that high doses of cannabis can cause vascular erectile dysfunction because there are cannabinoid receptors in the hypothalamus of your brain, which THC binds to. But this is also a part of the brain involved in regulating erectile dysfunction. These receptors being affected during the consumption of weed may lead to a change in regulation of erections.
There's nothing good about weed to me. Like literally nothing. Every single person that I know that smokes weed on a regular basis is a massive loser. And they can't get their dick hard, so. Lesson in there.
There is a lot of research happening into cannabis and erectile dysfunction right now because again, we see young men are having ED and young men are also consuming more cannabis than ever before. Diet is also a contributor to ED. One study found that lower consumption of fruits and vegetables increase the risk of ED with some studies showing the rise in young men partaking in keto or all meat diets causing increased erectile dysfunction. In order to lower your risk of ED, one study found that consuming at least 150 g of vegetables, 300 g of fruits and 30 g of nuts per day can lead to a decrease in erectile dysfunction.
Ooh, Popeye was right. Eat your spinach, boys. Wasn't it spinach? Was it spinach that he would eat? Just like rip the can open and
[snorts]
Try to find an image. You just had to be there, bro.
A reason for this is that these foods are more likely to contain nutrients that reduce endothelial dysfunction and inflammation. Another study found that men who partake in the Mediterranean diet are more sexually active. Although there aren't really any ways to understand if this diet is exactly the reason for the sexual activity, there's a lot of other variables involved.
Yeah, cuz like you probably live somewhere where you're doing a lot of walking, there's a lot of sun, you know, a lot of uh it's not like a depressing rainy area.
Drugs such as ecstasy and ketamine can lead to physiological ED as well and opioid users are eight times more likely to get erectile dysfunction compared to non-users. This is because opioids can block gonadotropin-releasing hormone decreasing testosterone in men. In general, lower testosterone levels can be linked to erectile dysfunction.
You know what I just heard recently? If you guys drink at all, have you have you noticed that the morning after drinking you're always really horny? I figured out why. It's because alcohol is a testosterone suppressant. So, when you finally start processing, you know, the alcohol and your testosterone is coming back, you have this like surge of testosterone rebound. So, that's why you're like, "Uh, did you [ __ ] something up?"
part of the reason why as you age, you're more likely to have dysfunction. And this could be part of the reason why as you age, you're more likely to get ED. One study found there was a fourfold increase in ED in men in their 70s compared to their 20s with 52% of men between the ages of 40 to 70 having erectile dysfunction. As you age, testosterone levels can decrease, sometimes to the point that you need androgen replacement therapy. It's important as you age to get your hormone levels checked,
especially if you're feeling lethargic, depressed, you have low libido. These are reasons you could talk to your doctor and get your hormone levels tested. To deal with erectile dysfunction as you age, androgen therapy and Cialis and Viagra erectile dysfunction medicine The thing with Cialis and Viagra is all that does is it increases the blood flow a little bit, but if if your like psychological barriers are too strong, like you're too stressed out or you you're like putting too much pressure on yourself and you're engaging your your fight or flight in your central nervous system, it's it's not even going to be enough to overcome that. So, Cialis and Viagra are only pretty much, you know, useful if you have the physiological issue where you have, you know, a a lack of blood flow going on or like the plaque build up in the valves or whatever. So, trust me, I know.
like that can work together to get your boner back. Alcohol is also a significant contributor to ED, but there's a curvilinear effect to moderate drinking. One drink per day or less than seven drinks a week had a lower prevalence of erectile dysfunction compared to non-drinkers. This may be linked to alcohol's positive impact on the psychological aspects of erectile dysfunction. So,
Yeah, I used to like have to have a couple drinks if I knew I was going on a date or going to be like, you know, having that opportunity cuz it kind of takes the edge off and, you know, relaxes you and um decreases your stress and cortisol, but then you can't maintain that forever cuz eventually, you know, you're going to have like a long-term girlfriend or a wife or whatever and you're not going to be like, "All right, baby, let me just go slam a few shots real quick."
[laughter]
So, for me, I had to like relearn how to have sex completely sober, just raw dogging right into it, going in dry. So, that's a that's a thing in itself. Never use substances as a crutch for anything. Don't use it as a, you know, escape for stress or no vaping, no weed cuz you pay for all of that [ __ ] eventually in the long run.
So, now let's talk about the elephant in the room. The other reason why people are getting erectile dysfunction at younger age is due to psychological issues. Psychological ED is more common in younger men. Usually, these men are able to get erections in the morning. They can get self-stimulated erections throughout the day and even get erections at the beginning of sexual intercourse with a partner. But, the issues come when having to maintain that erection throughout the duration of sex. Essentially, psychological ED is more likely to occur when you can get an erection at the start of sex with a partner, but it goes away and you can't get it back. Most psychological ED cases are attributed to anxiety or depression and the psychological etiology that comes with both. It is likely that the stress from anxiety and depression raises cortisol levels, increasing vascular resistance, and leading to erectile dysfunction in this younger population.
