Coffee decreases erectile dysfunction, increases blood flow to penis and hands?

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Steveo

Looks like a new study came out today showing that men who drink 2-3 cups of coffee a day are less likely to report erectile dysfunction.

Erectile dysfunction less likely if you drink two cups of coffee a day - Mirror Online

Coffee May Perk Up More Than Men's Brains: It Could Stave Off Erectile Dysfunction - Forbes

Correlation doesn't imply causation and all that... but the findings are promising.

l also found the following while researching the above... coffee rather substantially increases blood flow to all body parts:

Coffee may help perk up your blood vessels | American Heart Association

Personally I would have guessed just the opposite -- that a stimulant would shunt blood-flow away from "extremities" -- but that doesn't appear to be the case. At least not when it comes to coffee.

The third link above was specifically a double-blind experiment, not just a study. Though the sample was pretty small.

"[D]rinking a cup of caffeinated coffee significantly improved blood flow in a finger, which is a measure of how well the inner lining of the body's smaller blood vessels work. Specifically, participants who drank a cup of caffeinated coffee had a 30 percent increase in blood flow over a 75-minute period compared to those who drank decaffeinated coffee."

Might help Dupuytren's as well.  :)

EDIT:

What's interesting is that most studies prior to 2011 seemed to indicate that coffee did indeed decrease blood flow. Specifically I just now read studies showing blood flow to eyes and brain was lowered. So these new findings are pretty surprising.

james1947

What disturbs me in all the links are:
* less likely
* May Perk Up
* may help
The above statements are same as some other meds may help with Peyronies.
Also caffeine is a vasoconstricter, making veins and capillaries smaller as I learned on the forum.
So yeas, contradicting, maybe just some papers that the Doctors need to fill they research quota?
If someone is interested, we have 37 posts on caffeine on the forum

James
Age 71, Peyronies from Jan 2009 following penis fracture during sex. Severe ED.
Lost 2" length and a lot of girth. Late start, still VED, Cialis & Pentox helped. Prostate surgery 2014.
Got amazing support on the forum

nemo

It seems counterintuitive to me, as well, that coffee would help, not hurt, blood flow to the penis, being that it's a vasoconstrictor (if that's indeed true).  BUT ... Pentox is known to have effects similar to caffeine (or so my doctor told me), so there seems to be some kind of connection.  I skip Pentox in the morning when I'm drinking coffee as it seems to double whammy me.  

Interesting stuff.

Nemo
51 yrs. old, multiple auto-immune conditions. First episode of Peyronies Disease in 2002. Recurred a couple times since. Over the years I have tried Topical Verapamil, Iontophoresis, all the supps and Cialis + Pentoxifylline. Still functional, always worried.

Steveo

Quote from: james1947 on May 25, 2015, 04:18:28 AM
What disturbs me in all the links are:
* less likely
* May Perk Up
* may help

True but those are only headlines, as written by news reporters. The study's actual findings are what matters. And especially the findings of the Japanese experiment in the third link showing increased blood flow to the hands.

Frankly I don't know. One of the reasons the article caught my eye was that I've been drinking coffee for the past couple of days (which I rarely do) and noticed that.. shall we say.. Mr. Happy was more happy than usual. Kind of an interesting coincidence.

Guess the jury's still out on coffee. I might start drinking 2 cups a day to see what happens.

EDIT:

What's also hilarious is if you do a search on "coffee" and "stroke." Many studies show that coffee increases the chances of stroke. And many other studies show that it lowers it.

It appears that science can't figure out whether coffee increases blood flow or decreases it. Nor how much of either is attributable to the caffeine itself or other chemicals in the coffee.

This paper indicates that it's both a vasoconstrictor and dilator and that it helps release Nitric Oxide:

Caffeine's Vascular Mechanisms of Action

"In endothelial cells, it increases intracellular calcium stimulating the production of nitric oxide through the expression of the endothelial nitric oxide synthase enzyme. Nitric oxide is diffused to the vascular smooth muscle cell to produce vasodilation. In vascular smooth muscle cells its effect is predominantly a competitive inhibition of phosphodiesterase, producing an accumulation of cAMP and vasodilation. In addition, it blocks the adenosine receptors present in the vascular tissue to produce vasoconstriction. "

Steveo

The link in the previous post is a very interesting one. The authors believe that caffeine exerts an initial vasoconstricting effect and then reverses it with a long-lasting significant vasodilation effect.

"Caffeine, by acting on the VSMC [vascular smooth muscle cell], generates a minimal initial contraction and then a significant vasodilator effect."

This would explain why other studies have shown that the chance of stroke increases immediately after coffee is ingested, but that long-term effects of coffee drinking tend to reduce the chances of stroke.

"A mild and transitory vasoconstrictor effect exists, which depends mainly on the caffeine concentration in the VSMC. However, the main and predominant effect of caffeine on the vascular wall is vasodilating, acting equally on the VSMC directly or indirectly and also on the endothelial structure. At the endothelial level, nitric oxide is liberated and as a result produces arterial vasodilation."