Erectile Dysfunction (ED)

Erectile dysfunction (ED) can leave both males feeling inadequate and their partners frustrated. Solutions for ED have been a multi billion dollar industry and it’s because it has affected so many males in the developed world.
What can be done to prevent this riding occurrence?
It’s no mystery that poor diet, obesity, and other chronic disease (ie anxiety & diabetes) are strongly correlated with ED. So in essence, knowing why and how to take control of the factors may in fact save your intimacy.
Join us on the GCP as we discuss ED and the physiology behind the problems causing it.

Be sure to like and share and thank you joining the Gut Check Project!

Show Notes

Hello Gut check project fans and KB MD Health family I hope you're having a great day This is your host Eric Rieger soon to be joined on my awesome co host Dr. Kenneth Brown. If the audio sounds kind of funny on this intro, I'm just having to record it while doing a little traveling and regardless, it will not take away today's episode will not disappoint. This is about erectile dysfunction. What can be done about it? Who wants to deal with it doesn't matter if it's male or female. You don't want to have to be dealing with erectile dysfunction it you know the inappropriate time. So let's not waste any more of your time and get straight to the podcast. But first, our awesome sponsors artron to get your daily poly finos and ultra and to go to love my tummy.com slash KB MD. Love My tummy.com get your poly phenol calls today and of course unrefined bakery incredible food, go to unrefined bakery.com if you are a keto eater, a paleo eater, a gluten free eater or you just like great food that happens to be healthy for you. Go to unrefined bakery.com felt like you had to avoid good tasting cookies simply because you have celiac disease. Well, don't worry, they are certified gluten free and all of their products and get 20% off your entire first order with code. gut check that's unrefined bakery.com use code gut check and save 20% off your entire first order. And last but not least, go to KB Md health.com. If you'd like to check out the podcast and all of our products that we offer, then you can do so just head to KB Md health.com. You can find the home of the podcast all of our previous recordings from gut check project and you know get to know Dr. Brown and myself a little better and shoot us a message. All right. On to episode number 54 the reptile dysfunction

Hello gut check project fans and KB MD health family. How are you doing today? I hope it's great. I am here for Episode 54 with my awesome co host Dr. Kenneth brown and today's topic. I think it's actually pretty popular even though when people have it. They don't like it.

I was gonna say it's not popular. It's common. Oh yeah. Popular.

Yes. No one really? Yeah.

No. Today we're talking about erectile dysfunction Ed, and I'm doing this as gastroenterologist because we're seeing that the pandemic may have a strong effect on this but probably not in the way that you're thinking. So today's episode is going to really look at the rise in erectile dysfunction in younger men that are otherwise healthy. That's what we're going to talk about the rise in erectile dysfunction pun intended.

Yes, apparently that is funny wording for you. But nice. So erectile dysfunction Episode 54. I don't you told me there's going to be surprised. Yeah.

Yeah. So lately what I've been doing when I get Latin when I latch on to a topic, I pretty much don't tell Eric what we're gonna do. So just kind of see him. And so I thought today would be really funny to see how many times he giggles at the word reptile. So if we count it, it could it could turn into a drinking game. I'm not sure.

Yeah. Okay. Well, fortunately, all natural, sparkling wine. So

that's what we're gonna talk about today, reptile dysfunction. So before we jump into that, I have an ask of anybody who's listening to this. Okay. All right. So this is my ask for the public. I have an amazing team at my office and one of my amazing team members. It gave her two week notice and she's leaving for reasons like all people do, she's getting better opportunities. And I'm proud of her to do this. She helps her deal who is my scheduler work with my patients, and she helps these patients and it's been working really great. So what I'm asking is if anybody listening happens to be super cool, nice, loyal and wants to work with a great team. Or if you know anybody who happens to be super cool, loyal and wants work with a great team. I would like to find somebody to fill this role. There is no medical experience necessary. I'm just looking to hire the personality. So we're just trying to find these cool loyal people go to KB Md health.com kB Md health.com and just hit the Contact Us button. If you know of anybody. Sign up your friends family, we just I really am very proud of my team. I'm very proud of the way that my team takes care of my patients and I'm really going to fill this pretty tough void so I'm reaching out to everybody. Yeah, and if you're watching this show, from far away from Plano does not include commute travel expenses or per diems. So you're probably going to want to be in the area of the clip probably want to be local. Yeah. On your way. And if you're thinking of moving the plane over for Go anyways, I would go ahead and do that. And so, all right, let's do the usual Eric, what's going on with your life?

We're about to renovate our house we moved into about a year ago. And actually today after we finish filming, I've got to go to a builders meeting. And so this is a this is a first a true renovation of a home that we that we live in and feeling that anxious but gonna be displaced for a little bit so I'm not super excited about it, but at the same time, we'll be okay.

