Viagra: Important Questions

What is Erectile Dysfunction?

Erectile dysfunction is the failure or inability to achieve and/or maintain an erection that is sufficient for desired sexual activity.
There are several types of erectile dysfunction:

Soft Erections: When the surface of the penis is too soft.

Weak Erections: When the penis is not stiff enough to enter your partner.

Total Impotence: When the penis does not become erect at all.

Normal erections start in the brain, when your senses have detected something pleasing. Your brain sends signals throughout the body saying that you are aroused. These signals travel throughout the nervous system. Eventually, after several hormonal and enzyme reactions, they reach your genitals. When all is well, the muscles at the base of the penis allow blood to flow into the male organ, so that empty spaces are closed by expanding tissue, trapping the blood the and keeping the penis erect until the genitals send some feedback about being finished.

When something in this intricate process does not work right, you will not get an erection—and that is called erectile dysfunction. 

 What causes Erectile Dysfunction?

There are literally hundreds of conditions and medications that cause ED.

Psychological Causes: Stress, anxiety, and depression are all known to cause erectile dysfunction.

Physical Causes: Since the erection process is so complex, there are plenty of ways for something physically wrong to stop you from getting a satisfying erection. The most common medical conditions are diabetes, vascular disease, alcoholism, clinical depression, neurological disease, prostate cancer, venous leak, and kidney disease.

Fatigue: Sometimes you are just too tired physically or mentally to have sex. Your sex drive requires energy to work after all.

How do you treat Erectile Dysfunction?

You would think that you have to find out what the cause is and fix it. While it is very important to treat the underlying condition, most cases of ED occur because of the same malfunction with the muscles around the genitals. Rather than being relaxed, these smooth muscle tissues are tense and so do not let blood flow properly into the penis.
To fix most cases of erectile dysfunction, all you have to do is get those muscles to relax and let blood flow through. And that's exactly what Viagra does!

For roughly 80% of cases of ED, Viagra can help get an erection. Rather than use force, it does this naturally, working with your body to help you overcome erectile dysfunction.

How long can I keep using Viagra?

As long as you take Viagra only once a day—and that's the law—there is no evidence to suggest that long-term use of Viagra will cause any problems. If you plan on using Viagra regularly, first make sure your blood pressure is not high or low. After that, you should be safe to use Viagra as long as you need it and as long as you have a willing sexual partner.

Can Viagra be bad for ED?

No, Viagra will not make ED any worse. Just check to make sure you don't have certain preexisting conditions and don't take certain medications.