What Does Blood Work Tell Us About Erectile Dysfunction?

There's more to ED than meet the eye. Let's discuss about blood work for Ed. Stay tuned for this episode. So in today's episode I am going to talk about blood work that is behind the scene when a man has erectile dysfunction. And I hear in my hand is a real life blood work of a patient of mine that I had seen recently. He, he is 69 years old. He has been married for 40 years, but has not had sex with his wife for 17 years for multiple reasons. Unfortunately, their marriage ended recently. He just recently divorced, now is seeing me because he is going to be back to the dating scene and wants to make sure that his manhood is working well before he gets back to the dating scene. But unfortunately he hasn't had intimacy in 17 years. He occasionally will do masturbation, but not that often, maybe once every three to four months. And first thing we did with his evaluation was that I did blood work on him because blood work will tell me what's going on inside of him. He's very healthy. He just has a little bit of high blood pressure, maybe he's a little bit mildly overweight. But other than that, he's fairly healthy for a 69 year old guy who now recently retired is in the best years of his life. And now back to the dating scene. And so my goal and his goal is to get him working again. So the first thing we did was look at his blood work. And the blood work will tell everything. And the blood work will look at the root cause of what's going on with him on the inside and look at the root cause and what's causing the ED. Most oftentimes in men that are over 45, we look at is it hormones, is it inflammation, is it due to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, is it due possibly to maybe inflammation of the prostate? So with this blood work, right away it shows that he's a little bit anemic. Anemia means that his red blood cells is low and that will certainly contribute to ed. And then he also had a high blood sugar, a fasting blood sugar at 105. He also had some kidney problem as he's had kidney stones in the past. But the blood work shows that his kidneys is not filtrating well and that is some inflammation in the kidneys, possibly from the kidney stone is still bothering him at this time, even though he doesn't have any kidney stone pain. But the kidney is being affected at this point. The next thing that we see is that his cholesterol level is high at 240 where normally it should be under 200. His triglyceride, which is the bad fat, is high at 351 where it should be under 150. His HDL, which is a good cholesterol, is low at 38 where it should be at least in the 60s or over 39. His BLDL, which is another bad cholesterol, is high at 64 where it should be below 40. His LDL, which is a reflection really more of sugar that elevate the bad cholesterol, which is LDL, is 138 where it should be 100. So it seems that his cholesterol level is high and indicative of his diet. He doesn't eat a healthy diet. He eats more fast food and more potato chips and processed food because he doesn't cook for himself. He mainly goes out and buy fast food. His testosterone level is low at 258, where normally if they're below 300, then it's considered low. And the range for a man is 300 to 900. Now, taken that the range is a range, some men operate in a higher range, like 700, 800 normally. And then when their testosterone level can drop down to 500, they'll start having symptoms even though it's in range and still normal. But you can still have symptoms of low testosterone when it dropped below your sweet spot. So certainly his testosterone level is low. His psa, which stands for prostate specific antigen, it's a reflection of the function of the prostate. So if the PSA is high, then it's a sign that the prostate is dysfunctional. Or there could be also indicative of prostate cancer. But also if a man ejaculate, his PSA could be elevated and sometime could be elevated for two to four weeks. So his PSA is at elevated 7.7 and he had ejaculated in a month. So it's indicative that the function of his prostate is either inflammatory or there could be some sub level of possibly cancer. But it has to be evaluated for sure. And what the blood work also showed, his hemoglobin A1, which is indication of his fasting blood Sugar is at 5.9, which is really pre diabetes level, not quite diabetic level. Diabetic level is anything over 6.4. So he's in the pre diabetes range, which is indicative of his diet. On top of that, his vitamin D level is low at 28, where the range for vitamin D should be from 30 to 100. And if you eat a diet that is not With a lot of vegetables, your vitamin D level will be low. Essentially 95% of US citizen is low in vitamin D. Because we don't eat enough vegetables, we're not out in the sunlight enough every day because we need sunlight at least 20 minutes a day to convert the vitamin D to an active form. Our diet is just not providing enough vitamin D substance. So having said that, there are multiple reasons. Just looking at the blood work alone to indicate why he is having ed. First of all, he's anemic, which means low red blood cell. His kidney function is not working well. That needs to be evaluated. His fasting blood sugar is high and his hemoglobin A1C is high. So he's in the pre diabetes range. And his cholesterol is also high. So that means that he is eating a not so good diet which is full of a lot of carbohydrates or sugars such as pasta, bread, sweet pastries, fried food. Those type of food will increase your blood sugar as well as your cholesterol. He also have low testosterone, again that will contribute to Ed. And he also has a high PSA at 7.7 which needs to be evaluated. He has low vitamin D and studies have shown that men with ed, almost all of them has low vitamin D. Which one's a chicken or egg, we don't know. Is ED causing low vitamin D or is vitamin D causing ed? I think it's both ways at this time. So overall the blood work really do show a lot of indications to why he has ed. And my recommendation for him is to get evaluated with urology to see what the next step is for with evaluating the psa. He does have an enlarged prostate on exam. I did do a prostate exam on him and that need to be evaluated. And he also needs to go see his nephrologist who is a kidney specialist to evaluate for the kidney whether it could be benign or is it related to his kidney stones as well. My recommendation is also that he follow a Mediterranean diet, exercise at least 30 minutes a day. Even just walking 30 minutes a day is helpful. Recent studies have shown 30 minutes of walking a day is as effective as taking Viagra. I would just start simply with that first and before he even tried any type of invasive treatment. Now we did do a treatment of shock wave therapy to start with along with platelet rich plasma and Botox to jumpstart some blood flow. But he's going to need more treatment once he gets evaluated by his urologist as well as the nephrologist or his Kidneys. So, having said that, the point on today's episode, there are hidden causes of why you have ED and why it is very important if you have ed, to get blood work. And the blood work is covered by insurance. And blood work is simple.