Yeah, I mean, I would just to ease your anxiety if you learn more about homebuilding Oh, then you'll feel more comfortable. So I'm gonna recommend a movie called the money pit with Tom Hanks.

That is not the movie.

Showing long and Tom, you'll learn a lot about that. Yeah, I'd say never heard of this movie. Doesn't he say home crap home. As far as me, I've got Lucas in Costa Rica. Today's international tournament right now is in the quarters currently playing. Lucas, let's give it to him. And Carla will be playing out of town this weekend for a large tournament as well. So we got the usual thing going on. And I'm getting my stem cells next week.

You are you're getting stem cells. In fact, he even came down with a little bit of extra pain yesterday in your neck.

I did. Yeah. So it's interesting. I'm really excited to see what this will do. I hurt my neck. surgery was recommended. I've been really trying to avoid surgery. Dr. Wade McKenna was a guest on our show early on. And he's really one of the world's leading stem cells. Definitely. I just happen to be fortunate enough that he's in the DFW Metroplex. So, him and Dr. Jerry Lewis are going to work their magic and I'm going to get a stem cell injection plus a stem cell infusion. And what you and I were talking and yeah, so everyone. So as I do scopes, everyone saw you a little pain, I'll be like, it's I'm still gonna do it. We were talking, you came across some literature, which we will do a whole show on after I do this. All right, about how polyphenols can augment the stem cell stuff, right? Yeah.

So there's a handful of them and kind of on a whim, just knowing that we're research based and wait is certainly research based. And we've talked many times with him about how can we complement each other? Because that way, it's very altruistic. And if you have, if you don't know that, just listen to the episode. And you can learn a lot about what he's given up just to give his patients the best service. But knowing that I was really curious on what do polyphenols do, they could augment what it is that Wade McKenna does at his office. And I mean, it's a simple Google search turned up a lot of articles about, well, I don't want to get into it and give it all away. But yeah, it's it's there.

Well, it's interesting, because you and I both do intermittent fasting. And we know that intermittent fasting causes a tapa G and fasting long enough turns on stem cells, and we know the polyphenols are fasting the medic molecule, correct. So that at least we know that way. But we're gonna do a whole show on that. And we might even be able to get one of these cool scientists come in and talk about it, you know, like we did with Charlene and Sylvia, which I still get a lot of feedback from patients about that. No kidding, is

deep, but I was I'm really proud of our audience that we have. Because y'all, you stick to it, and you really dig in deep to the to the material. And I mean, how many times do we in the show going, man, I hope that wasn't too thick. And the next thing you know, we get email and patients coming in saying that they love the episode had no idea that such and such worked. And sometimes I'm like, did we say that? No.

Is that what they told us? Yeah, we're getting emails from really all over the world, which is really cool that we got people listening in all different kinds of places. Sure. Um, last episode, we talked about what month is this what day it is, and as it turns out, April right now is stress Awareness Month. Oh, nice stress Awareness Month. And interestingly, we just got our paper published, we just got our study published in the clinical case reports and reviews at the beginning of COVID. To try and help the frontline workers manage it. The title is gastrointestinal symptom and stress recall survey in frontline health care, healthcare workers after consumption of combined quebracho conquer tree embell Salma a wild extract, what that is, is that's the generic term for atrantil. So this will talk about this study on a different date, but I'm very happy that it got published because it was really good results. And as we're gonna get into further into this episode, and then further into the next episode, right, we're gonna get into how maybe polyphenols are really affecting your stress level and different things. Yeah. So and I know what you're gonna do before you interrupt me, I know what you're gonna do. You're like, hey, it's not just stress Awareness Month in April, I realized that April is actually national Awareness Month of a whole bunch of things, like a whole bunch of things like Autism Awareness Month, which is very important, very important. And then and I'm not kidding here. It is.

National safe. Digging month is that we have to call test dig before you hit a line. I

have no idea but I know

you dug deep on that.

I mean, I can just imagine this, you know, I mean, like, for God's sakes, Bill, you're just such a reckless digger. It's April, this is the one month where you got to not do that. It's April. This is not reckless digging. It's safe digging bill. So I just imagine conversations like that happening. I,

I'm not kidding, I think you dial 311 and you find out if they can send someone out to your property and tell you if there's a line or a pipe or something like that before you dig.

They must get inundated in April.

