Acupuncture treatment of erectile dysfunction

Overview of erectile dysfunction

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a disease that prevents the patients from performing normal sexual intercourse. In recent years, ED is more common among men and do have negative effect to their quality of life. According to the statistics, there are about 150 million men worldwide suffering from this disease, which make up 20% of global adult males, and the statistical data are increasing year after year. The total prevalence of ED in Hungary men is about 10.1%, which means about 400.000 men are afftected (1). The pathogenesis of the disease is related to multiple factors, including age, hormon disorders, metabolic disorders, chronic diseases, trauma, surgery, psychological factors, alcohol consumption, and so on. It is showed that ED not only hurts the man himself, but also halmful to his sexual and social relationship.

Treatment

Nowadays, with the rapid development of civilization and medicine, concern of the prevention and treatment of ED has been focused more than ever. In general, there are 2 main type of treatments for the disease: invasive and nonivasive.

1. Noninvasive therapy is mainly based on oral type 5 phosphodiesterase inhibitor (PDE5-Is) drugs. It has obvious efficacy. However, the long-term efficacy does not respond well. Sides effects may appear like headaches, myalgia, pain, and maybe risky for people with hypotension.
2. Invasive therapy mainly include intracavernosal injection of vasoactive drugs, vacuum suction devices, and penile prosthesis implantation. They are proved to be effective therapies. However, side effect including pain and the efficacy is realively short term.

Acupuncture for erectile dysfunction

ED was first mentioned in Ling-Shu and Su-wen books of China, dated back few thousands years ago. It showed that TCM has a long history and rich experience of treatment of this disease. TCM believes that the etiology and pathogenesis of ED is closely related to Kidney, Spleen and Liver function, combined or not with energy and blood circulation block. Acupunture helps strengthen the kidneys, liver and spleen function, promote the blood circulation. At the same time,  it reduces stress, improve the mood and therefore achieve treatment goal (2). Recent studies have shown that acupuncture can improve male erectile function. For example, a study  in 2003 indicated that acupuncture can be an effective treatment option in more than two-thirds of patients with psychogenic erectile dysfunction (3).

QUESTIONS RELATED TO ACUPUNCTURE

How many acupuncture treatments are needed to see result?

The number of treatment depends on what health conditions you have and how severe it is. Your doctor will set up your treatment plan and inform you how many treatments you need, based on your actual problems. In general, at least 2 treatments per week is necessary for a course of 10 weeks.

Are there any side effect?

Acupuncture is considered very safe treatments as its side effects are very rare. They are including pain, swollen, bleeding, infection. However, if you are treated by a licensed physician, you do not have to worry about that.

Is there other alternative ways to help erectile dysfunction?

A healthy lifestyle definitely can help you a lot. For example:

• Maintain normal body weight.
• Exercising regularly
• Quit smoking
• Limit alcohol use
• Meditation