Lots of erections prevent impotence in old age, uplifting study says
Now, this advice shouldn’t be too hard to follow.
Regular erections could be the key to a good sex life in old age, a new study has found.
The uplifting research, published this week in Science, found that connective tissue cells in the penis, called fibroblasts, play a vital role in erectile function.
“Fibroblasts are the most abundant cells in the penis of both mice and humans, but they have been neglected in research,” Eduardo Guimaraes, the first author of the paper, said in a statement.
“Now we can show, using a very precise method called optogenetics, that they have a very important role in regulating blood flow in the penis, which is what makes the penis erect,” he added.
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University in Sweden gave mice regular erections by stimulating a region in their brain responsible for arousal and then analyzed the fibroblasts.
The study found that fibroblasts cause the blood vessels in the penis to widen, leading to longer-lasting erections.
The effectiveness of this process depends on the number of fibroblasts — meaning that the more erections a man has, the more fibroblasts are available to help him stay erect in the future.
They also found that more erections lead to more fibroblasts and vice versa.
The ability to get an erection decreases as men age, which the researchers suggest could be due to fewer fibroblasts in the penis.
Therefore, the more erections a man has earlier in life, the easier it will be to maintain them in old age.
“It’s not so strange really. If you exert yourself a lot, your body adapts. If you run regularly, it will eventually become easier to breathe while running,” explained Christian Göritz, who led the study.
The basic mechanisms of erection are similar in all mammals, except that men don’t have a bone in their penis, meaning that effective blood flow regulation is probably even more important in humans.
The experts believe that this new information about fibroblasts will spur new treatments for erectile dysfunction — and at least one could be very enjoyable.
Erectile dysfunction — which affects nearly 70% of men at age 70 — is often treated with oral medications such as Viagra and Cialis and with a penile implant or vacuum erection device in more severe cases.
For his part, tech mogul Bryan Johnson is literally shocking his member as part of his journey to stay forever young and erect.
However, many experts advise against that intensive treatment therapy, recommending that men stick to more traditional methods.