Well, I must have to hire like they couldn't have done it. late February because we were iced over. That's true. So now now's when people I remember being snowed over and you are like, don't you just wish this was all thought? Dig? I

thought for sure you'd at least wonder who bill is and why such a reckless digger. You know? Well, I thought everybody knows who bill is. I know Bill's my pet badger. So Bill, and I've been at odds for a long time about his digging habits at my house. So I'm just hoping that

Well, hopefully Bill's calling 311

I don't know. I'm not. I don't know, Bill. I got him because he was supposed to be the sweet badger. It's called a honey badger. But he's not sweet at all. Oh, not even Nice.

Yeah, no, he's not they never are. Did you have skunks are a badger is a form of badger. I

didn't know that. Yeah, well,

not honey badger. They do not smell like honey whatsoever.

So Bill causes a lot of stress in my life digging everywhere without calling 311. Before doing this a national safe digging month. Why do we even care about stress? Stress affects so many things? Oh, wow. Yeah, super important. Because stress can actually those headaches, you're having the insomnia that's going on this severe fatigue that you're having, you're going to these doctors seeing stuff when actually it could be stress. So it's important to pay attention. And I got to add another layer of stress here. Okay, hate to do this. This is already a very, very stressful time in the pandemic, everything's going on. There is new evidence coming out that COVID is now causing chronic erectile dysfunction in younger men who were completely otherwise healthy. That's terrible. I know. It's like it's not a bad enough virus already.

But so do do the link this back to stress.

And where we're going, we're gonna get into this. So actually, this has actually come up in my clinic several times. So you know, we did the episode about hemorrhoids last time, I do treat a lot of hemorrhoids. And once you're doing that with somebody, I think that they feel comfortable enough bringing up other potentially difficult topics like erectile dysfunction. So I've been seeing a trend of younger men asking me questions about erectile dysfunction. And after the first one mentioned that this kind of all started after they had COVID. I started asking, and most of these people have had COVID. Interesting. Yeah. So this is why we're doing this episode, I went down a proverbial badger hole. And we're gonna try and solve this

just trying to sort kind of our categories here are these same men? I guess you mentioned hemorrhoids. Are these same people also afflicted with hemorrhoids? If I do hemorrhoids, what's going on there?

Well, it's this is an interesting topic also, because that's something else that I want to look into in the future, there is some correlation with large hemorrhoids leading to what's called venous Steele syndrome is a whole separate topic. It just happens to be that the people I treat are also the same ones that are coming to me for hemorrhoids, right? So if all you have is a hammer that everything's a nail, Cheryl, I'm trying to think outside the box and go, Why in the world would this do this? And so I started researching it. And lo and behold, a new report was just published, which confirmed my suspicion. So a study was just recently published out of Italy, showing that COVID-19 increases the risk of developing chronic erectile dysfunction, nearly six fold. I must say that again, if you get COVID, and you're a young male, you may have thought that it was perfectly smooth and easy. And you got through it. You have a six fold increase in developing erectile dysfunction. It's terrible. And then they backtracked with the data a little bit. And then they realize that those that were already diagnosed with erectile dysfunction had a five fold increase of contracting the virus. That works now both ways. The second part makes a little bit of sense, and we'll get into that, but this study was led by Dr. Giannini, who is a professor of endocrinology and medical sexology at the University of Rome. It was published in andrology. I just liked the idea of being double board certified and sexology and endocrinology.

Yeah, I didn't know that was an option.

I didn't know it was either. I'm gonna go get double board.

That's it. I mean, it doesn't sound like it wouldn't be entertaining.

This was just published just last month. In this paper, they explained that ultimately, the underlying issue and erectile dysfunction is endothelial dysfunction attorneys gonna keep coming up over and over. Okay? Now this is a super complex process. And I'm going to go into this in in detail in just a few minutes. But basically in their study design, they did an online survey early on in the pandemic. So they discovered this very early. We don't know what these numbers are now that we're a year into the pandemic. And they compare to erectile dysfunction. People that fill out the survey versus non erectile dysfunction groups EDI for short, and accounted for other variabilities like psychological stress locked down financial stress, they took those out, they're looking strictly at COVID at COVID on this one. So they were able to get 100 adults, and they use what's called a logistic regression model, which is why you hire statisticians to do these kind of papers for you.

Yes.

