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Natural Remedies for Erectile Dysfunction: Harnessing the Power of Sunlight and Infrared Light
Can sunlight be the key to improving erectile dysfunction? And how does it compare to traditional treatments like Viagra? In this episode, Anthony Hartcher uncovers how morning UVA and midday UVB light can boost blood flow and testosterone levels by stimulating nitric oxide and vitamin D production.
We also explore the incredible benefits of infrared light for circulation, particularly for those with conditions like peripheral artery disease or type 2 diabetes. Plus, learn how stress management techniques, such as breath work, can support your vascular health and sexual performance. Tune in for expert tips on maintaining endothelial health, reducing inflammation, and optimising your overall wellbeing.
About me&my health up & Anthony Hartcher
me&my health up seeks to enhance and enlighten the well-being of others. Host Anthony Hartcher is the CEO of me&my wellness which provides holistic health solutions using food as medicine, combined with a holistic, balanced, lifestyle approach. Anthony holds three bachelor's degrees in Complementary Medicine; Nutrition and Dietetic Medicine; and Chemical Engineering.
Podcast Disclaimer
Any information, advice, opinions or statements within it do not constitute medical, health care or other professional advice, and are provided for general information purposes only. All care is taken in the preparation of the information in this Podcast. [Connected Wellness Pty Ltd] operating under the brand of “me&my health up”..click here for more
Welcome back to another exciting and insightful episode of me&my health up. I'm your host Anthony Hartcher, a clinical nutritionist and lifestyle medicine specialist. And today we are shining light on erectile dysfunction. Yes, 40% of men aged between 40 and 49 suffer some form of erectile dysfunction. And I want to share with you a natural solution. And when I say shining the light on, it is light as medicine, light therapy in terms of helping men with erectile dysfunction. I will cover this topic holistically, but I certainly want to emphasise the importance of sunlight exposure on improving erectile dysfunction. So let's start out with erectile dysfunction and what is happening. And the alternatives. We'll also discuss the medical alternatives, which is Viagra. So sildenafil is the Viagra alternative. And in terms of how it works, it essentially it inhibits the enzyme, which is phosphodiesterase type 5, which what it does is inhibits the breakdown of cyclic GMP. And cyclic GMP is in the endothelial layer and it is, uh, relaxes the smooth muscle. So what happens before that is it requires nitric oxide to stimulate this cyclic GMP. And we can stimulate nitric oxide through sunlight. So let me bear some light as to what's happening as to how sunlight can really help erectile dysfunction. Because when you look at Viagra, what it's doing is relaxing the smooth muscle and allowing increased blood flow. So it allows that vascular system to relax and more blood flow to go down to the penis and the penis to enlarge. And so we can stimulate that process naturally through sunlight exposure. And if you think about what's happening to men, is men in their 40s to 50s are spending more time inside, essentially working longer hours because of their career and their responsibilities. So that time inside is limiting their time outside. And particularly in winter, when there's less sunlight around, it requires a lot of effort to actually get some sunlight during the day because there's less daylight hours. So in terms of what's happening with sunlight, so when the sun hits our skin, what it does is it synthesises or allows the catalyzation of vitamin D to be produced from cholesterol. But just going back a step from that in terms of what's important is that we need to get morning sunlight exposure in order to maximise vitamin D synthesis, because vitamin D is what initiates the nitric oxide. And so we need to have vitamin D in healthy levels in order to stimulate that nitric oxide production, which will relax the smooth muscle around the endothelial layer, and that will allow the vascular expansion and allow more blood flow into the penis area. So in order to do that, we need to get morning sunlight. So morning sunlight, it contains UVA. And what UVA is a potent stimulator of nitric oxide. And so what happens is that we, through this potent stimulation of nitric oxide, we obviously expand our vascular system and allow more blood to go out to the peripherals. And so if more blood is flowing out to the peripherals, more cholesterol is being carried to the, to our skin region. And so UVB hits us around the midday sun, mid to late afternoon. That UVB light, that is what catalyses the synthesis of vitamin D from cholesterol. So we need the morning sun in order to get cholesterol out to our peripherals, out to our skin, so that then when we get the midday or mid-afternoon sun, we can actually synthesise vitamin D. And what the studies have shown is increased vitamin D, a strong correlation to testosterone, so increased testosterone. So they've done studies that showed that men that got between 15, it was one at 15 minutes and 30 minutes versus men that got no outdoor sun exposure had significantly higher. So those that just got 15 up to 30 minutes of sun exposure had