Porn Induced Erectile Dysfunction (ED)

Have you heard about the “new kid on the block” when it comes to Erectile Dysfunction?

This has been called “Porn Induced ED”.

It’s becoming such a huge issue for men around the world that it now officially has its own acronym: PIED

In this article I’ll explain what this is, why it’s a problem, and how to overcome it.

Note: I’m not making a religious or moral stand against porn, simply a physiological one. Also I am going to speak about masturbation which I believe is a healthy and normal thing. If you disagree, this post is probably not for you so I would say stop reading now. But don’t worry I don’t plan to be graphic about it here.

Type 2 diabetes use to be called adult onset diabetes. However, teenagers and children started having it to such a degree that they decided the name had to be changed.

Erectile dysfunction seems to be much the same. Although there have always been performance anxiety issues at play, possibly even more so in a younger crowd, as a chronic issue it was mostly relegated to the realm of older men.

There is a “normal” decrease in testosterone as age increases. That certainly plays a factor. Then the cardiovascular system plays another big role through nitric oxide and much more. These are big factors that certainly must be looked at in any man with these issues. You can read more about erectile issues in this article. 

What is Porn Induced Erectile Dysfunction?

One piece of the erection puzzle, besides hormones and blood flow, is desire. Let’s take a closer look at these factors.

Dopamine and Erectile Dysfunction

Looking at this biochemically this is largely reliant on one neurotransmitter, dopamine. (At least this is what we know about so far. The exact role of dopamine in sexual arousal has been studied but not all the details are known on how it works.)

To keep it simple, dopamine makes us feel good and is triggered by a wide variety of things. It’s our endogenous reward. Sexual stimulation is one of those things.

And here is where porn can become a problem, because it gets excessively triggered. You get exactly what you want at the click of the mouse and more dopamine is released.

Sexual stimulation by itself will release big spikes in dopamine. So does orgasm.

And if you’re like most men, you could do this up to several times a day, every day. When it comes to neurology, the more you do something, the more that nervous pathway is used. As they say “Nerves that fire together, wire together.”

This short video explains it fairly well.

And this Ted Talk explains other reasons just why online porn specifically is so problematic, including some of the other problems besides ED it might cause.

The analogy to diabetes is actually a pretty good one.

Eating the standard American diet high in refined carbs, causes blood sugar spikes. The hormone insulin is used to then shuttle the resulting glucose into your cells. But high blood sugar spikes done over and over and over again after many years can result in your cells not working optimally. They become resistant to the insulin spike and don’t function so well. The blood sugar can’t get into the cells so well thus the body works harder, making more insulin to drive it in. At some point the pancreas may say screw it and stop producing insulin. (I realize this is a gross oversimplification but hopefully you get the point.)

Unfortunately, this appears to happen with dopamine too. At some point your dopamine receptors can become resistant. Since you’re getting such large spikes of dopamine the cells only respond to this high amount. Anything less than that and you will not be aroused.

So if you’re watching pornography, and over time that porn may escalate to excite you and its only a search term away (cause hey, who just watches simple one on one porn these days? That seems to be the nature of widespread internet porn) you get stimulated.

But then in your sex life things may not work so well. You might not be as excited for a number of reasons. As it says in the above video “reality = boring”.

Bye, bye erection. Or no erection in the first place. :(

There may not be enough dopamine to keep things going. And of course once this happens, that can begin the whole performance anxiety loop that just makes things worse. “I hope it doesn’t happen this time. I hope it works, I hope it works…shit, it’s not working.”

The Test

For some people this may not be an issue…at least not yet.

Besides having issues with a partner in the bed room which could be a variety of factors, the good news is there’s a pretty easy test you can do to find if this may be a problem for you or not.

Like just about anything it is not black or white. There are degrees to this problem and this test can reveal that.

Can you even masturbate without porn?

Can you get fully aroused in the first place?

If you are used to watching pornography notice if you just imagine some of your favorite scenes, rather than creating your own fantasy. (I would argue that rewatching porn in your head is actually quite different from creating imagined fantasies.)

If you’ve been on the porn bandwagon for a long time it can be difficult NOT to re-watch those scenes.

If you cannot masturbate without porn chances are you may have this problem.

Also realize the erections are not an all or nothing thing, but there are varying degrees of hardness. You can be erect…but not fully erect.

Stop the Pornography

It may be simple…but not so easy.

In fact, it can be very addicting. Dopamine is the chemical at play in other forms of addiction too.

Once again I’m not saying we should get rid of porn. However, for certain people it just may not be a good option. And here, going cold turkey may be the best treatment.

Getting rid of the habit can be a challenge. I don’t want to get into all the details of habit change here, but it is doable.

The good news is that it can be done. The bad news is that things may get worse before they get better.

According to other people the amount of time it takes for a recovery from porn induced ED can range quite greatly depending on a number of factors, including when you started watching porn, how often you did it, and more.

Another aspect that plays into this is clearing the porn cache in your head. Some of that may be imprinted in a way that you won’t forget but you always have the choice about using those memories.

Herbs For Porn Addiction and Erectile Dysfunction Treatment

I believe that herbs can help in many things.

However, herbs cannot and will not fix something where the cause is behavioral.

We can go back to our diabetes metaphor. Can herbs help here? Absolutely. Certain helps can be palliative to symptoms. They can also assist in managing blood sugar levels and insulin to some degree. But ultimately, to cure diabetes, it comes down to diet.

Herbs, no matter how powerful or how many you take, will not make up for eating shitty food.

That’s the same here. Herbs can certainly help. The whole reason we put together Thor’s Hammer was to cover some of the different areas that may be at the root of erectile issues.

The one herb I want to focus on most here is mucuna. Mucuna pruriens is a rich source of L-dopa which is the precursor to dopamine.

Whether internet porn is depleting dopamine or just screwing up with receptors is hard to say for sure. I imagine there are multiple other issues and pathways at play too.

But mucuna is also not JUST L-dopa. I believe in the intelligence in natural substances. Mucuna seems to be doing lots of things, like assisting in both testosterone and growth hormone too. So I have a theory that it could help.

Want More Info and Help For Porn Addiction?

If you would like more information on this subject the following two websites are devoted entirely to the subject:

• Reboot Nation
• Your Brain On Porn

And this video covers the subject over an hour.

My aim for this article has been to enlighten people on something that is not well known as it is effecting an ever increasing number of people.

Yet, because of the shame and guilt that often goes around the issues of sex and masturbation, this is not something most people have heard about.

Treatment is very possible and more and more men who’ve recovered from PIED recomment going cold turkey on the pornography. Herbal treatments can then kick in and help with lingering erectile dysfunction.

If this article helps just a single person, it has been worth the time to research and write. 

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Logan Christopher

CEO at Lost Empire Herbs

Logan Christopher is co-founder and CEO of Lost Empire Herbs, which aims to bring performance herbalism into everyday people’s lives. He started studying plants and fungi as a result of his interest in peak performance and strength training. This includes performing feats of strength such as pulling an 8,800 lb. firetruck by his hair, supporting half a ton on top of himself in a wrestler’s bridge position, and routinely ripping decks of cards in half with his bare hands. After visiting the Amazon rainforest, he received a calling to be an “Emissary of Nature” and thus bring humankind back into alignment with nature for health and well-being. You can read more about this in his book Powered By Nature.

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