For men, maintaining optimal sexuality as you get older becomes more of a challenge. Here are some of the best tips for improving men’s sexual health into the golden years.
Understanding Men’s Sexual Health
The term “sexual health” encompasses a wide variety of aspects of health including physical health, libido, sexual satisfaction and emotional health. For men, optimal sexual health means that a man is able to fully enjoy sexual activity. As men age, they may experience erectile dysfunction, delayed ejaculation, loss of libido or other signs of poor sexual health. Here are some steps you can take to achieve the physical health, mental health and self-esteem necessary to enjoy sex to the fullest.
1. Eat a Healthy Diet
Eating a healthy diet is a cornerstone of all areas of health, including sexual health. Eat more fruits and vegetables as well as fewer sugars and refined carbohydrates. Giving your body all of the nutrients it needs will optimize your potential for great sex. Eating clean and watching your weight can also reduce your risk of health conditions such as obesity and diabetes that can contribute to low libido and erectile dysfunction.
2. Take Maca Root
If you experience lower and lower libido as you age, you can benefit from a libido supplement containing maca root. Maca is known to increase male sex drive. Taking it regularly can help improve your sex life, mood and feelings of overall well-being.
3. Give Up Unhealthy Habits
If you experience low libido or difficulty maintaining an erection, now is the time to stop your vices like smoking and drinking. Tobacco and alcohol are both known to contribute to impotence, not to mention all of their other negative health effects. If you think you have erectile dysfunction, be sure to talk to your doctor as well as it could be a sign of a more serious underlying health condition such as heart disease.
4. Take a Zinc Supplement
A common symptom of aging in men is a decline in testosterone levels. This hormone is responsible for sex drive. Not having enough testosterone can cause low libido, impotence and even depression. A simple way to increase your testosterone levels is to take a zinc pill regularly. Zinc is an essential mineral proven to support healthy hormone levels.
5. Get More Exercise
It’s recommended to get at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week, or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise. Both aerobic exercise and strength training increase testosterone and boost your energy and mood. Plus, the improved cardiovascular health and blood flow that you will obtain from regular exercise will improve the quality of your erections. Many people who start exercising more frequently report that it improves their self-esteem, which is another important component of a satisfying sex life.
6. Try Panax Ginseng
Taking more than one sexual health supplement can increase your chances of seeing satisfying results. Another great botanical supplement for men’s sexual health is Panax ginseng. This herb has been shown to help maintain erection quality. It also can help out with maintaining a healthy mood and libido.
7. Get Plenty of Sleep
Sleep is important for too many reasons to count. Lack of sleep puts stress on your body, which can harm your hormone levels. Stress also increases your risk for various health conditions, such as obesity and depression. Plus, being tired simply keeps you from getting in the mood. Aim to get at least seven hours of sleep every night.
8. Take L-Arginine
L-arginine is an amino acid that can help support healthy blood flow when taken regularly. Better blood flow leads to better erections and therefore better sex. Take a supplement containing L-arginine along with maca, zinc, and Panax ginseng and you will likely see impressive results in the bedroom.
9. Adjust Your Expectations
Sex simply isn’t the same when you are older, but this doesn’t have to be a bad thing. The key is to adjust your expectations about sex as you age. Recognize and accept the fact that you and your partner might not have sex as often or as vigorously as you used to. You may also need more stimulation in order to achieve the same magnitude of arousal, so expect to spend more time on foreplay and sex. It may have been a thrill to have a “quickie” when you were younger, but as you age you may find such brief sexual encounters to be unsatisfying.
10. Appreciate the Positive
There are upsides to the ways men’s sexual health changes with age. For example, most seniors report that they feel much more confident during this stage of their life than they did in decades past. Feeling confident in yourself is a prerequisite for a good sex life. Higher levels of sexual experience can also make up for not having the same sex drive as you did when you were younger. Appreciate these and other positive aspects of senior sexuality and use them to your advantage. Sex is still a tool that you can use to maintain good physical and mental health as well as express love and closeness for your partner.