Is Erectile Dysfunction and Impotence the same?

Erectile dysfunction abbreviated as ED is also known as impotence. ED is the inability of male to attain or maintain an erection that is acceptable for sexual intercourse. Exceptional erection problems are not something to worry about; however, if the problem persists for long time, it may cause stress, anxiety, lack of self-confidence, and definitely can disturb some relationships.

A large proportion of men feel embarrassment to discuss it with doctor. However, individual should go for medical examination to find out the root causes of the erection or this may be the sign of another health problem such as high blood pressure, diabetes, or cardiovascular disease that may life threatening. So the impotence cause by these diseases can be curable by treating them.

Signs and symptoms of erectile dysfunction

Sign is something the doctor or somebody else can notice, but symptoms are something the patients feel like pain.
Symptoms and signs of impotence may include:

• Troubles in achieving erection
• Problems in maintaining an erection
• Low libido
• Achieve erection during masturbation but not during sexual interaction.

Some men may experience the same problems occasionally but it becomes a problem when it occurs regularly. So it the ED continues for weeks then it is good to see your own doctor first dig out the causes.

Causes of erectile dysfunction

Before going towards the causes, let us first look at what happens when men get erection. When men see or feel something that is sexual stimulating, brain sends out signal to tell muscles in penis to relax, result in the enlargement of blood at penis. This cause the penis to expand and harden. As the blood veins flow is blocked, the penis stays erect. The ED is mainly the problem with to penis. If ED exists then there may be blood flow problem at other parts of the body.

Most cases show that erectile dysfunction is associated with blood circulation, nervous system, and low sex drive or libido. And reduced sex drive can be caused by depression, stress, or low-T (Testosterone hormone).

Physical causes or erectile dysfunction

The four major kind of physical causes are:
• Neurogenic: - Brain, nerves and spinal cord of the nervous system is affected.
• Anatomical: - A condition where something wrong with penis physical structure.
• Hormonal: - HGH hormones levels are not balanced.
• Vasculogenic: - Blood flow to penis is affected by some means.
Below are the examples of physical causes:

• Diabetes
• Alcohol
• Enlarge prostate
• Heart diseases
• High blood pressure
• Injury to spinal cord
• Kidney diseases
• Obesity
• Parkinson’s disease
• Smoking
• Stroke
• Surgery of brain and or spinal cord
• Substantial abuses
• Metabolic syndrome

Psychological causes of ED

Sometimes ED may have different physical and psychological causes. Person having diabetes starts having problems with erections may become stressed and anxious about it. The combination of stress and diabetes may intensify ED. These psychological causes may be:

• Stress
• Relationship problems
• Anxiety
• Fatigue
• Depression
Erectile dysfunction is not directly link with aging but it can be connected to something else such as health condition.

Diagnosing ED

At first chance, the patient usually visits his personal doctor or physician, and he may ask questions regarding these:
• Symptoms of erectile dysfunction and for how long these are exist.
• Libido
• Complete physical health
• Complete mental health
• Intake of Alcohol
• Drugs usage
• Sexual History
• Current medications

What are the treatment options for erectile dysfunction?

The doctor will make sure the perfect treatment according to the patient conditions based upon medical tests. Sometimes it can be easily resolve by treating the conditions.

Erectile dysfunction has various types of treatments, the doctors recommends treatment depends upon several factors, severity of ED, health conditions, age of patient, what medications he is currently using.

Normally the treatments start from the lifestyle changes and ends upon hormone replacement therapy for men that may include surgery. In between these therapies, the physician can suggest for oral medication or injections to handle it. But a good doctor should explain the benefits and risks involved in any of these treatments. Some other experts suggest that man’s partner should be involved in selecting the treatment methods.

Lifestyle changes

Perhaps one of the easy method but yet impossible is the lifestyle changes that can improve Erectile Dysfunction symptoms, and there some chances of curing impotence completely. These may comprise:

• Bodyweight: Maintaining proper weight or reducing weight from obese body can help significantly.
• Smoking: smoking is a common cause of ED. Giving up smoking may make huge difference.
• Exercise: Doing daily exercise can drastically assist men erectile function.
• Alcohol: cutting down can help but giving up is far better to improve erectile function
• Stress: Reducing anxiety and mental stress has shown significant results to improve ED symptoms.

These changes in lifestyle will definitely improve the erectile function but will also enhance overall health of losing weight, reducing risks of heart and liver diseases by smoking and alcohols.