Listen, guy. We’re not trying to trigger PTSD from our organic chemistry days, but if you’re a dude concerned about blood flow downstairs — and therefore, arousal quality — you can’t even begin to have the conversation about ED without talking about nitric oxide.
And we probably don’t need to tell you that. After all, googling natural treatments for ED has probably brought nitric oxide supplements to your attention.
Available over-the-counter, many nitric oxide supplements claim to boost blood flow, giving you stronger arousal and better physical performance and athletic performance (you remember the ad screaming at you through an incognito browser, we’re sure).
Do they work? Are they your key to better intercourse? It’s complicated. Below, we’ve explained:
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What nitric oxide is and how it’s necessary for your body
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The science behind nitric oxide supplements
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Whether or not they’re worth using for better physical health and arousal
Oh, and we’ve also shared a few other, evidence-based treatment options that you may want to consider if you suffer from ED.
What Does Nitric Oxide Do?
First things first: nitric oxide isn’t some BS supplement ingredient from a rainforest frog’s privates — it’s real science.
Nitric oxide is a gas naturally produced inside your body that works as a type of signaling molecule for your cells and organs. In fact, nitric oxide plays a role in almost every cellular and organ function in your body as it’s converted to nitrate.
Its key role, however, is to regulate the tone and blood flow of your vascular system — the complex network of blood vessels that transports oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to your organs and is charged with removing waste products.
Nitric oxide is also known as a vasodilator. It’s a chemical that increases blood flow and promotes lower blood pressure through its effects on soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC), a type of enzyme found in the smooth muscle of your blood vessels.
When soluble guanylate cyclase is active, your blood vessels can increase in size, allowing for better blood flow to certain parts of your body.
That’s a lot of jargon to explain that nitric oxide helps blood more easily move to where it’s needed. And that’s really important when where you want the blood to go is into your member for arousal.
Does Nitric Oxide Help in the Bedroom?
Nitric oxide, it turns out, is clutch when you’re trying to get hard. Research has found that nitric oxide plays a key role in facilitating arousal by relaxing the vascular muscle that supplies your member with blood when you’re aroused.
This increase in blood vessel diameter and blood flow is what allows your member to get firm while you’re getting intimate. So yeah, that’s really, really important.
Because nitric oxide plays such a major role in healthy arousal, medical conditions that reduce your production of nitric oxide can potentially contribute to ED.
And the risks don’t stop at efficiency. Low nitric oxide levels may also contribute to a higher risk of common heart health issues, such as cardiovascular disease.
If you’re in this situation, you may be wondering how to pump some of this priming gas into your member. That’s more complicated than it may seem.
What Are Nitric Oxide Supplements?
Nitric oxide supplements are exactly what they sound like — supplements that claim to increase levels of nitric oxide within your body.
They’re available over-the-counter as pre-workout style powdered drinks, beetroot extracts or capsules, and can be purchased from drug stores, health food stores and, yes, even online.
There’s a bit of a catch to these products, though, and it has to do with what’s actually inside these supplements.
Most of the time, dietary supplements have the same active ingredient as their name suggests. For example, creatine supplements contain creatine, and protein supplements contain different types of protein.
Nitric oxide supplements, on the other hand, contain active ingredients that are used within your body to supposedly increase its own nitric oxide production. More specifically, most nitric oxide boosters contain the active ingredients L-arginine and L-citrulline. These amino acids act as biological “building blocks” for nitric oxide within your body. The idea behind these supplements is that giving your body the nutrients it needs to produce its own nitric oxide will increase nitric oxide levels.
The Research Supporting Nitric Oxide Supplements
Some research backs up this theory. With lots of dietary supplements, many of the studies used to support the idea that nitric oxide precursors boost nitric oxide production are animal research. For example, one study published in 2014 in the journal Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications found that oral use of the amino acids L-arginine and L-citrulline — the two amino acids typically used in nitric oxide supplements — increased nitric oxide levels in rats and rabbits.
But that’s not to say there aren’t some promising studies involving people on whether supplements can boost nitric oxide or not. Prelox, a combination of L-arginine aspartate and Pycnogenol (another popular natural supplement otherwise known as maritime pine), was shown to support nitric oxide production in clinical trials. Notably, a study looking at L-arginine and L-citrulline levels in men found that men with severe ED with an arteriogenic etiology had lower levels of these two amino acids, indicating a possible nitric oxide synthesis related explanation.
Improved your time in the bedroom was also reported in nine patients who took L-arginine supplements to boost their nitric oxide levels. And finally, a three-month trial using Pycnogenol to increase L-arginine and NO levels saw just over 92 percent of men with ED achieve normal arousal.
You might be thinking, “Hey, all this research on humans looks good! 92 percent is a great number for arousal!” And you’re not wrong.
