Curing Erectile Dysfunction

If your neuropathy is autonomic, the nerves have to regrow. That takes time, but isn't impossible.

"In a young, healthy non-diabetic, nerves regrow at the rate of a millimeter a day," Dr. Bernstein explained. "So to get from the tip of your toe to your spine might be one meter -- a thousand millimeters. That would be a thousand days and if you were in poor health and older, it might be two thousand days."

On the other hand, if your blood glucose level hasn't been too high for years and years, your neuropathy could be simply metabolic. By bringing your blood glucose level down to normal you can reverse metabolic neuropathy "in a matter of weeks," he says.

But the cause of ED might not be either metabolic or autonomic neuropathy. It might be due to vascular disease as well as or instead of neuropathy.

If the cause is vascular, the problem becomes more difficult, Dr. Bernstein says. But you can reverse vascular disease too. He knows, because he reversed his own vascular disease.

Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1946, his blood glucose levels were high and uncontrolled for many years until about 1973. "I had a number of bits of evidence of vascular disease before I started controlling my blood sugars. It certainly did serious damage to my kidneys."

Maybe just as important, Dr. Bernstein started doing strenuous cardiovascular exercise in the early 1970s. Studies show that this can reverse atherosclerosis.

"I had one of these high-speed electron beam tomographic studies done a couple of years ago," he says. "And this measures the amount of calcification of the coronary arteries. The score at this particular institution was 0 to 100. Zero means no calcification, 100 means the most severe form. And I had a score of 1, with one little fleck. At that time I was 72 years old and diabetic just below 60 years, I guess. And here had almost no vascular disease."

If you have had diabetes for a long time and are well over the age of 40, you probably have both vascular disease and neuropathy, Dr. Bernstein says. He distinguishes between these two problems by measuring penile blood pressure. If it's low, it means that the problem is vascular.

He also uses an EKG machine to do an R-R interval study of the vagus nerve. This measures the time elapsing between two consecutive R waves in the electrocardiogram."If that is grossly abnormal, it means you have neuropathic problems." Then, they confirm the results of the R-R interval study with a complete pelvic neurologic exam.

Whether the cause of ED is metabolic neuropathy, anatomic neuropathy, or vascular disease, you can cure it. Conveniently, maintaining normal blood glucose and doing strenuous exercise are exactly what we all need to do to control our diabetes.