And they came up with those numbers, that after getting COVID, the likelihood of developing EDI was six fold higher than those that were not infected. Wow, I crazy, right? And their conclusion is that erectile dysfunction is all about the endo phillium. And those are the layers that line the blood vessels right now it's starting to go, that makes sense. Because we know that COVID creates a lot of different problems. And so that's when I went, Oh, my gosh, this makes sense. So, in there, Dr. Giannini must have a sense of humor, because in the paper, they actually said you should, it gives a whole new meaning to wearing the mask mask up to keep it up is what the doctor said. So I guess, somebody that's double board and endocrinology and sexology can make jokes like that and still get published. Yeah, respected journals. I tried that there's no way to be accepted. And so what he's saying is wearing the mask could potentially prevent you from getting COVID and also protect your prevent you from getting sexual dysfunction. And they're plausible mechanism by which COVID-19 may impact directly on the endothelial cells, leading to a reptile dysfunction. So in the paper, they go on to describe we're now seeing all these COVID long holders, right seeing patients that show up with neurologic complications, cardiac complications, pulmonary complications, we also know that people were having cardiac events, and they're having strokes. It all comes down to the inflammation in the endothelial lining the endothelial lines, all these origins, but more importantly, it lines the blood vessels supplying the organs. So the concern specifically is that the virus is directly damaging these endothelial cells. And this is how some people feel the virus causes long term damage, not just to those origins, but if you're otherwise healthy, it could hurt it could cause long term damage to your penis.

I don't want that. No,

this is I mean, this is kind of shocking stuff to think about it, but it makes sense because we're gonna get into the physiology of the penis. Here. Oh, by the way, I'm just got my master's in psychology. I'm not a doctorate yet. Not double board certified, but I just got my master's.

I don't know when you had the time

an hour ago, when I was preparing for this podcast.

That does not sound like an accredited school.

I is one of those online things. And that's one of the really reputable hard to get into, like University of Phoenix. I mean, it was, you know, Danna college, online school. So interesting. Yeah, we'll see

what it we'll see what you learned.

What I thought was interesting that somebody for 400 bucks, they gave me the title and then I Danna is where I went to undergrad. They close,

they are not around anymore.

So then another study. So then I started going down, and I looked at this and I was like, Okay, we got one study that looked at the actual a pool of people that had this. And then another study recently conducted, what they did is they made the correlation between COVID and erectile dysfunction. And their conclusion was that they assumed that the increase in cardiovascular and pulmonary complications is what is driving the erectile dysfunction.

I mean, it makes sense it, I guess, I guess what I'm what I think you're leaning to or that this information is leading us towards is that COVID basically kicks off this systemic inflammation problem. And that being the case. inflammation, once again, is the root of long term and chronic disease. And knowing that erectile dysfunction happens to be one of the manifestations of

and so that's what I want to get out here. You're exactly right, local or systemic inflammation, because all inflammation starts local and when it leads to a cytokine release on whatever episode that was that we did the innate immune system. Do you have any idea of why we believe that the end endothelial cells with a blood vessel cells are so ravaged by SARS cov, two or COVID,

probably because of angiotensin converting enzyme receptors, Estill receptors.

That's exactly it. So in this particular study and another one in the Journal of endocrinology investigation, what they said was that we had to be very careful because we know that SARS cov, two binds to the h2 receptor to get into the cell is access. That's its access. So the final conclusion of all these articles is that we now know that COVID can have both a direct and indirect effect on your penis. It's terrible. nobody's talking about that now, and this could just be the beginning. Like we don't really know like this. The data they published six fold increase was a very small number of people because it was early on in the pandemic, right? I mean, kudos to Dr. Giannini, who was thinking about erectile dysfunction when we didn't even know that SARS cov. Two was, yeah,

I mean, I'm amazed continually who hopped on board early to know that these were things to be testing for so early in the game.

Yeah. So the so the study that we just got published, we were working on this way back in April. I know we're working on

a Yeah, working on in April, launching in May.

Yeah. Working on an April launching in May, finalizing June, July, August. And then you go through all these revisions and so that, I mean, he really, he really worked hard to get this out. So more stress for stress Awareness Month. So I'm gonna, I'm throwing a lot at you. Let's just recap. Because right now, this is stuff that nobody's talking about.

Yeah, no, right. I mean, I don't know where to begin with the recap. But I do believe that what we need to talk about is how can you prepare your body to successfully harness and Okay, let's just say that someone gets COVID. Yeah, I don't want them to worry perpetually, that they won't ever be able to imagine a life without EDI. And in sorry, for the moment, I'm gonna give you all play by play. Ken is on the ground. He's looking for a cable. Yes. And he just found it. And he wants, he wants me to keep talking. But what he's doing is quite dangerous. He's touching things, he's unplugging things. And I can guarantee you he did not call 311 before he started to dig down there, and then that mess of wires. Alright, however, he's back, I think you're muted. So that was really bad. So what I was saying is, is I think that regardless of what causes or triggers a cascade of inflammation, even if it happens to be COVID-19, you want to be certain that your body is prepared to not allow inflammation to run out of control.

Absolutely. and protect your endothelial lining everywhere, right?

And long term inflammation will be destroying that your healthy cells will be competing with out of control inflammation to 100%.

So we're gonna eventually talk about how to protect yourself. Okay, but not on this episode. This is part one, part two, we're gonna be getting some cool science. Yeah, I just learned that. I know. Okay, but you're but you're on the right track your your level two Polly phonologists. So we're gonna be talking about that. But to actually understand this, I don't think many people really know what erectile dysfunction is. I mean, it gets talked about all the time. There's commercials and all this stuff.

Yeah. Well, okay, where do you Where do you want to go?

Let's start. Let's start with the definition. Okay. By definition, erectile dysfunction is defined in the medical literature as the inability to achieve or maintain an erection sufficient for satisfactory sexual performance.

Yeah, that sounds awful.

Yeah. very vague from medical definition also.

Yeah, because that's how medical things are written.

I just imagine this, this process with your with your partner and cheer he or she goes, you know, really should go see somebody about that. And then your responses, why we just had sex for two hours. And then shear your partner goes, That's not enough. I need at least three hours and by the medical definition, I'm not fully satisfied, therefore you have erectile dysfunction. You got Ed.

I don't think that we're a good match.

The definition was sufficient for satisfactory sexual performance. What is your satisfactory 100%

not everything written in the medical journal is tested for for common communication I had

and I'm not making So when I did residency, I worked in the geriatric clinic so you do internal medicine, you get assigned to clinic. I love doing the geriatric clinic, as I spent most of the time taking drugs away. 85 year old male 83 year old female, super smart. They came to the clinic. Because her complaint was, Oh, yes. Her complaint was that something is wrong, because they're only intimate three times a week. And for the past 60 years, good. There was awesome. I'm like, Oh, my. And so I went and when when you're in residency, you have to present it to the attendings. And every attending was like a maintenance couple. No kidding. Yeah. So they're apparently at 85, three times a week was considered EDI, in this case, because they had a different expectation, then everyone. Come on, man. Post stemcell. We don't even go to Padre anymore. I'm freaking 90. It's like, you know,

14 days always going to bed at two three in the morning. He won't even stay up and dance.

Is this. I'm gonna I'm sorry, ma'am. Why are you here? He's like, Bill just doesn't want to rave anymore. It's because bills and

bills shows up a lot.

Bill. So anyways, I just think it's funny because whatever your definition of EDI, it's kind of like what your definition is. But I think most people can agree that the inability to achieve interaction or lose interaction is a big deal, right. And prior to COVID, it was projected that 322 million men worldwide will have significant erectile dysfunction by 2025. My prediction is that post COVID this may be a much, much bigger deal. We may be seeing a ton more.

That worldwide, worldwide. Okay. That's a lot. It's still quite a bit, but just south of 8 billion people. 322 million seeking care. Oh, seeking care. Wow. That's good point. Yeah. Wow. That's awful. Yeah. A lot of people. That's a lot of unhappy couples, for sure.

Yeah, for sure. Alright, so you're ready to talk some sexology it's good. All right, we're gonna talk about the process of an erection.

Okay, so it sounds to me like we're gonna be talking about blood flow and what stimulates that and how those things work.

This is kind of a PG episode. Yeah, because we got it because it's just off the topic, but we're gonna be science is the topic. Alright. Remember that? The process of an erection is very complex. Actually. I forgot how complex this was. It's multifactorial. You need to have a balance of psychological hormonal, neurological, vascular and anatomic factors. any alteration anywhere can actually affect the whole process.

Yes, no penis, no erection.

This is true. No. Unless you're like, mentally on a different level.

No blood. No. I mean, we're picking up what you're putting down what's going

on down here. I have a penile gland erection. I've achieved enlightenment. I can make my pineal gland. your pineal gland is in your brain. I'm sorry. I'm assuming Everybody knows that.

Yeah,

maybe you do gland is also pronounced but

yeah, that's that's honestly, I just nodded. I didn't know what the hell you're talking. I was

trying to make a pun.

Yeah. It's called the third eye. But it's up here. Yeah.

So anyways, a lots going on. This is super complex. Alright, I'm going to go Bill Nye science guy on you. Okay. And so I built a prop before you got here.

This will be interesting. I hope that if you're not, if you're one of the 1000s that are online, you just go back to this part of the show and look at whatever the heck is

planed. Everyone what's going on here and we will walk through a reaction. I thought we would do.