But many of these studies were on the smaller side. So while they’re promising, it doesn’t necessarily mean that supplements for nitric oxide work the same way in humans. A review published in the journal Sports Medicine found that nitric oxide supplements do appear to offer exercise-related benefits, including increased exercise performance. It’s worth noting that these effects were observed in people with low to moderate prior training — in more highly trained people, nitric oxide supplements didn’t show any effects.
Do Nitric Oxide Supplements Help With ED?
Dietary supplements don’t need to have the same proof about their claims that medications need to have. And as such, there aren’t any nitric oxide supplements that have been approved by the FDA to treat ED, which means your provider probably won’t be raving about how excited they are to recommend them to you.
But these supplements may have some effect on ED. Although nitric oxide supplements shouldn’t be viewed as a treatment for ED, a small amount of research suggests that there may be benefits of nitric oxide for arousal and male intimacy function:
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An article published in the journal Future Science OA looked at several studies of L-arginine supplements and L-citrulline supplementation, noting that some had shown improvements in hardness scores and other measures of arousal function.
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A small study also found that use of a dietary supplement containing L-arginine produced improvements in arousal health and function in men with ED.
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Some research suggests that beetroot and beetroot juice offer a natural and antioxidant-rich source of nitric oxide, which may offer benefits in treating certain health conditions — potentially including ED.
The research we have looks promising, but we need a lot more before anyone can say anything definitive about the efficacy of these supplements.
Nitric Oxide Supplement Side Effects
One of the biggest problems with supplements is that, because the FDA doesn’t have the same grip on them, they can be less predictable (and less safe) than medications.
Nitric oxide supplements could boost nitric oxide in your body, but they may cause unwanted effects when you take them. For nitric oxide, those side effects may include:
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Increased risk or worsening of heart failure
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Hypotension, or low blood pressure
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Pulmonary vasospasm
If you experience dizziness, chest pain or other issues when taking nitric oxide, seek immediate medical attention.
Alternatives to Nitric Oxide for ED
Nitric oxide supplements may work, but if you’re looking for more proven ED treatments, options abound to improve blood flow. Medications approved by the FDA and changes to your lifestyle can do more than supplements in almost all cases. Let’s look at how.
FDA-Approved ED Medications
Currently, the FDA has approved four science-backed oral medications for ED:
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Sildenafil (the active ingredient in Viagra)
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Tadalafil (Cialis)
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Vardenafil (Levitra)
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Avanafil (Stendra)
These medications belong to a class of drugs called PDE5 inhibitors, which work by preventing the enzyme phosphodiesterase-5 from restricting blood flow to the tissue located inside your member.
They can be taken as-needed 30 to 60 minutes before intercourse, making it easy to deal with ED and improve your performance. The FDA has also approved an injectable medication, alprostadil, for ED, and it has recently authorized a topical gel for ED.
Lifestyle and Habits
You can also reduce your risk of dealing with ED by making healthy changes to your habits and lifestyle. These changes can be particularly important, since ED is often the “canary in the coal mine” for cardiovascular disease.
Several things may help improve your bedroom function and prevent ED. For example:
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Exercising regularly
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Maintaining a healthy weight
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Limiting your alcohol intake
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Quitting smoking
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Avoiding illicit drugs
This guide to naturally protecting your arousal goes into more detail about these techniques and other approaches that you can use to improve your function naturally.
Nitric Oxide Supplements: Should You Use Them?
Nitric oxide is an important signaling molecule that your body uses for a wide variety of different functions, including supplying blood to your member when you’re aroused. It’s certainly an essential biological ingredient. But supplementing it isn’t a plan without risks.
Consider the following when weighing your choices:
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Research on nitric oxide supplements and ED is limited, but some studies suggest that the L-arginine and L-citrulline found in nitric oxide supplements help to treat ED.
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Using a nitric oxide supplement may generally help to strengthen your arousal and improve your intimacy function.
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However, you’ll notice the biggest improvements from evidence-based medications like sildenafil (Viagra), tadalafil (Cialis) and avanafil (Stendra).
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Lifestyle changes can also improve your cardiovascular health and well being.
Interested in learning more about dealing with ED? This detailed guide to the treatment options for ED shares more about how you can improve your arousal and have better intercourse, from medication to psychotherapy, pelvic floor exercises and other approaches.
Give your member the best and the safest — skip the supplements and try medication and other FDA-approved treatments today.
This article originally appeared on Hims.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.
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The 7 Best Vitamins & Supplements for ED
If you’ve been googling “what is the best vitamin for ED” or “supplements for ED” and coming up short on answers, there’s a reason for it: the “natural male enhancement” pills that you find online and in gas stations are released by brands that make dubious claims about what their products can do, and often, those claims aren’t backed by a lot of research. In fact, many of them are dangerous.
That said, certain vitamins and supplements (not the stuff you see at the gas station) — like vitamins B3 and D, or supplements like L-arginine, to name a few — may offer some erectile function benefits that are backed up by some science.
So, whether you came here in search of vitamins for erectile strength or supplements for ED, we’re happy to share what research shows about vitamins that help with ED…maybe. We’re going to go through all the vitamins you should look for, and the foods in which you can find them
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You’re probably aware of ED treatments like Viagra, which work by increasing blood flow to your privates when you’re in the mood for love-making. But what about the options available without a prescription?
Well, if you’ve been looking at the “natural male enhancement” stuff on gas station shelves, we have some bad news. As we’ve discussed in our guide to herbal supplements for ED, most non-prescription products for treating ED are, to put it lightly, lacking in scientific evidence (unless they are something specifically approved or authorized by the FDA for ED, like vacuum devices or the topical gel, Eroxon).
That said, as we mentioned above, some research shows that deficiencies of certain vitamins might contribute to ED. If you’re deficient, adding these vitamins to your diet might improve your overall health, including your ability to get and stay so.
To put things in perspective, here’s the current wisdom:
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Numerous factors can play a role in ED, including your cardiovascular health, psychological well-being and your level of interest in love-making.
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Currently, the most effective oral treatments for ED are PDE5 inhibitor medications, such as sildenafil (the active ingredient in Viagra).
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Vitamins B3, B9, C and D have been linked with blood flow, ED or testosterone levels in scientific studies. However, there’s very limited research on the link between vitamins and ED, meaning our understanding of this potential link isn’t very strong right now.
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To get reliable relief from ED, it’s best to talk to a licensed ED healthcare provider online to learn how you can improve blood flow to your privates and strengthen your erections.
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Depending on your medical history, they may check your blood pressure, cholesterol and other tests that can screen for health conditions like heart disease, type 2 diabetes and other things that are a risk factor for ED.
Okay, now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s talk vitamins.
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Vitamins are critical for the proper functioning of your body. They play vital roles in the development of your bones and organs. They also power essential biological processes that keep you alive, from your metabolism to the operation and function of your brain.
Because vitamins play such important roles in your health and survival, vitamin deficiencies can have serious negative effects on your well-being. What vitamins are good for erectile dysfunction, then, are the ones you don’t have enough of.
Some potential vitamins for ED include:
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Vitamin B3 (niacin)
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Vitamin B9 (folic acid)
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Vitamin C (ascorbic acid)
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Vitamin D
Let’s look into each one to learn more.
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Some scientific research suggests that vitamin B3, or niacin, may be helpful for managing ED.
For example, a study in 2011 found that adult men with ED and dyslipidemia (abnormal amounts of lipids in the blood) experienced improvements in erectile function after taking niacin for 12 weeks.
Vitamin B3 is an important vitamin for metabolic function. It’s linked to a reduced risk of certain types of cardiovascular disease thanks to its anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative effects.
Niacin is widely available as a health supplement. It’s also found in a variety of foods, including:
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Red meat, poultry and fish
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Bran, yeast and whole-grain cereals
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Peanuts, legumes and seeds
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Eggs
(Related: The Best ED Pills for Men: Pros & Cons of ED Medication)
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Another vitamin that may be linked with ED is vitamin B9, or folic acid.
A study published in the Asian Journal of Andrology analyzed the folic acid levels of men with ED and found that men with ED typically had lower levels of folic acid than healthy, unaffected men.
Interestingly, low levels of vitamin B9 were also linked to PE — another common male performance issue.
A newer study from 2020 noted a more direct link between vitamin B9 and health. In this study, men with ED showed measurable improvements in erectile function after taking a vitamin B9 supplement on a daily basis for three months.
Vitamin B9 plays key roles in the synthesis of DNA and RNA — essential molecules for storing and reading genetic information. It’s also important for the production of healthy red blood cells.
You can purchase vitamin B9 as a health supplement, but it’s also found in a wide range of foods, like:
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Leafy green vegetables, such as broccoli, spinach, asparagus and lettuce
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Meats, including liver
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Fish and other seafood
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Peanuts, sunflower seeds and beans
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Milk and other dairy products
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Eggs
Folic acid is also commonly added to many breads, cereals, pastas and other grain products in order to prevent nutritional deficiencies.
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Vitamin C is one of the most important vitamins for our bodies. When it comes to erectile health, research suggests that it might play a role in certain biochemical pathways that allow you to get and stay hard during intimacy.
For example, a review published in the journal Fertility and Sterility noted that vitamin C is one of several vitamins and minerals that support the biochemical pathway that leads to the release of nitric oxide.
Nitric oxide, or NO, is generally viewed as the principal agent responsible for relaxing the tissues inside your privates and allowing blood to flow in and create arousal.
Beyond its potential role in your health, vitamin C plays a key role in the biosynthesis of several neurotransmitters, as well as important structural proteins — like collagen, for example.