It's anxiety, whether it's from your daily life, like things going on in your real world, work stress, school stress, family stress, financial stress, whatever that's like withheld in your body and your subconscious that your body holds onto or it's performance anxiety cuz you have this this pressure on yourself to perform to make her, you know, orgasm and even pressure just for yourself to like maintain a really strong erection and you know, have it not be awkward and be able to do all these positions and all this stuff that you've maybe seen in adult videos. So, all these things just compound and it can make your body reject it completely. It's like kind of like if you go to bed and you're lying there thinking about not being able to sleep it's so much more likely that you're not going to be able to sleep rather than if you just go in there like totally free to free from thought and then you just fall asleep like that, right? So, what I've noticed is anytime that I like do like a little meditation beforehand just like 5 minutes of just deep breaths and you know, being thoughtless. I'm always so much more free and and low stress going into it and then I perform better. So, that's something worth trying even in the moment if you're like you know, really going through it just like taking a few deep breaths and just trying to like relax into it and and take some time and and I've even I've even met other guys who who who said that this could work. You tell yourself you challenge yourself to not get aroused. You challenge yourself to not get an erection. You tell yourself that I'm not going to get an erection right now. So, kind of tricks your body into like wanting to prove you wrong, you know what I mean?
There also could be other reasons as well. Some researchers trace the pattern of increased erectile dysfunction since the 1990s to the increased use and access to pornography online since the 1990s as well. One paper from 2015 found erectile problems may occur when real-life sexual stimulation does not match the broad visual sexual stimuli of online pornography. Essentially, when porn becomes your main source of sexual stimulation, when you end up having sex with someone in real life, you're not able to maintain an erection because it doesn't match your normal sexual stimuli.
Yeah, I agree with this completely. I mean, you think about it. If every day you're watching like exactly what you want to see, the exact type of woman that turns you on, you're seeing these close-ups of every angle and the perfect positions and performance, then when you get into it in real life, it's not that at all. Like, think about it, man. You're like staring at the top of her head usually. You're not seeing like the the ins and outs and all the perfect HD close-ups of everything. You know what I mean? And on top of that, you're like holding a plank in a position you're totally not used to cuz normally you're just on your laptop sitting down going like this, right? It's totally thoughtless and effortless. Now you're like holding a plank, your whole body's tensed up. It's Yeah, it's hard to perform. It's a lot different.
Study in China also found that early porn use was associated with changes in reproductive hormone levels and semen quality. There's a lot of other psychological studies, less like hard science studies, about the impacts of culture, the internet, social media on young people's ability to feel validated and sexually fulfilled. That's a much more complicated psychological concept. You can go to our podcast site Nobody Asked Science to see our episodes more on that. But it turns out that cohabiting with a partner is actually a good way to help with psychological ED. The exact reasons are unsure, but one meta-analysis and large survey found that men who do not cohabitate with [music] a romantic partner are more likely to have psychological ED. This
Yeah, I would That makes sense. I would think if you live with somebody, you're just more comfortable with them, right? You spend time with them. You just Just like a friend that you hang out with all the time. You you feel comfortable to crack jokes you wouldn't be cracking with somebody you've only hung out with a few times, you know? Cuz you you just become more like in tune and symbiotic with them as as a person. So, the pressure, the stress is lower when you actually get into it. Yeah, when you get down to business.
I wanted to get to the bottom of it. Also, as a millennial biker who slams my gooch all day, I really needed to understand that information. But this is important that we're talking about sexual health. Share this with your friends, your family. It could be an awkward share, but also it doesn't have to be. There's a lot more science happening right now in the realm of this area, so we'll make more videos as it comes in.
All right, bet. Yeah, so uh share this with somebody who needs it. Cut down the, you know, adult videos. Relax, do a quick, you know, breathwork session before getting into it. Um take your time. Don't try to hide it. I've noticed is definitely a good thing. Like if you're experiencing it, just being honest, being like
[sighs]
I'm just really in my head right now. Just been really stressed out lately. It's totally not you. Like I'm very attracted to you. It's just my body's not working how it should be right now. And usually people are girls are really understanding about that and want to help you out and make you comfortable. So just take your time. Don't panic and play cool. And um you'll be straight. Leave a comment down below if you have any tips or tricks that have helped with this. I I genuinely want to know and I think you could help out some other of the bros that are watching this right now cuz this is like this is like a terrifying thing. It actually really really sucks. So
[laughter]
yeah, the homies could use your help. If you if you have some sauce, you owe it to us to leave it down below in the comments. All right, subscribe and I'll see you in the next one. Peace.