Yeah, it looks like that's what we're gonna

do. But can you describe what I just put on the table there It looks

to me like to dish sponges with a two retractable those little squishy key ring holders holding the two sponges together. And on one end, you have a long hot dog balloon filled with water. And I can only imagine that what we're going to do here is show what happens when blood flow arrives in a typical man's penis. You are exactly

right. So what we're gonna do here is Oh, yes. So let's walk through the process. Okay. So first step, your brain,

which is probably on this end,

somewhere way on the other end of that way over here, okay? So your brain find something arousing They could be anything for anybody, okay? And that arousing that arousal without knowing it, a signal is sent through your nerves, okay? To a nerve in the endothelial cells of your penis, and we're going to talk specifically about that. And what it does is it releases a chemical that we're all that we talked about all the time. acetylcholine, acetylcholine Yeah. And then what acetylcholine does is it actually hops onto the endothelial cells, the lining of the sponge hops there. And the acetylcholine actually creates this calcium mediated conversion of Argentine to nitric oxide. And people talk about nitric oxide all the time about vezo dilation. We've talked about it before on different episodes for sports using polyphenols for sports, right? So they see the Coleen calcium mediated channel opens up arginine gets converted to nitric oxide, and then nitric oxide is the key to this whole process. Okay. So nitric oxide, what it does is, it goes through this very interesting process of turning on something called the cgmp, the cyclic guanosine monophosphate, which opens up potassium and calcium channels. And what that does, is that stimulates increased blood flow represented by the balloon, notice that my hand is trapping the blood flow there. So right now the nitric oxide stimulated by acetylcholine turned on by the brain has opened up blood flow to these spongy areas here, known as the corpus cavernosum. The corpus cavernosum is filled with blood vessels and so blood rushes in. And then these swell up and it actually traps the blood, right? And this is the actual process of having an erection. So you need the mental component. You need the proper amino acids you need the proper health and the nitric oxide. Why is the nitric oxide so important? Because in the next episode, we're gonna talk about what COVID does to this whole process, okay, and as it turns out, affecting the endothelial cells is the key. Because when the endothelial cells don't do this process, you cannot achieve this, okay? So, when you are done being aroused, the cgmp is then broken down by an enzyme called phospho. diaster, Ace, five, PD five. And then the blood is slowly allowed to leave the cleaners, and you go back to its natural state. And so that fossil diaster race is important also, because once you achieve arousal, and once you're no longer aroused, the penis goes back to its normal state. That's the thing that created that made Pfizer into a multi multi billion dollar business, some scientist was trying to work on a high blood pressure medicine, to increase nitric oxide to vezo dilate the blood so that you drop your blood pressure. And if you remember the history of that one, they were doing a clinical study and none of the men returned their unused samples unused. And then that's when, you know, some poor scientists is like my life's work is ruined, I'll never fix high blood pressure, nobody ate something much better

here again.

And that is what is now known as Viagra, it actually blocks that enzyme that allows this to be released. And so this is all happening on the endothelial cells. And so once that enzyme gets blocked, then you can actually maintain an erection longer and all the other things and all the other TV commercials regarding those whole class of medicines. Now, there are phosphodiesterase five inhibitors, one little enzyme is what MIT turned it into a billion dollar industry. And so this is all happening right there to endothelial cells. So if there's any inflammation or damage to those cells, this whole process can't be achieved. Yeah. No matter how much you want to will it right, like there's more going on than that. So would you like to recap the process? Wow, that is a lot. And you don't really have to say the sciency words I just want to see you squeezing the balloon

I can see. So essentially arousal, if endothelial cells are now stimulated, so that they can be dilated and that occurs because arginine is then converted into nitric oxide, which then of course has cgmp. And suddenly now we have a place for this high pressure blood flow to go. And I see I'm having problems. Probably more the reason why you want

to be so anxiety can also I'm very nervous isn't working.

But anyway, so now we have an erection because what we have here is the positive. Well all four all four measures were met. And our endothelial cells are allowed to becoming gorged, and then suddenly now phospho diaster race arrives, because we're finished, and blood flow returns back to normal, and

you're good to go. 100%. So let's look at a couple health issues that tend to have more reptile dysfunction. So diabetes, definitely Oh man, poor

vasculature,

poor vasculature. You can have neuropathy, you don't have the nerves traveling secreting the acetylcholine, you have some vasculopathy. So your arteries look like the tail end of this in the middle. So there's things that can happen with that. hypertension is another one chronic hypertension. Definitely. So chronic hypertension, it can lead to issues with erectile dysfunction. Both of those have increased h2 receptors in the endothelial cells. Yeah.

So you got better access for that COVID if you happen to be infected, so now you've got it's kind of like, multiplying the damage.

Yes, exactly. And which also makes sense why people with prior reptile dysfunction had a five fold increase in developing significant COVID. Kind of makes sense.

Yeah, it does. It's just more Ace to receptors present. Yeah.

So you know, it's a very crude model, Bill Nye science guy kind of thing here.

Oh, I think you really hit it on the park.