Now, when I do blood work, I.

Also look at your hormones from your head, your pituitary gland, all the way down to the testicles. I probably order the most blood work to evaluate that. I also look at inflammatory factors. I look at your growth hormone as well as vitamin deficiency. Also look for blood clotting factors as well. In case, if we need to start on testosterone therapy, were there any type of medical condition that may play a role. So having said that, if you have ed, I would suggest you get blood work first before you start getting on Viagra or on any other medication treatment. And oftentimes it's just finding out that your blood sugar may be high or your cholesterol is high. And just changing your diet will actually go a long way in reversing your ED and just adding some exercise. Because I have seen patients which is changing their diet and just doing intermittent fasting of 12 hours and just adding walking even three times a week, their weight drop by 20 pounds, their cholesterol drop, their blood sugar become normal, and guess what? They're starting to have morning erections again. And they're starting to notice they're more firm with erection. Of course, along with that, I always recommend doing penis pumping as a way to exercise the penis as well, too. So the bottom line is get your blood work done. I hope you find this helpful. And my goal is to educate you when you have ed so that way you can find the pathway out of ed, Because I know what an impact that is for your life and know that there are treatment available for ed. And that's one of the reason why I created the Modern Man Club, which is a club where I will work with you and coach you to give you a path to get out of ED so you can live better, love better, and enjoy life. So having said that, go and check out my Modern Man Club in the link below here and also here. And just know that you don't have to suffer with ed. There are other alternative beside medication and surgery. I'll see you in the next episode. Are you struggling and frustrated in finding a solution for ed? Well, I have just the thing for you. It's called the Modern Man Club, led by yours truly, Dr. Ann. Together we're redefining male sexuality and embracing a holistic approach to overcoming ed. Without medication or surgery. I will provide a protective environment for a community and proven strategy to overcoming ed. It is a safe place. Expert coaching by me and my team. We provide holistic approach to overcoming ED and an empowering community of men with ED supporting one another and lots and lots of educational resources. Visit mensexualityclub.com at the link here on my right and connect with us and reclaim control over your sexual health. I'll see you there.

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