significantly higher testosterone to those that got none. And the reason why I mentioned the importance of that correlation between vitamin D and testosterone is that testosterone is our libido. So the more testosterone or the healthy levels of testosterone, the more libido we have, the more we, I guess, pursue sexual activities. So it's really important to have healthy levels of testosterone, which is synthesised from vitamin D in the testes, right? So we need this vitamin D to make testosterone, but we also need vitamin D to initiate the cascade of nitric oxide that leads to then cyclic GMP, which leads to the smooth muscle around the vascular system relaxing, which allows the blood flow to go into the region and enlarge the penis. And so if we're getting healthy levels of sun throughout the day, which starts with morning sun, we need to get morning sun to get the cholesterol out to our skin and healthy levels of, you know, we need to have healthy levels of cholesterol because that's how we make our hormones. That's how we make vitamin D. That's the backbone of testosterone as well. So we actually need cholesterol. So cholesterol is not all bad. We want our body to utilise cholesterol. And so what happens is after we make vitamin D in the skin, it then gets activated by the liver and kidneys. So we need this activation to take place because it's the active vitamin D that acts on the receptors in the testes to make testosterone and also stimulates that nitric oxide that we need in order to increase blood flow to the penis region. So in order for all this to work, we need sunlight, we need to get morning sunlight, and we need, like in terms of healthy amounts, well, these studies said 15 to 30 minutes, right? So if we're out going for a walk in the morning, getting our UVA, which is going to obviously maximise the amount of vitamin D that we make when we see UVB light, which happens around midday. So we need to get the morning light. So that's going out for morning walk, getting some sunlight exposure in the morning. And then we also want to get out midday to mid-afternoon in order to get the UVB light to make the vitamin D. And so this just requires us to step outside, make efforts to get that UVA, then get the UVB later on. We make healthy levels of vitamin D, which is essential for testosterone production, which increases libido and increases improved mood, increases performance and stamina and strength. So we certainly want those healthy testosterone levels. And that comes through increased vitamin D. So that means you need to get UVB light. So you do need that between midday and mid-afternoon. And so it's making sure that you, well, get the morning sun in order to protect you from unhealthy exposure to UVB in the midday to mid-afternoon, because how the body works is with UVA, we synthesise melanin and melanin is then taken out to the skin as same with cholesterol. And melanin is that skin pigment that protects us, provides us with a layer of protection from excessive UVB exposure. So it's amazing how the body works and supports itself. And so if we're getting that morning light, we provide protection from the harsh radiations or excess exposure to UVB in the midday to mid-afternoon, but we're still getting enough exposure, exposure on the skin in order to synthesise vitamin D, which is essential for testosterone production and nitric oxide production, which are both essential for a healthy erectile function. And that's what this is all about is finding a natural solution to Viagra in order to, for you to perform. So you're not reliant on drugs in order to perform and stay healthy because there's added benefits to getting sunlight exposure. You reduce all-cause mortality from death by getting increased sun exposure. So there's numerous studies indicating that. So the higher sunlight exposure reduces your all-cause mortality. So it increases your longevity. The other thing about increased sun exposure, it also increases your health span. So having healthy levels of testosterone makes you feel better. Your mental health is better. You perform better. And that really helps with you every day getting through all life's challenges. So we need healthy levels of testosterone. Now, the thing that's going to get in the way of erectile dysfunction is actually artificial blue light. So LED lights. So it's excessive exposure inside with LED lights is going to harm your ability to have this good erectile function because what happens is with the LED lights, they're narrow band blue light and that narrow band blue light increases one cortisol. With high cortisol, we have lower testosterone. And what it also does is cause vasoconstriction. So it constricts the blood flow. And so it allows less blood flow out to the peripherals and keeps the blood around the vital organs. By that constriction, that is going to increase heart rate, it will increase blood pressure, but it will also increase erectile dysfunction. So we don't want that stress from artificial blue light. And so reducing your exposure to artificial blue light, and this also goes with the non-native EMFs. So with non-native EMFs, such as from your computer screen, such as from your devices, your handheld devices, phones, laptops, and computers, and PowerPoints, and anything that's man-made in terms of creating this artificial, you know, creating technology, that is going to implicate your erectile function. We want more