I imagine walking around the studio trying to find things that I can like, you know, what I really want to do I want to do, I want to find something that that signifies the corpus cavernosum. It's a spongy, like smooth muscle sponge. Yes.

Yeah, like that. I don't remember anybody talking about the key ring holder. But I mean, regardless, it works. Trust me. I

thought of a lot of different ways how to make sure that the sponge is bad, though. I

mean, that's kind of how tissues functions.

Yeah. Yeah. So you have this. This is a smooth muscle. So anything that affects smooth muscle can actually affect this. Yeah. So that's how come we always talk about increasing sports performance, increasing nitric oxide, having the proper diet, all these things play into a role. So having the proper diet, maintaining healthy lifestyle, exercising increases? Oh, here's a great example. I was thinking about this. I was like, why is exercise so important? Well, exercise increases BDNF in your brain, oh, decreased neuro inflammation, allowing for more sensitivity allowing for more acetylcholine to go through. We know from Angie's Angie being on a guest. On the episode, she discussed how TNF an inflammatory marker decreases acetylcholine. So the more chronic inflammation you have, the higher likelihood you will not have the proper amount acetylcholine. So there's something else there, then we get into the vascular aspect of this, with regular exercise in good sleep, you have increased or improved vascular tone. So it all kind of plays into this

is something that we didn't talk about in the breakdown on on the stimuli for where acetylcholine is coming from. And just a brief thing, but if I remember correctly, I think that the parasympathetic nervous system is actually the catalyst right for the release of acetylcholine. And if you can't rest, and you don't have good vagal tone, then you then just like you said earlier, you won't have the correct neurotransmitters to make this happen. That comes with great rest, which helps lower your anxiety. How can you get great rest you exercise is a cyclical thing. You're

You know what? I'm so glad you brought that up, because this is something we learned in med school. And I forgot to because it wasn't discussed in any of these articles, and I kind of stopped at that. But you're exactly right. To achieve an orgasm. I need the parasympathetic system to get that acetylcholine to start on sorry, to achieve an erection to achieve an orgasm, you need your sympathetic. Yeah. And so that sympathetic drops all these things maintaining this, which is why you go back to your normal state post or in

your phospho das races now present. Yes, yeah. phosphodiesterase is released, you break down cgmp blood flow is allowed to leave. And that's a really cool, fascinating thing, which is that people who have great vagal tone generally are exercising and don't have chronic anxiety. They usually have great rest, they typically eat well. Good. When we have patients who show up in the clinic or at the procedure, the procedure suite, they'll have a low heart rate. They generally have good physique and are healthy. They're either runner, cyclers lifters, crossfitters, whatever happens to be but today they're active, they vigorous lots, lots and lots and lots of diggers. But But I guess I'm just saying it augments in order to prepare for something like, like COVID you really just want to be in shape. You just want to take care of yourself. You want to give yourself that health span. We've we Sitting on services.

Yeah and this this can be done through a lot of different ways. Just getting up and getting some. Oh my gosh. So while I was waiting for you to come over I get done with clinic a little early turned on. Brian Reagan has special at Red Rocks. Oh nice. I didn't know there was one. Oh, it's he's just I just you know he's just good. We're both big fans of stand up comedy huge big fan of stand up comedy. It's called Reagan on the rocks. And I'm I'm didn't look it up. But it the way you describe it. I think it's red rocks in Colorado. Oh, it's

gotta be it was outdoor. Yeah,

yeah. And it's like this amphitheater type style, outdoor rocks. And he was like, he was Yeah, I'm at that age. I'm going to doctors all the time. My doctor said, Brian, you need to quit being so sedentary. As he goes, right? Then I promised myself I need to get a dictionary. And never got around to it. I just lay around the house all day. So but I thought that was funny because he's never I just get out and do something, just get moving a little bit. you increase the blood flow, increase your body's responsiveness, your vagal tone. And then other issues that you may have problems with. The interesting thing is how many people how many men will avoid other health issues? Until erectile dysfunction comes up? Yeah. Which is, which I think is you ask a lot of people yeah, that that'll be the thing. They'll drive into a doctor? Yeah, I

think guys are just generally just I don't know what it is. But guys are just generally that way about health care in, in total. Agreed? Yeah.

