Study Says Coffee Can Cut Down on Erectile Dysfunction

A recent study is saying that drinking two to three cups of coffee each day has the potential to slash your risk of experiencing erectile dysfunction by 42 percent. The study was done at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and the researchers believe that it might be thanks to the way that caffeine can relax the arteries and muscles that lead to the penis, which increases the blood flow and gives it a little more freedom to do its thing.

However, there seems to be a sweet area of how much caffeine you should be drinking before it starts to lose a bit of its power. (But just a bit, and still better than not drinking coffee at all.) The study found that men who consumed between 85 and 170 milligrams of caffeine a day were 42 percent less likely to report experiencing erectile dysfunction, while men who consumed between 171 and 303 milligrams of caffeine a day were 39 percent less likely. All of these numbers were in comparison?to men who drank zero to seven milligrams of caffeine in a day.

These findings also stayed true when they were tested on men who were obese or experiencing hypertension, but not in the case of men who had diabetes.

According to?David S. Lopez, Dr.P.H., M.P.H., who is the lead author and assistant professor at UTHealth School of Public Health:

?Even though we saw a reduction in the prevalence of ED with men who were obese, overweight and hypertensive, that was not true of men with diabetes. Diabetes is one of the strongest risk factors for ED, so this was not surprising.”

In the United States somewhere around 18 million men are affected by erectile dysfunction. A reported 18.4 percent of men over the age of 20 have suffered complications from the condition, so there are plenty of people who could use the extra boost and coffee might be one way to do it. The study also looked at caffeine from sources other than coffee, including?tea, soda, and even caffeinated sports drinks.

Drinking coffee in moderation has a ton of other health benefits as well. You already know that the stimulant effect can coffee can boost your mood, reaction time, and energy levels, but it can also boost your memory.

Caffeine has the ability to boost your metabolic rate and help you burn more calories, as long as you’re not drinking your coffee filled with sugar and cream. Caffeine can also help to increase your athletic performance, by increasing the levels of adrenaline in the blood which can prep you for physical exertion. Caffeine also helps the fat cells release fat into the blood so that they can become available as fuel to use. Many people can benefit from drinking a cup of coffee about a half hour before hitting the gym.

Coffee is also a good source of some nutrients that you need to be getting from your diet anyway. Coffee is a riboflavin (Vitamin B2), pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5), manganese, potassium, magnesium, and Niacin (B3):