If you want to maintain a high-performance love life, you need to take care of your general health and be especially conscious of maintaining the health of two key contributors: Your penis and your prostate.
Let’s start with your penis, which plays a vital role in your overall health because of its urinary and reproductive functions. A healthy penis allows you to enjoy healthy sex, too. Just as important, it serves as a clear barometer that can indicate serious health conditions.
“If your penis is not working well, it may be because of other problems like diabetes, high blood pressure or heart disease,” says the Cleveland Clinic in its Penis Health overview. “You should pay attention to how your penis looks and works so you can discuss any problems with your healthcare provider.”
Though somewhat rare, there are a number of conditions, diseases and disorders that can affect your penis, such as erectile dysfunction, priapism, phimosis or Peyronie’s disease. Of course, if you have a highly active sex life shared with a lot of different partners, you can contract a sexually transmitted infection (STI). These include gonorrhea, genital herpes, syphilis and HIV/AIDS.
There are a variety of symptoms of STIs, including bumps, sores, or warts near your penis; discharge from your penis; swelling or redness; night sweats; or pain with sex. All of which or any other unusual symptoms or signs in your genital region should be discussed with your physician or healthcare team.
The following are steps the Cleveland Clinic recommends you can take to help maintain peak penis health and prevent issues from happening:
- Keep your penis clean. Wash it gently every day with mild soap and water. If you have your foreskin, be sure to clean underneath it as well.
- Check your penis on a routine basis. (This check should include all of your sex organs, such as your testicles and scrotum.) Check for anything that looks or feels odd or wasn’t there the last time you checked.
- Limit your sex partners. Use a condom when you have sex unless you’re trying to have a baby. Be careful not to cause trauma or bending of the penis during sex.
- Stop smoking and using tobacco products.
- Manage any medical problems you have. Many medical conditions and even the drugs you take can have an effect on your penis functions.
Basically, if you want good penis health, be proactive in maintaining your physical health. According to Medical Health Today article on how to get harder erections, research involving more than “20,700 men over the age of 40 suggests that exercise can help prevent erectile dysfunction, while a lack of physical activity can negatively affect erectile function. Exercise increases blood flow to the penis, as well as to the rest of the body.”
Speaking of being proactive, the Proactive Men’s Health Center offers 9 Foods That Can Help You Stay Erect and Sustain Stronger Erections: watermelon, spinach and other leafy greens, coffee, dark chocolate, salmon, pistachios, walnuts, almonds and other nuts, and oranges and blueberries.
Since we’re discussing diet and the health of your private parts, let’s switch to foods you can eat that help keep your prostate healthy. The list includes tomatoes, broccoli, green tea, fish, soybeans and legumes, berries and pomegranate juice.
“While there are no specific foods that directly impact the prostate in a negative way, studies link an increased risk of cancer with saturated fats and trans fats,” informs the Compounding Pharmacy of America on its website. “Limiting foods like red meat, bacon, sausage, other cured or processed meats, fried foods, fast food, and dairy is optimal for maintaining prostate health. Similarly, fish products such as shrimp, lobster, scallops, and canned tuna are more likely to cause inflammation. Eating favorite foods in moderation and sticking to a balanced diet is key to overall wellness.”
On Numan.com’s website, Ashton Sheriff precisely encapsulates exactly why men should want to keep their prostate healthy with three reasons:
- It keeps you fertile.
- It helps you ejaculate properly.
- It can enhance your sex life.
So, in addition to eating healthy foods such as those listed above, following a heart-healthy, low animal fat, low carbohydrate diet is key to cancer prevention, as are exercise, weight management and stress reduction.
Exercising, for example, will help directly improve your prostate health. “Research has shown that men who exercise more frequently are less likely to experience benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) – also known as prostate enlargement,” Sheriff writes. “BPH can cause urination problems and is usually very inconvenient for men who have it. However, researchers found that even low to moderate-intensity exercise can have a beneficial impact on prostate health.”
Additionally, the Busch Center in Georgia offers these 5 Exercise Tips for a Healthy Prostate on its website:
1) Include Aerobic Exercise:
Do 30 minutes of aerobic exercise, like swimming, biking, speed walking, or hiking on most days of the week. You can also add in strength training exercises like working with free weights or weight machines on alternating days
2) Include Exercise That Increases the Release of Antioxidants:
Antioxidants have cancer-fighting benefits. Exercise that promotes endurance, or your ability to steadily continue that exercise for an extended period of time, is considered “antioxidant exercise.” Walk, hike, bike, swim, or pick another stamina-building exercise you like so that you’ll stick with it.
3) Do Interval Training:
Belly fat is linked to an increased risk of BPH and prostate cancer. Interval training exercise burns fat by boosting the body’s metabolism keeping it in a fat-burning range.
4) Do Kegel Exercises:
Kegel exercises are especially helpful for men who have BPH symptoms. Three sets of 10 Kegels every day should contribute to better bladder control.
5) Exercise at Least Three Times a Week:
“Exercise is already recommended to improve health,” the site concludes. “However, if you’re having prostate-related symptoms such as erectile dysfunction, frequent urination or trouble urinating, or elevated PSA levels.”
