Regaining my Erection Naturally – My Journey of Trial and Error

Erectile Dysfunction (often called impotence) is even worse than the word sounds.

In my case, I think it was the constant stress at work that triggered a vicious circle of pressure and fear of failure, which quickly led to the inevitable failure. Thankfully I found a natural cure without side effects.

Thanks for visiting my blog. I’d like to share my story

Up until December 2011, I had never had issues with my erection. My love life had been more or less stable and I loved my wife Sue like the day when we got married. Then during the Christmas madness, I got really stressed with work. It was then, when I failed to penetrate her for the first time. I just wasn’t hard enough.

We were both really shocked.. somewhere between surprised and worried. I tried to brush it off.. but it wasn’t that simple.

Over the next few weeks I worried and struggled more and more. It got so bad that eventually it was a surprise when I did manage to get it up! We tried a few other things, but I was unable to satisfy Sue physically. My ego made me feel like a failure as a man!

Prescription pills and amino acids

I decided they weren’t for me

Sometime in March I decided to try the famous blue potency pills. I wanted to do this properly so I discussed it with my GP. He gave me instructions, a prescription and a warning to only ever buy them from our pharmacy and to look out for side effects.

I used them three times and every time experienced strange colour distortions in my peripheral field of vision and a swollen nose. The pills aren’t cheap and the timing was always a pain. You have to take them about 30min before sex.

And if you don’t end up doing it, you might waste the pill and still get the side effects. Yes, they were allowing me to have sex, but the colour distortions were freaking me out. I decided they might work for some, but I didn’t want to do this to my body.

The light bulb moment

Thankfully, Sue was very supportive. Over a few glasses of vino we had long and honest chats. I was really down over my situation at work, the time of year I guess and my erection problems made me feel like a total failure. Then Sue suddenly remembered that her old university friend Ben had done research on a natural method to treat erectile dysfunction when he was a pharmacology research fellow in the US.

The body needs Arginine to make Nitric Oxide, which improve blood flow – when and where it counts. Also in bed!

She got in touch with Ben the next day. Ben told us about the Arginine for the first time. Basically, it is a bog standard amino acid, which in the body is the only precursor of a famous little molecule called Nitric Oxide (NO). NO controls vasodilation, which is the body’s natural mechanism of regulating blood flow anywhere in the body by relaxing and widening the diameter of blood vessels.

More Arginine means more NO. This has lots of positive effects on potency, immunity, digestion, building muscle and so on. Basically, because it enables the body to improve blood flow when and where it needs to – including the penis of course. Detailed explanations can be found everywhere on the net. I have tried to pull together the basics here to save you having to click around.

The Nobel Prize-winning science behind Arginine

Arginine and the Nobel Prize

Arginine is essential to make Nitric Oxide in the body. This improves blood flow and has numerous health benefits.

I sort of remembered amino acids from school.

When I researched Arginine more closely I found out that in 1998 the Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to the research team, who managed to explain how Nitric Oxide (NO) regulates blood flow using the example of Erectile Dysfunction. The researchers showed that the body can make NO only from Arginine. The more Arginine you have in your body, the more NO you have. And more NO means better blow flow control – where and when you need it!

The best thing is that it is completely natural and has no side effects.

I started off testing several different pure Arginine products. But because the impact was a bit slow (it generally takes several weeks for the body to refill up its NO storage) and I became a little impatient. So I decided to actively look for reasons to keep taking it.

I read a few studies and found out that Arginine on its own is not as good as I thought. An early study concluded that 5,000mg (5 grams) per day of Arginine does “not have a satisfactory effect on treating erectile dysfunction” as only 31% of subjects reported improvement¹.

I still decided to continue taking the Arginine and see what happens.

The Arginine did improve my erection somewhat and I was actually able to have regular, satisfying sex again with Sue. Then, thankfully, I came across another study, which found that when the Arginine is combined with 80mg of Pine Bark Extract (PBE) per day, in the study it cured the erection problems in over 90% (37 out of 40) of the guys who took part in the study².

How Pine Bark Extract Boosts the Arginine Effect

Pine bark extract (trademarked as Pycnogenol in the USA) is a powerful anti-inflammatory agent and produced from the French Maritime Bark. It has been used for hundreds of years and effect proven in over 80 studies.

It’s main benefit on the cardiovascular system is that systemically improves Arginine’s effect on the cardio-vascular system – arteries are simply kept younger, more elastic and free of plaque.

While Arginine alone did not have significant statistical benefits to the erection³, a study found that the Arginine-pine bark extract combo healed 37 out of 40 (92.5%) of men with erectile dysfunction after 3 months.⁴

Preserving good circulation

Last, but certainly not least another study showed that a substance called homocysteine damages our blood vessels just as badly as cholesterol. Homocysteine can be reduced by a combination of B vitamins and Betaine⁵. This was an unexpected positive synergistic side effect between the nutrients.

And in combination with Arginine and Pine Bark Extract you get a comprehensive treatment for your cardiovascular system

The key for me was the realisation that this is (1) based on solid Nobel Prize winning research and (2) a relatively inexpensive, natural and no side-effects way to fix the cause of my ED, rather than just masking the symptom.

The only one way to find out!

So I decided to give it a shot. For the first twelve months Ben used to send me tubs of Arginine powder from the US. There, it was marketed to bodybuilders to get a bigger muscle pump! The science is of course exactly the same. I needed a bigger pump too – no matter in which “muscle”!! 🙂

When I took just Arginine initially my erection improved gradually and I was able to have regular, satisfying sex again with Sue. I also started to exercise more regularly. Then, once I started taking the pine bark extract in 2012 my erection started to get much harder.

Last year I finally found some European products, which combine Arginine with pine bark extract. I found them much more convenient. I didn’t have to take different pills and didn’t need to pay the expensive transatlantic shipping and annoying customs fees for the US imports any more.

Personally I take amitamin m forte, because it is working for me for several reasons explained here. Several of my readers also pointed out VIGARIN by aminoexpert, which looks equally good and I have ordered some as a backup. I don’t really want to recommend one over the other – please research them yourself.

It was worth the wait

Dubai!

Sue’s been such a star. She never put me under pressure and we even experimented with other ways to satisfy each other whilst I was on my journey. In hindsight, this unexpectedly enriched our sex life massively. 😉 .., because we learned new ways to trigger each other off.

My potency problems are long gone and I actually feel stronger and more energetic than before! I still take my m forte every day, because it makes me feel like I am doing something good for my body. The research on the long-term health benefits is overwhelming and the Nobel Prize committee can’t be wrong..

Sorry that this post is a bit long. I wrote all of this up, because Arginine and pine bark extract has turned my life around.

Hopefully, I could inspire you to try out Arginine and pine bark extract, because they’re totally underrated! I am now much happier, healthier and stronger – when and where it counts, everytime! 🙂

Here are the links to the official, peer-reviewed scientific research studies, which convinced me to try it out: