Low sex drive in men can influence life in a lot of ways. It can affect your relationships, your confidence, and even your overall energy levels and the way that you interact socially.
It’s no wonder that so many men are wondering how to increase their sex drive.
What Will I Learn?
Unfortunately, a lot of men are driven to using pharmaceutical products like viagra to improve their sex lives. While drugs like these might work, they tend to cause a lot of side effects and can be disastrous for your health.
Fortunately, there are lots of natural ways that you can increase your sex drive, improve your sexual performance, and become a high sex drive man. This article will deal with lifestyle choices, herbal treatments, and other natural methods that can help you to boost your overall sex drive.
What Are the Causes of a Low Sex Drive in Men?
There are a lot of different reasons that men can have a low sex drive. Anything from diet to hormonal problems and lifestyle choices can influence the male sex drive. Here are some of the main causes of low sex drive in men.
Low Testosterone
One of the first things that most men think of when they realize they have a low sex drive is their testosterone levels. There’s a reason for this: testosterone is one of the most important hormones for men, and it’s largely responsible for our sex drive.
Men can have varying levels of testosterone, and it’s not generally considered an issue unless you have T levels lower than 300 nanograms per deciliter. The best way to figure out if you have low T is to get your levels checked by a doctor – otherwise, it’s best not to assume.
Medication
There are a huge number of commonly-prescribed medications that can totally destroy a man’s libido. If you’ve recently started taking a new medication and you’ve noticed a drop in your sex drive, the meds are probably the culprit.
Depression
Men with depression are much more likely to struggle with low libido than men who aren’t depressed. Depressed people tend to lose interest in all manner of activities – including sex.
Unfortunately, this can make things difficult in relationships. This problem is further compounded by the fact that many commonly-prescribed antidepressants can actually reduce libido. If you’re depressed, the best thing to do is figure out why you’re depressed and work to correct the issues.
Illness
There are a number of reasons that chronic illness and sickness might lead to low libido. The first and foremost issue is that when you’re seriously ill, sex is probably pretty low on your list of priorities.
Other forms of illness can also directly affect your libido. Things like high blood pressure and high cholesterol can lead to erectile dysfunction. Diabetes, obesity, and heart disease can also affect your libido and your ability to get an erection.
Sleep Issues
Research has shown that people who struggle with sleep apnea can have an adverse effect on libido. The low quality of sleep can lead to a decrease in testosterone levels. This, in turn, can reduce male libido and sex drive.
Age
One of the leading causes of reduced libido is age. As men get older, their testosterone levels tend to decrease. As mentioned, testosterone is highly involved in male sexual health and libido. This is one of the reasons that sex drive tends to drop as we get older.
Stress
People who are highly stressed may be less interested in sexual activity. Stress also tends to lead to physical issues such as increased blood pressure, which can make it difficult for men to get an erection. Studies have revealed that stress can adversely affect sexual health in both genders.
Best Ways to Increase Low Sex Drive
There are a number of ways that you can improve your sex drive if you’re struggling with it. These are some of the most popular ways.
Medical Treatments
While I can’t recommend medical treatments as being the ‘best’ way to increase your sex drive, they are generally effective. Unfortunately, medical treatments can be risky. We’ll go into more detail about medical treatments in the next section, but remember that these treatments are more likely to lead to undesirable side effects.
Some medical treatments, such as surgery, are also irreversible.
Lifestyle Choices
If you have an unhealthy lifestyle, then this will be reflected in your sexual health. People who don’t get enough exercise or who eat garbage food all the time are more likely to have a low sex drive.
On the flip side, eating healthy, getting enough sleep, and exercising on a regular basis are among the best ways to make sure that you can improve your sex life. We’ll go into more detail about lifestyle choices like diet and exercise below.
Herbal Supplements
For thousands of years, practitioners of the traditional medicine system have been prescribing patients herbal medicine to increase their libido. Now, science is finally catching up to the reality that these herbal supplements are really effective.
Herbs can work in a variety of different ways to improve your sexual health. Some of them can boost testosterone, some of them enhance blood flow throughout the body, and yet others improve libido. We’ll go into a list of some of the best supplements for improving libido later in the article.
What Treatments Are Available?
There are lots of medical treatments available to help men increase their sex drive. Medical treatments are often risky and can lead to undesirable side effects – and yet people still take the risks rather than choosing natural alternatives.
Here are some commonly available treatments.
Testosterone Replacement Therapy
Testosterone replacement therapy is generally only recommended for people who struggle with a genuine testosterone production issue. TRT is especially useful for older men, especially those who have already tried natural methods and have seen no success.
Medication
Drugs like Viagra and Cialis don’t technically increase libido – they just make it easier to get an erection. However, many men still use these drugs when they’re struggling with a low sex drive. Unfortunately, they can cause dangerous side effects.
Counseling and Therapy
One of the best and most holistic methods to treat psychological libido issues is to seek a counselor or a therapist. This is particularly true if your low sex drive is related to some issues like anxiety or depression.
Seeking counseling can help you figure out the root cause of your sexual issues and overcome that without the use of medication.
What to Eat to Have a High Sex Drive?
If you want to have a healthy sex drive, you need to have a healthy diet. First and foremost, you should make sure that your diet primarily consists of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and high-quality proteins. Get your omega-3 fatty acids and make sure that all your nutritional needs are met.
If you’re already eating a good diet and you’re still having problems with your sex drive, then there are a few foods that are known for being particularly effective at boosting libido. Here are some of the best:
- Pomegranate. Pomegranate – especially the juice of the pomegranate – has been known to be an effective libido booster. It helps so much at balancing hormone levels that many natural libido-boosting supplements include pomegranate extract.
- Oysters. Oysters are one of the best food sources of zinc, and zinc is one of the most important minerals for male sexual health. Zinc has been shown to help increase sex drive, especially in men who are deficient in the mineral.
- Chocolate. Dark (or better yet, raw) chocolate contains a number of compounds that can impact your sex drive. Two of the most prominent are theobromine and phenethylamine (PEA).
PEA helps to release neurotransmitters like dopamine. These brain chemicals are highly involved in the sex/reward circuit and can increase libido. Theobromine is a compound similar to caffeine that lowers blood pressure and can improve arousal in both men and women.
- Watermelon. Watermelon is a food that is rich in the amino acid L-citrulline. L-citrulline is turned by your body into L-arginine, an amino acid that is involved in the dilation of blood vessels. Healthy levels of L-arginine ensure that you’re able to get an erection easily.
Does Exercise Boost Sex Drive?
People who live sedentary lives and don’t get a lot of exercises are generally more likely to have a low sex drive.
There are lots of reasons for this. If you don’t exercise, your circulation goes down, making it harder to get an erection. Your body won’t be as capable of producing hormones or neurotransmitters that are responsible for stimulating libido. And, you’ll be more likely to become overweight which can lead to self-esteem issues and low libido on its own.
There are lots of different forms of exercise that are particularly effective at improving libido in males.
Strength Training
Strength training is quite possibly the most effective type of exercise for boosting male libido.
You probably already know that testosterone is involved in the production of muscle tissue. Well, the opposite is also true: men with more muscle tend to produce more testosterone. For this reason, dudes who participate in strength training exercises are more likely to experience increased T levels.
Strength training is generally regarded as doing heavy lifts that cause you to max out after 8-12 reps. The study linked to above showed that testosterone and growth hormone levels increased significantly after just 12 weeks of strength training.
Cardiovascular Exercise
Cardiovascular exercise is anything that gets your heart pumping. Cardio exercise can help boost libido and sexual health in a couple of different ways.
- First off, cardiovascular exercise ensures that blood flows properly throughout your body. This can be useful for men who struggle with erectile dysfunction, as this ensures that they can have blood flow to their penis.
- Regular exercise helps the body produce neurotransmitters and hormones that are responsible for regulating and improving libido.
Exercise – both cardio and strength training – will also make you more fit, which can improve your self-esteem and make you more attractive. Increased self-confidence can give men a major boost to their libido.
Kegel Exercises
Kegel exercises involve the strengthening of your pelvic floor muscles. While they may not directly boost your libido, they can certainly improve your sexual performance. This can increase your self-confidence and self-esteem and can make you more comfortable with your sex life.
Yoga
Yoga may not be the exercise that you first think of when you’re trying to boost your libido, but it’s certainly useful. Yoga can be useful in a number of ways.
- It can help to enhance circulation and blood flow and fight erectile dysfunction.
- It can help enhance your mood and mental health, getting rid of things like depression and anxiety that get in the way of healthy sex life.
- Yoga gets you more in tune with your body and can promote body awareness which is tremendously important for anyone hoping to enjoy a healthy sex life.
What Are the Best Supplements for a Low Sex Drive?
There are a lot of different supplements out there that are useful for enhancing male sexual health. These are some of the most common.
- L-arginine. As discussed earlier, L-arginine is an important compound for ensuring that blood can flow properly throughout your body and making sure that you can get strong erections.
- Ginseng. Used for thousands of years in various traditional medicine systems, ginseng has been shown to improve sexual performance, libido, and energy levels in both men and women.
- Methyl Sulfonyl Methane (MSM), a compound that helps to prevent the cells in your penis from becoming rigid or weak.
- Cordyceps, a mushroom supplement that has been shown to help enhance libido and overall energy levels.
- Zinc. Zinc is one of the minerals that people are most deficient in. If you don’t want to start eating tons of oysters, one of the best things that you can do is take a zinc supplement.
If you’re not sure about which of these supplements to take, you could find a supplement like Male Extra. Male Extra combines all of these ingredients together in a great ratio to ensure that you can experience increased libido without running the risk of side effects.
Conclusion
There are many things that can cause low libido in men, but fortunately, there are just as many solutions. Hopefully, this article has helped you learn a bit about the healthier natural methods that you can employ to boost your sex drive and become the best version of yourself. You will also be able to please your woman better and improve your intimate relationship.
