Improving low libido in women – new information....

Today's Post: Monday, 4-19-2010

One of the rewards of a health supporting lifestyle is that your sex life is often far better than it would have been.

We also know that regular exercise tends to improve sex for BOTH men and women.

A recently released study shows some of the reasons why that’s true for women.

The first part of the rest of this post describes that study and suggests ways to use this research now even before any drugs are developed to do it.

It’s a bit graphic. So, if that would bother you to read, just be sure to exercise including some vigorous exercise each week and pass on reading the rest of it.

(The second part has an added solution for post-menopausal women.)

This study was reported in:

“Study Explores Possibility of a Female Viagra
WEDNESDAY, April 14, 2010 (HealthDay News)”

The drug company, Pfizer, that paid for this research wants a chemical similar to Viagra that will work for women to produce the effects they produced with electrical stimulation of the pelvic nerve.

“In tests on female lab animals, a team from the drug maker Pfizer found that electrical stimulation of the pelvic nerve increases blood flow to the genitalia.”

“Blood flow to the vagina, labia and clitoris increases when a woman is sexually aroused. The increased blood flow causes the organs to swell and the vagina to relax, and also increases vaginal lubrication and genitalia sensitivity, according to background information in a news release about the study.”

The idea is that if a woman doesn’t respond much to sexual stimulation, increasing the circulation of blood to her sexual area will likely partly act as if she had responded – and, of more importance and potential value, will increase her sensations and her responses to sexual stimulation that follows.

But having a woman get healthy circulation with lifestyle & lifestyle upgrades for sure including regular and vigorous exercise and eating a good health protective diet etc clearly are a good idea for health reasons!

This suggests that women who have low sexual response can improve it by doing and sustaining these health protective practices.

But, it does more than that. If a woman or her partner uses a powerful vibrator on the area surrounding but not on her most sensitive sexual parts – such as on her larger outside labia or just outside them until it induces increased circulation, she may well become more sexually responsive to lighter stimulation on or closer to her most sexually sensitive parts such as her inner labia and clitoris or just next to it.

Since this can overdo things, and holding a powerful vibrator vibrates your hand enough to be distracting, the best solution would be to have her partner hold the vibrator but for the woman herself to guide where it goes and ask for a lighter or harder touch so that her circulation is increased but she isn’t overstimulated or feels it’s too harsh.

In fact, there is already evidence that having women use milder vibrators on their own to train her nerves to respond does work. The relatively recent movie about the sex researcher Kinsey including some information that was NOT in the more scholarly books. One of their women subjects who was elderly asked if she could try a vibrator as she had never had an orgasm but wanted to see if she could. It worked.

So, without drugs or medical devices, a health promoting lifestyle including exercise and foods and supplements that support good circulation and heart health AND vibrators can make successful use of this research with no drug or medical devices needed.

Slightly warmer than body temperature lube to increase circulation might help.

So might vigorous exercise right before to boost overall circulation.

And, all of this is doable now with no new drug or an electrical stimulation device !!

It seems that if the blood flow shows up, the more sensitive and responsive areas like the clitoris become more responsive sexually -- a self-reinforcing upward spiral !!

(Second, there MIGHT be a way to make a device to provide safe and pain free electrical stimulation of this nerve in women she or her partner could use.

In addition to drugs, that might also be worth trying.)

Lastly, for women over menopause, synthetic estrogen has a potential side effect of causing cancer.

But Al Sears, MD has found in his practice that as little as two weeks of supplementation with bioidentical progesterone –NOT synthetic estrogen -- not only tends to restore previously normal sex response in post menopausal women, but often helps to reverse fat gain and increased insulin resistance and blood sugar levels.

Since many breast cancers are estrogen dependent and synthetic estrogen tends to cause that kind of cancer, Dr Sears makes the case that what he uses is far safer and gets the results women want.

Even better, there are two supplements that may be as effective as the breast cancer preventing drugs but without their side effects.

We now know that 2,000 to 5,000 iu a day of vitamin D3 is closer to what people’s bodies actually need each day than the 400 iu once believed sufficient. What is truly exciting is that taking this much vitamin D3 this tends to boost your immune system enough that it prevents many kinds of cancer.

Second, cancer rates in general are low in India where the spice turmeric is used in curry in their food. One set of follow up studies on this was in Frank Mangano’s health email today.:

“The University of Missouri found that curcumin (the active ingredient in turmeric) decreases breast tumors. They also found that turmeric could reduce breast cancer risk in women who use hormone replacement therapies. Turmeric has also been shown to fight cancerous polyps.” (That means it also helps prevent throat and colon cancer.)

Since this newly understood intake level of vitamin D3 has been discovered to be needed, taking that much each day has been found to also help improve resistance to infection and help prevent heart disease and autoimmune diseases.

And, since turmeric has been found to prevent Alzheimer’s disease in part by removing the amyloid plaque that causes it, it makes excellent sense to take a curcumin supplement for other health protective reasons.

Since that’s the case, Dr Sears method of hormone replacement, particularly when used with both of these protective supplements, may make good sense in post-menopausal women with low libido.