outdoor exposure, more exposure to nature, and that will help us have improved erectile function. Now, the other one I wanted to touch on is deuterium and the fourth phase of water. So I think in particular, the fourth phase of water. So some of you that have listened to previous episodes on the me&my health up, we've had expert guests talk about the fourth phase of water. And so this is also known as EZ water or structured water. And when I say the fourth phase, we know there's the solid, which is ice, and there's liquid water, and then there's water vapor, uh, gas. But this is another phase of water, which was discovered by Dr. Gerald Pollack. And what he found was what this fourth phase of water does is it structures itself and it splits in terms of polarity. So the hydrogens and electrons separate within the water. And so what happens is that you've got this polarity created within the outside of the endothelial layer. And so what happens with this increase or this structured water, it not only protects the endothelial layer because it provides this exclusion zone where nothing can go through it, but the other thing it really aids is blood flow. And so this is how it relates to erectile dysfunction is because what is behind erectile dysfunction is poor blood flow. So we know if you have peripheral artery disease, which is clogged arteries in the peripherals, or if you have like type 2 diabetes and anything that's going to affect the blood flow or cause inflammation in the body, that leads to increased rates of erectile dysfunction. And obviously stress is in there. Stress is that inflammatory driver. And what we want to do around creating this EZ water is how we do that is through getting infrared exposure, infrared light exposure. Infrared light is around 50% of the natural sunlight. So just spending more time outside, and I recently discovered in the iPhone, there's the Apple Health. If you go into the Apple Health, it actually tells you how much daily exposure you're getting, how much outdoor time you are getting, provided you are carrying your phone with you. So it's great to go in the Apple Health app and look up how much outdoor exposure you're getting. And what you want to do is increase that. Increase this outdoor exposure to increase the exposure to infrared light. By increasing the exposure to infrared light, we, we potentiate this exclusion zone, which is outside of the endothelial layer, that helps the blood flow more freely and it's going to get more blood down to the vital organ, the penis, in order for, for you to have a healthy erectile function. So getting infrared light to potentiate this exclusion zone and to allow increased blood flow, because what they found, how they discovered this was when they looked at the heart and looked at the size of the heart and its pumping capacity, what they realised in order to get blood around our whole vascular system, the heart would need to be a million times stronger. So what they realised is our blood flow isn't 100% dependent on the heart and there must be some other force at play and this is the exclusion zone that's created through infrared light exposure. So it's really important that you increase your infrared light exposure to take a load off the heart and allow for increased blood flow to your peripherals. And that's going to obviously help detox the peripherals, help drive the lymphatic system, help cleanse out waste products, but also make sure the nutrients get down to your peripherals. So that obviously you're going to have healthy skin at the peripherals and you're going to have an overall increased health span as a result of getting more infrared light. So infrared light potentiates this exclusion zone. The more exposure to infrared light, the greater the exclusion zone. So it's really important that we maximise our time outside to reduce the burden on the heart. It will also lower blood pressure. It will lower your blood pressure by spending time outside because you take the load off the heart. You allow for this exclusion zone to help the increased flow of blood throughout the vascular system. So that's a bit of added bonus share in terms of, because it also ties in with erectile dysfunction, because the more infrared light exposure you get, the better you have in terms of blood flow through your vascular system. Now, the other one I wanted to touch on is stress, because stress is going to cause vasoconstriction, right? It's going to increase blood pressure, increase heart rate, increase respiratory rate. Now, when we're stressed, we, in essence, reduce the blood flow that is going to go to non, non-necessary areas. So the reason why we have stress is to get the blood flow to the vital organs and to the muscles, obviously, to get away from danger. And so, but what it turns off is our reproductive system, which is linked into our erectile function, right? So if we are stressed, we don't have, we have really significant less blood flow to the penis area because that's not required. We don't require blood there in order to get away from a tiger. We've got more important things to do. We need to get away from the tiger to survive. And so if you're stressed, if you have high levels of stress, it's going to have a serious implication on erectile dysfunction. So you need to be managing your stress in order to improve erectile dysfunction. And again, stress is going to implicate testosterone production. So we certainly don't want that to happen because as you know, and I alluded to earlier, the importance of testosterone in terms of libido, in terms of endurance, in terms of strength, in terms of mental wellbeing. It's vital for fertility. It's vital for sperm health. And that, again, is turned down when we're stressed. And so we don't want dysregulation in our hormones because of excessive stress. Now, managed stress exposure is okay. It's just when we have prolonged stress exposure that's overwhelming us, that is, that will cause an implication to our sexual reproductive function. So it's really important to look at ways to manage your stress. Now, one of the ways that I've researched that will also help erectile dysfunction is slowing down your breathing. So when we're stressed, our breathing is fast. We have a high respiratory rate because we need to get oxygen to our muscles in order to get away from the threat. And so we have this high heart rate, increased blood pressure, and high amounts of respiratory rate in order to get the oxygen to get away from the threat. Now, what we, what we want in terms of relaxing the body is slowing the heart rate, slowing the breathing rate. So breath work can be really important to improving erectile dysfunction because you can calm the nervous system, relax the nervous system, switch on the reproductive system and allow blood flow to your penis in order to get the erection. So the one way of doing this is just reducing your cycles per minute. So you can do this through doing a like a box breathe box breathing exercise, which is really just focused on breathing in for four, holding for four, breathing out for four, holding for four. And in essence, what's that, what that is doing is reducing your respiratory rate per minute. And by slowing down the heart rate, you're reducing the amount of oxygen, but increasing the amount of carbon dioxide. Now, carbon dioxide has been linked to vasodilation, right? And as I mentioned before, earlier on, it's that vasodilation that we want in order to allow excessive blood flow into that penis region and for the enlargement to take place. So slowing down your breath, increasing carbon dioxide within your blood will actually help. So doing some breathing exercises, calming, relaxing, is obviously going to be very supportive for not only managing your stress and maintaining healthy levels of testosterone, but in also improving erectile dysfunction. And what I suggest is that you keep this practise as a regular practise, a regular breathing practise to stay on top of your stress. The other one that's really important is sleep because sleep is vital for testosterone production. And so we need a good night's sleep in order for healthy hormones. Again, stress is going to implicate sleep and that's going to have an adverse effect on healthy hormones, which obviously in this case, we're referring to healthy testosterone levels. So it's really important that you manage your sleep by being consistent around the time to bed and the time that you wake and having a routine around your sleep that is conducive to calming the body, relaxing the body and allowing a good night's sleep. So certainly sleep is really important in terms of maintaining healthy levels of testosterone. And we also want to, like, look after our kidneys and our liver because that activates vitamin D and we need active vitamin D in order to initiate the process that I'm talking about in terms of a natural solution to erectile dysfunction. Now, in terms of looking after your kidneys, it's really important that you have a nice, healthy mineral balance in your diet. And so that you're getting your magnesium, you're getting your calcium, you're getting your sodium, potassium, you're getting your manganese. We need all these minerals in order to maintain healthy kidney function. And so we don't want excessive amounts of, for example, hydrogen, which is also known as when we have huge amounts of hydrogen in our system, we also increasing the acidity in our blood and increasing acidity, our blood puts a load on the kidneys because there's only so much acidity or hydrogen that we can actually excrete from our system. So it's really important that we we manage that, we manage the amount. The thing that's really going to help this is making sure that you've got a nice balance between acid and alkaline food. And so acidic producing foods are your fats and your proteins. And then you've got your alkalising foods, which are more your vegetables and fruits. And so by maintaining a nice balance between fruits, veggies, protein, and fats, the more you can maintain that balance, the better you support your kidneys. You don't put a load on your kidneys. So again, that mineral balance will come from eating a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, and then having, we need protein obviously to support healthy metabolism. So we need protein in our diets and we also need fats in our diets in order to support that cholesterol production. We need cholesterol in order to make vitamin D and testosterone. So it's really important that we do have fats in our diet. So in terms of good liver function, again, it sort of correlates to what you need to do around good kidney function. And that's having a healthy amount of protein in your diet, making sure you're having a wide variety of protein sources. Again, animal products are important in this mix because they contain all the essential amino acids. And then we also want good amounts of vegetables and fruit. And by having this nice combination, we really help optimise that liver function. Now, what's going to impair liver function is excessive amount of fructose, for example. So fruit juice is really bad for the liver. It puts, because the only way we can break down fructose is in the liver and it puts a huge load on the liver. It's the same as alcohol, alcohol. We process alcohol, we break down alcohol through the liver. And so whenever we put an excess load on the liver, either through excess alcohol consumption, excess fructose consumption, soft drink consumption, this is going to put a huge load bearing on the liver, which will impair its function and impair its ability to activate vitamin D and to help synthesise cholesterol into what's required to be manufactured into other hormones. And so we don't want to increase that load on the liver. We want to make sure the liver is working well. Now, the other thing that's going to put a load on the liver is anger, for example. So anger, which is linked to stress, we obviously exhibit when we're stressed, we exhibit that through anger. And you can see the correlation because when you're stressed, you do get angry and emotional in order to get away from the threats, right? We have that instinctual thing to really unleash our anger, unleash our frustrations when we're stressed. And that's a natural response to when we're excessively stressed. And so that anger that we build up and the frustration that we build up also increases the stress hormones, such as cortisol. In order to break down the cortisol, we do that through the liver. And again, so it's the increased load on the liver that impairs its function to balance what it needs to do around making hormones and making the precursor to vitamin D, all these things that it does, vitamins and whatever it makes, it's really important that it is functioning well, and it, you know, one of its main purposes is detoxification and getting the toxins out of the body. When it's not working well, toxins will build up. And again, I linked inflammation to poor endothelial function, in essence. So when we have excessive amounts of inflammation, we actually damage the endothelial layer. The endothelial layer is the layer that surrounds the blood vessel. And when we damage that, we increase the deposition of plaque buildup. So it's, so if we're, for example, got excessive high blood pressure for prolonged periods of time due to stress, or we got excessive amount of toxins circulating the body, then this can cause damage to the endothelial layer, which what the body will do is repair that damage through plaque buildup, which includes cholesterol and other deposits. And then that plaque buildup hardens through calcification. And then we have this atherosclerosis, which is reduced arterial flow because of the buildup of the plaque around the, uh, inside the endothelial layer. So, we don't, in order to reduce that damage, and the reason why we don't want this atherosclerosis, is that's going to reduce blood flow, right? Overall. And so by, by looking after your stress, by managing your inflammation, you're going to minimise the damage to the endothelial layer. The other way in which we protect the endothelial layer in order to maximise blood flow and reduce the load on the heart is by increasing the exclusion zone and the way in which we potentiate that exclusion zone that doesn't allow impurities or anything through it is by getting infrared light. So it, this whole podcast comes back to a light story and it's not only, it's actually the non-visible spectrum of the light that I'm talking about predominantly. You know, we, we think light is just what we see in terms of the visible range, but we've got the ultraviolet range, which I've spoken widely about, and the infrared range. So the infrared is the, the longer wavelengths. The ultraviolet is the more shorter wavelengths, but we need that full spectrum, including that non-visible spectrum that I've just spoken about in order to get increased health span, increased longevity, and back to improving erectile dysfunction. So what can you do about it? And how do you go about doing this? So what I suggest is that you at least get outside five minutes every hour. So when you have a break between meetings, step outside and get natural light exposure, because you, then you're going to be getting infrared light because that's 50% of the, the entire spectrum. And you're also, you know, depending on the time of the day in the morning, you'll be getting the UVA light, which is really important. I've spoken detail, the importance of getting UVA light exposure. And then midday to mid to late afternoon, you want to be getting five minutes every hour in order to get that UVB exposure. And it's really important that we get this exposure without sunglasses and minimal protection. Obviously, if you put sunscreen on, it blocks the UV, it blocks the UV. So you're not getting the UV light that you need to do everything that I've shared on this episode. So we don't want the sunscreen, but if we do it well, such as we're getting small amounts, small doses throughout the whole day, which is five minutes every hour. If you can't do five minutes every hour, do 10 minutes every two hours or 15 minutes every four hours. If you're doing that, then you're getting nice, gentle amount of sun exposure throughout the day. This will obviously increase your male reproductive function. It will reduce erectile dysfunction. Again, getting regular sun exposure helps keep you in the circadian rhythm. So it'll improve sleep. Sleep's really vital for testosterone production and growth. And so if we're doing all these things, we're also, you know, reducing alcohol. Alcohol is something that's going to put a load on the liver, as I said. Also, the other thing is that it aromatises testosterone. So you're getting more, in essence, because you're using up the zinc in order to break down the alcohol, that will cause a zinc deficit and that can cause the aromatization of testosterone into estrogen. And again, so we don't want these sort of things. We want to maintain healthy levels. So in order to do that, we need to be doing everything well around a holistic lifestyle and make, you know, watching how much you drink and reducing exposure to inflammatory foods, which is fried foods, for example. So eliminating fried foods is really important. Eliminating foods cooked in, you know, deep fried, deep fried foods is really important, eliminating that, and then obviously, getting that balance between a good amount of protein, fats, and vegetables is really going to be vital to maintaining healthy health span. So that's pretty much it. I really want to wrap it up here and and leave you with that in terms of how important sunlight is, not only to improving or eliminating erectile dysfunction, but also improving your health span, improving your lifespan. And we need full sun exposure. We need the full spectrum of the sun in order to get all these health benefits that I've mentioned. And we can do this in a healthy way. Again, you want to be doing it based on your skin type. So obviously those that got fairer skin need less time in the sun. Those that have got darker skin need more time in the sun. I've shared that rough sort of five minutes per hour in terms of sun exposure. Again, you need to manage that based on your skin type, but just get out in the sun more, more frequently. Again, don't overdo it. It's not about overdoing it. It's not doing it to the excess. It's getting moderate amounts. And you can monitor your amount of outdoor exposure by the Apple Health app. And the other way of doing it is if you're in around parklands, by walking in parklands, the green reflects the infrared light. So the plant doesn't take in the infrared light. It reflects that. And so you can get healthy amounts of infrared light by minute and minimising the UV exposure. If you've already got enough UV, you've already done your five minutes in the UV sun exposure, then you can continue to get infrared exposure by just walking in the park, in in shaded areas around the park. And you'll be getting more of that infrared exposure, which is really going to help, as I said, create that exclusion zone and help the blood flow and improve your health. Because in essence, that initiates rejuvenation, regeneration as well, infrared light. So that's it for today. I really appreciate you tuning in to another insightful episode of me&my health up. There'll be a lot coming up in terms of guests. So stay tuned for more insights. If you'd like more support in this area, please reach out to me. I'd be happy to provide some one-on-one advice around what you could do based on your skin type, based on your situation. So please reach out to me if you've got any feedback on the episode. Also, please give me feedback on the episode. I would appreciate that. And until next time, continue to health up.
Podcast Disclaimer:This podcast and any information, advice, opinions, or statements within it do not constitute medical, healthcare, or professional advice and are provided for general information purposes only. All care is taken in the preparation of the information in this podcast. Connected Wellness Proprietary Limited operating under the brand "me&my health up" does not make any representations or give any warranties about its accuracy, reliability, completeness, or suitability for any particular purpose. This podcast and any information, advice, opinions, or statements within it are not to be used as a substitute for professional, medical, psychological, psychiatric, or any other mental healthcare or healthcare in general. me&my health up recommends you seek the advice of a doctor or qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Inform your doctor of any changes that you made to your lifestyle and discuss these with your doctor. Do not disregard medical advice or delay visiting a medical professional because of something you hear in this podcast. This podcast has been carefully prepared on the basis of current information. Changes in circumstances after publication may affect the accuracy of this information. To the maximum extent permitted by the law, me&my health up disclaims any such representations or warranties to the completeness, accuracy, merchantability, or fitness for purpose of this podcast and will not be liable for any expenses, losses, damages incurred, indirect or consequential damages, or costs that may be incurred as a result of the information being inaccurate or incomplete in any way and for any reason. No part of this podcast can be reproduced, redistributed, published, copied, or duplicated in a form without prior permission of me&my health up.
