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The healthier you eat, the better your sex life will be
July 24, 2006
YOU DON'T NECESSARILY HAVE TO DIP
THEM IN CHOCOLATE: Strawberries are among the "bright"
foods that are high inantioxidants and may improve your sex life.
IF THE risk of heart disease, diabetes and other chronic illness
isn't compelling enough to prompt better eating habits, maybe this
is.
The healthier your diet, the better your sex life.
The same foods that help maintain cardiovascular
health can improve sexual function, even preserve it into middle
age and beyond, according to authors of a new book, "Great
Food, Great Sex."
The plumbing is all connected," says co-author
and New York-based health psychologist Lynn Edlen-Nezin. "Everything
you do that insults your heart insults your sexual organs, and everything
that's good for your heart is good for your sexual function."
Put simply, clear, healthy, properly-fueled blood
vessels may mean adequate blood flow to where it counts.
That doesn't bode well for the sex lives of millions
of Americans who already have heart disease.
That "cardiosexual" crisis led Edlen-Nezin
and Robert Fried to develop an eating plan that protects the heart,
by extension, and promotes sexual vitality.
The plan, featured in their book, emphasizes two
cardiovascular principles: 1) Arteries must be healthy and clear
of the plaque that hampers blood flow throughout the body, including
the sex organs, and 2) Blood vessels need specific nutrients —
nitrogen and an amino acid called L-arginine — to create the
gas that improves blood flow.
The first principle is well established. The second
is a new area of research. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
is currently funding a study to determine whether diet can produce
nitric oxide in the body.
In any case, both principles rely on dietary rules
that ought to be familiar by now. Fruits and vegetables: good. Lean
meats: good. Whole grains: good. Antioxidants: good. Cholesterol
and saturated fat: bad.
"The Great Food, Great Sex" plan identifies
three important food factors:
-Greens and beans: Nitrogen-rich vegetables and
legumes help your blood vessels produce nitric oxide, the gas that
triggers vessel dilation critical to sexual performance and pleasure.
-The Staminators: Meats and nuts high in the amino
acid L-arginine also help your body produce nitric oxide.
-The Brights: Brightly colored foods and drinks
with plenty of antioxidants to combat the free radicals that can
clog and damage arteries.
Sure, the food-and-sex transaction is chemically
complex. Think of it this way: If nitrogen and L-arginine are the
bank deposits, nitric oxide is the debit card that delivers the
goods.
Nitric oxide triggers a biochemical process that
ultimately leads to relaxed arteries in the sex organs when they're
stimulated. When those arteries are relaxed, they can dilate and
flush with the blood that causes sexual arousal, key to sexual performance
and satisfaction.
But, alas. Nitric oxide only lasts so long, especially
in people with high blood pressure.
That's where the first two food factors, and yes,
Viagra, come in.
The right foods provide the ingredients that the
body needs to produce nitric oxide. Viagra essentially prolongs
the effect of nitric oxide.
"It's like the rabbit and the turtle,"
Fried says. "Viagra is quicker, but that's not the point. The
point is that, like the turtle, you will get there reliably with
nutrition."
The third food factor, antioxidants, promotes sexual
function by helping to keep arteries clog-free. Plaque buildup inhibits
blood flow in the sex organs just as it does in the coronary arteries.
Cardiologists frequently see patients who have
both.
The consequences are the same, whether plaque builds
in the coronary arteries or farther south, says Brent Muhlestein,
director of cardiovascular medicine at LDS Hospital.
"That artery gets atherosclerosis blockage
just like any other artery does," he says. "If it gets
plugged up, it doesn't work."
Antioxidants help fight the destructive effects
of free radicals, wayward oxygen molecules that link with cholesterol
to make the sludge that cakes and damages arteries.
Don't set your sexual expectations too high.
While well within the Great Sex food plan, a dinner
of chicken marsala and Greek salad won't bring a banner night in
bed later on.
"This is not a one-meal Viagra," Edlen-Nezin
says. "No one should expect that."
Nor will it cure all sexual dysfunction, which
has a number of physiological and psychological roots.
For example, it won't alleviate body-image insecurities
that hamper some women's ability to enjoy or even engage in sex.
It won't replenish the hormonal deficiencies that
sap menopausal and post-menopausal women's libido. Promising research
in testosterone replacement may yield assistance in that department.
Read the complete news article here:
http://www.insidebayarea.com/bayarealiving/ci_4088034http://www.pharmaceutical-business-review.com/article_news.asp?guid=87021249-23B1-4C5A-9F3D-A888BC174613
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