It’s also essential for maintaining healthy teeth and gums, absorbing iron and promoting proper wound healing.
Good sources of vitamin C include:
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Citrus fruits, such as orange, grapefruit, lemon and lime
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Other fresh fruits, including kiwifruit, guava and papaya
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Strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and blueberries
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Red peppers, green peppers, broccoli and other vegetables
Many fruit and vegetable juices also contain plenty of vitamin C. You can also find it in most multivitamin supplements.
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Although research into the effects of vitamin D on performance is limited, some studies have found that vitamin D deficiency is linked to ED.
A small study published in the International Journal of Impotence Research found that men with vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency had lower levels of function than men with normal vitamin D levels.
However, it’s also worth noting that this study only investigated function and depression symptoms in young men with low vitamin D status.
A meta-analysis from 2020 also found that vitamin D deficiency may be associated with severe forms of ED.
According to a review published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, around 24 percent of people in the United States have low vitamin D levels. Low vitamin D levels are even more common in Canada and Europe.
Your skin produces vitamin D when it’s exposed to sunlight, and it doesn’t take much to maintain healthy levels. Most people will be able to produce enough vitamin D to stay healthy with natural sun exposure from going for a daily walk or running errands.
If you live in an area with limited sunlight or prefer not to spend too much time outdoors, you can also take in vitamin D from food or vitamin D supplementation.
Foods that contain vitamin D include:
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Fish, including salmon, trout, tuna, sardines and many fish oils
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Cheese, milk and other dairy products
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Red meat and poultry
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Soy, almond and oat milks
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Mushrooms
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Apples, bananas and other fruits
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Rice, lentils, sunflower seeds and almonds
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Broccoli, carrots and other vegetables
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Research on other supplements for ED is often inconsistent or not very strong. Some men might see an effect, many might not.
ED supplements that may produce improvements in function and health include:
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L-arginine. This amino acid plays a key role in the production of nitric oxide, which is a molecule that relaxes your blood vessels and promotes healthy blood flow.
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Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). This hormone is a precursor to testosterone, which is important for regulating your drive.
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Ginseng. This herbal supplement might produce improvements in function and satisfaction, but the quality of research is low.
Just like with vitamins, it’s important to keep in mind that supplements aren’t subject to clinical trials like medications. This means that there’s a lot that we don’t know about them, including the safety and effectiveness of using them as ED treatments.
(Related: What Foods Help You Get Hard: 8 Foods For Erectile Dysfunction)
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None of the “vitamins for erection health” listed above — or anything else you can find in a multivitamin — are proven, evidence-based treatments for ED.
Currently, among the most effective options for treating ED are FDA-approved medications called PDE5 inhibitors. These treatments work by dilating the arteries that supply your privates, allowing for better blood flow to your tissues.
Unlike vitamins and natural remedies, they’re subject to large-scale clinical trials before they go onto pharmacy shelves, meaning we know that they’re safe and effective for most men.
If you find it difficult to get or maintain an erection, consider one of the following medications:
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Sildenafil. The active ingredient in Viagra, sildenafil provides relief from ED for around four hours per dose.
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Tadalafil. The active ingredient in Cialis, tadalafil is a long-lasting medication that can provide relief from ED for up to 36 hours.
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Vardenafil. The active ingredient in Levitra, vardenafil provides relief from ED for four to five hours.
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Avanafil. Sold as Stendra, avanafil is a newer treatment that provides relief from ED for up to six hours, with a lower risk of side effects than other oral ED medications.
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Chewable ED medications. These fast-acting chewable mints include ingredients like sildenafil, tadalafil and vardenafil to help you get and stay hard during intimacy.
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Although research is limited, some studies have shown a link between ED and certain vitamin deficiencies.
If you’re deficient in vitamins B3 (niacin), B9, C or D, increasing your consumption might improve your overall health, and maybe your ED symptoms. However, there are several things you’ll want to keep in mind before turning to vitamins as a “proven” ED treatment:
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Vitamins like B3, B9, C and D are important for your overall health and health, and may help in the management of ED. More research is needed to determine whether natural supplements containing L-arginine, ginseng and others are as effective as supplement makers claim.
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It isn’t clear if these vitamins help with function if you don’t have a vitamin deficiency. In other words, if you’re healthy, taking extra vitamin C may not have any impact on your performance in the bedroom.
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More isn’t always better when it comes to vitamins. Certain vitamins are toxic when consumed in excess, meaning you shouldn’t exceed the recommended intake if you choose to use a vitamin supplement.
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Vitamins aren’t a replacement for FDA-approved ED medication, or for healthy, natural habits and lifestyle changes that can make maintaining an arousal easier.
This article originally appeared on Hims.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.
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Featured Image Credit: PeopleImages/istockphoto.