So this is part one, because I didn't want to go on for way too long. This is still I think we're, we're having a decent time here. We're a little bit shorter than we normally do. But that's probably Yeah. But that's probably a good thing, because maybe we try and pack too much in all the time. So part two is going to be what can you do to make sure that you protect your penis, okay? How polyphenols on a molecular level work to take care of it, prevent it. And it all comes down to everything you're talking about inflammation and how it does it the amount that you need to take, how do you increase your nitric oxide all of the above. And spoiler, it is going to be all about inflammation. And I'm just I'm looking at the products that that are near and dear to my heart. I tried to polyphenol blend CBD didn't find anything directly related to nitric oxide. But there's a lot of evidence that CBD decreasing anxiety definitely allows a greater vagal tone and acetylcholine release. And of course, brockagh lead with sulforaphane in it decreasing NF Kappa beta, which we'll get into, which is all about inflammation. So

that awesome episode, great introduction to what people struggle with and shouldn't be ashamed to go and seek help

now. And I think that we'll be able to explain how to protect yourself from this, which ultimately is protecting your overall health, which ultimately protects you from COVID. And if you've been a maybe a little bit Cavalier towards COVID. Yeah, this is one of those things that kind of gets you thinking twice a little bit. Yeah,

definitely no awesome episode.

Yeah. Hey, this is I mean, I don't know if you want to try this at all, but it is a little

bit soothing to move the water back and forth. Do you remember those those, those little things that used to have the inverted water below the water? Snake? Water? Snake? Yeah, you try to hang on to it and go all over the place? Yeah, that's similar to that.

It is similar to that. But so anyways, I've submitted a patent as a teaching tool once I get my psychology degree. So I was told to tell you, you're not going to get that.

That is going to be Episode 54. Be certain to turn in our are we going to do the follow up on 55?

We're going to develop on 55. Yes. So 55 is going to be all about the science and what you can do to protect your penis, protect your health. And we're going to continue with, you know, battling COVID by prevention, not just when this happens, you know, it's this thing that we talked about what we've done, I don't remember how long that was vitamin D and all the usual stuff. I don't know either. But it's all it's funny how this is just becoming this multi circle Venn diagram and everything's landing right in the middle. And that middle is inflammation all the time.

Definitely. Oh, almost forgot, this show is not meant for medical advice. So if you have any issues with erectile dysfunction, or any other health concern, please consult the doctors that you know, and this is technically just a show that we just talked about things that happen to be in health.

It is it's just a show. But the other thing is that the whole point of the show is to also try and help one person so if somebody is having an issue, and they agree checked out because of this because they found the weird sponge thing, entertaining or not entertaining, then we've done our job.

Absolutely. So Episode 54. No joke. Not one from you about car 54 I'm shocked with all of your your lame dad jokes. I honestly expected you to show up with like a cop hat and a spinning red light or something like that.

I took my because my employer was put it two weeks and I took the staff out. Yeah, we are at a restaurant. And of course I'm throwing out and the waitress, same age as all my employees. they impart that my employees apologize, so he's gonna throw these out all night. She's like, Oh, don't worry, I'm totally down with that jokes. I'm like

my boys have it doesn't matter how funny I think a meme is. I send it to them and they but they just type back seven years ago. It's all I get back.

It's all you buy for both Mac engaged. So tune in next week for more dad jokes, I

guess tons of dad jokes. Alright, that's gonna be Episode 54. Thank you so much for liking shared, certainly if you have a concern, rewatch and then tune in for Episode 55 or get some follow up on what can be done to naturally protect yourself from hopefully,

yeah, and and and in all seriousness, if you have a friend or anybody that has discussed this with you or something like that, make sure that they listen to this because it could be an early sign of something else. Definitely that could that could save their life.

Thank you all very much. We'll see you next time. Bye bye.

What is Gut Check Project?

Improve your health & quality of life, find the truth between natural and medical science. Join Ken and Co-host Eric Rieger on the GCP, and get an unfiltered approach to your health as they host guests from all over the world. Nothing is off limits. Step in and get your gut checked...Ken (Kenneth Brown, MD) is a board certified gastroenterologist that turned his private practice into a hotbed of innovation. Ken has long been intrigued on how to best care for his patients. He challenged big pharma and developed an all natural solution (Atrantil) for bloating and symptoms of IBS. That lead him to dig deeper and find more answers and uses for polyphenols. Then he began to help his patients that were suffering from inflammation, not only in their guts, but their entire bodies, including neuro/brain & immune issues. Dr. Brown has tackled serious issues with natural and proven methods that his patients love him for. But he is not finished. The Gut Check Project exists to find better answers for you in all aspects of health. Experts in all fields of study, industry, and interest will be found on the GCP. Eric (Eric Rieger, CRNA) is Ken's business partner and actually met Ken while delivering anesthesia to his patients in 2012. Eric saw first hand the passion that Ken had for his patients, his support staff, and for the answers that could improve people's lives. Eric enjoys science and research swell, and has a passion for helping people find sensible means to take care of themselves, but always armed with the best information. Join the GCP and SUBSCRIBE AND SHARE!!!!