How to Increase Your Sex Drive
Experiencing Low Sex Drive? Try These Expert-Recommended Methods to Increase Your Libido
Experiencing Low Sex Drive? Try These Expert-Recommended Methods to Increase Your Libido
Wanting to have sex wherever and whenever is a stereotype that lots of people associate with men.
For that exact reason, it must be fairly alarming when, at times, the moment to get busy comes, only for you to discover you’re just not feeling it. This leaves you forced to ask an uncomfortable question: What is going on below the waist? Is something wrong with me… or my penis?
The fact of the matter is that there’s nothing inherently wrong with having a lower or higher sex drive.
But if you find that you’re aroused less frequently than you’d like to be (or than you used to be), it could be a sign that something’s wrong — and there are some things you can do to get your sex drive up and running again.
Below, you’ll find essential tips and tricks that experts have recommended if you’re looking for a surefire way to increase your libido.
Tips for Boosting Your Sex Drive
1. Plenty of Exercise (in Moderation, That Is)
Staying physically fit is not only good for your overall health, but can also help boost your sex drive. While the science linking exercise to sexual libido is limited, Dr. Naveed Saleh, a medical writer who specializes in biology and psychology, says there are specific physical activities that may help, including swimming, walking, kegels, and yoga.
Another option? Hitting the weights. “Some experts believe that strength training boosts libido a bit more than cardio exercises — such as working the elliptical trainer or treadmill — do,” writes Saleh. “This phenomenon could be because strength training is better at relieving stress than cardio is.”
A (maybe-not-so-small) caveat on exercise, however, would be the opposite effect that chronic training can have on a man’s sex drive. According to Saleh, habitual exercise can actually decrease libido, in some cases.
“In a study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, researchers found that exposure to increased levels of endurance training on a regular basis (eg. marathon training) was significantly correlated with lower libido scores in men,” he writes.
So yes, get in the gym and pump some iron, but don’t overdo it.
2. Maintain a Healthy Diet
It’s not the sexiest piece of advice, but eating foods that won’t make your body hate you is another solid way to help you get your mojo back in the bedroom.
Health experts are quick to point out that there aren’t any foods directly linked to an increased sex drive. What’s more at play, they say, is treating your body right so that you can reach your full physical potential, whether that’s sexually and otherwise.
According to registered dietician Betty Kovacs Harbolic, your diet is a key factor when it comes to staving off medical conditions like diabetes, which can lead to erectile dysfunction, and obesity, which can impact sex drive, desire, and performance.
“Keeping your blood sugar under control is the key,” she notes. “A diet rich in vegetables, lean meats, whole grains, and fresh fruit and with limited quantities of sugar, refined grains, and processed foods is one of the keys to this.”
3. Give (the Right) Herbal Supplements a Try
There are various pills and potions out there that will purportedly help kick your sex life into a higher gear, but experts say you have a right to be skeptical.
Likewise, popular opinion would suggest that a number of foods — chocolate, oysters, and strawberries — are natural aphrodisiacs, but good luck trying to find scientific evidence to support those theories.
What you should look into are the natural herbal remedies that science does support. In a review of scientifically-proven herbal aphrodisiacs, a trio of researchers in India laid out the case for several natural supplements that actually get the job done.
Some of these include:
tribulus terrestris, a flowering plant native to warm temperate and tropical regions which is known to improve libido and increase testosterone;mondeia whitei, a medicinal plant endemic to Africa that’s used to increase libido and manage low sperm count; andeurycoma longifolia, a flowering plant found in Southeast Asia that “increases male virility and sexual prowess during sexual activities.”
As for most supplements you’ll find out there? Many have a placebo effect, at best, so buyer beware.
4. Don’t Overdo the Booze
Liquid courage may act as support in a sexual situation, but it’s also equally capable of ruining the night’s vibe, as any man who’s ever been afflicted with so-called “whiskey dick” would know.
“Alcohol is a depressant, and using it heavily can dampen mood, decrease sexual desire, and make it difficult for a man to achieve erections or reach an orgasm while under the influence,” writes Dr. Chris Iliades, freelance medical writer and journalist. “In fact, overdoing it on booze is a common cause of erectile dysfunction.”
That doesn’t mean you have to swear off alcohol entirely, but cutting back could certainly be helpful. The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention defines moderate drinking as no more than two drinks a day for men.
“The liver can only break down the amount of alcohol in about one standard-size drink an hour, so regularly drinking more than that means that toxins from alcohol can build up in your body and affect your organs, including those involved in sex,” notes Iliades.
5. Keep Stress Levels to a Minimum
Sex can relieve stress for some, but the presence of stress prior to doing the deed can also prevent you from being able to fully participate in it. Maybe you’re worried about something going on at work, or maybe you got into a fight with a friend and haven’t found a way to fix it yet.
Whatever the stressor, getting it up just seems impossible with your mind elsewhere.
“For millions of men, erectile dysfunction is nothing more than a stress response that triggers a classic mind-body phenomenon,” says Dr. Andrew Goliszek, associate professor of anatomy and physiology at North Carolina A&T State University. “Sexual activity is under the control of the autonomic or involuntary nervous system; i.e., we have no conscious control over it.”
According to Goliszek, chronic stress is essentially the kryptonite of your sex hormones. “In order to fight stress, our body shuts down sex mechanisms so that we’re better able to deal with more urgent and immediate needs,” he explains.
Identifying the problem at the source is an important first step in combating the impact of stress on your sex drive. Sharing what has you stressed with your partner, rather than trying to ignore what’s bothering you, is actually the only solution some men need. If more intervention is needed, you can also try meditation, breathing exercises, or yoga.
6. Get a Decent Night’s Sleep
As sleep impacts just about every facet of your well-being, it should come as no surprise that catching quality zZzs is paramount if you want to reignite your sex drive. What you may not know is that the relationship between sex and sleep is actually a two-way street.
While noting that more research is needed, Eric Suni, staff writer at Sleep Foundation, says evidence is increasingly suggesting “that quality sleep can promote a better sex life, and a healthy sex life can facilitate improved sleep.” Thus, they go hand-in-hand, maybe even more than you realized.
What does a decent night’s sleep look like, exactly? If you’re anywhere between age 18 and 60, the CDC recommends seven or more hours per night. Making sure as much of that sleep is uninterrupted as possible is also important, allowing your body to run through the sleep cycles needed to enable “truly restorative sleep.”
“Insufficient and fragmented sleep can exacerbate conditions like depression and anxiety,” notes Suni. “These disorders are often related to sexual dysfunction in women and men because of their influence on sexual desire and arousal.”
Moreover, he says poor sleep can create relationship problems that also hinder sexual health by heightening stress and reducing intimacy.
7. Pay a Visit to the Doctor
If you’ve tried everything else without success, it could be time to take the issue to the professionals.
Experts say a lower sex drive can be a sign of an underlying medical problem, such as heart disease, diabetes, or hormonal imbalances. You could also discover that a medication you’ve been taking to deal with something like high blood pressure or depression may be having an impact; it’s common for anti-anxiety or depression medications to impact sex drive.
Whatever the case may be, your doctor should be able to get you sorted and on your way back to a happy, healthy sex life.
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Source: AskMen
