can we old farts function without viagra? Perhaps yes

I'm not old enough to qualify for the seniors menu at Jim's Diner, but I am old enough that if I had joined the C.I.A. in 1986 when I was in graduate school [which happily I declined to do] I would now be mandatorily retired from there because of age. I guess that means I'm not young anymore. Being this old has brought some unexpected pluses having to do with having lived in what was definitely the most dynamic and rich era ever in human history, IMHO. It's nice to have been around during the Apollo moon landings, and having seen "2001: A Space Odyessy," or "The Graduate" for that matter, when they were originally released.

It's cool to have been around during the Watergate hearings, President Johnson's resignation speech, the Kennedys' assassinations [respectively] not to mention the release of all of the Beatles albums, and to have witnessed their changes from one to the other as this happened.

I am however bemused by the way that popular history has distorted what I remember as public opinion at the time when such towering events actually occurred. The assassination of MLK for example. At the time of his slaying in the Spring of 1968 he was not the beloved figure now portrayed. His goals of Federal legislation to abolish racial discrimination achieved, he found himself without a mission, and had re-invented himself as a leftist-internationalist who then blamed the U.S. for the Vietnam War as well as for third world poverty. The instant he did this his previous widespread approval among whites evaporated, and the remaining black movement all but abandoned him in favor of other firebrands who were more concerned with RESULTS and ENDS rather than the MEANS which he struggled so courageously to reform. Today however his image is very different from this, as are most issues of "history" of the major events during my lifetime.

One thing that anyone my age will miss however is the almost instanteous manner in which I used to have an erection. This used to happen at the drop of a hat, or panties, or even a bra, and it was always that way, even before puberty, until about five years ago. I used to work in medicine and I've always heard from MDs that such decline of "turgidity" is the inevitable process of the reduction of testosterone which accompanies advancing age. Libido also suffers as well. But is this true? Is this process inevitable? What about all those terrific hard-ons I remember having well before the onset of puberty, which only then brought on the high levels of testosterone to which all these MDs refer?

I think closer to the truth is that in times past, say, over sixty years ago, it was considered normal for men to have hard cocks at virtually all ages of life. A case in point..what about those drawings of Benjamin Franklin when he was in Paris, with his aging, thining hair and turkey neck, but sporting a huge long phallus being held by a nubile young Parisan chick. And what about when I was in College and I read about the founder of public relations, Charlse Burnays, who used to pork his young live-in maid daily around his Manhattan brownstone even at the age of 84. She recorded these daily encounters quite enthusiastically and claimed he was a horse, and most satisfying well into his eightees.

I'm not a fan of self-help gurus, but a handful of these hustlers I've found to have some meritoreous reporting of real science which MDs usually overlook. Depak Chopra and John Gray I include in this category. I've read Gray's new book, "Venus on Fire, Mars on Ice," www.venus-on-fire-mars-on-ice.com which addresses new research on hormon maintenance and supplimentation with vitamin D.

I have to say in all honesty that for the last few months I've been supplimenting with vitamin D [2,000 IUs daily] and have had some results that my personal physicians are finding astounding, though not differing from that reported in several major recent studies. These results have to do with the treatment of three different minor inflamatory conditions I've had for ten or more years, and now all three have pretty much dissappeared. What I didn't expect though was that this, taken with some other dietary changes recommended by Gray, would also skyrocket my testosterone levels. These are also up to my baseline numbers which were taken when I was 34, and had dropped considerably since.

I'm certainly no MD, or physical scientist or scholar of any kind, and having had careers in medicine and fitness I'm EXTREMELY skeptical about claims regarding suppliments. But this is what's happened, and I am both very suprised and encouraged. In short, I'm not exactly needing the viagra as much as I did, if at all, and I first started using it five years ago. This was very unexpected.

Interesting experience, and I appreciate the thoughtful literary journey to your destination point. Continue to hear positive claims for vitamin D, but was not aware of the nature's viagra possibility. Guess I need to stop typing and head to the medicine cabinet. Hope springs eternal.
So what are Gray's key ideas on diet?

Gray emphesizes avoidance of estrogens found in American-produced, non-organic dairy and meats, as well as water stored in plastic containers.
I think he's right because the Europeans, Japanese, [everyone but us] have banned all these hormones from their systems. He also advocates eating a lot of vegetables [who doesn't?]. As well there's some esoteric food products he recommends which I find interesting enough to try, but there's no real data on those yet. I guess I'm part of the database on those.

I actually started taking vitamin D for cancer propholaxus because of my history, and had no idea that it could have such a dramatic anti-inflamatory effect.

If my experience and recent studies [such as the newest one from Harvard] are correct, then most heart desease, inflamatory and auto-immune disorders and cancers might be a thing of the past. Vitamin D deficiancy may be the major cause of all these. Apparantly in the past most people just spent more time in the sun....that's how our ancient ancestors developed anyway, so in theory it has a lot of explainatory power as to why these deseases have skyrocketed only in the last few decades and only in certain countries like our own.

Thanks very much for posting this. I've done some additional reading online and I'm convinced there's a significant connection between vitamin D levels and erections. There's plenty of information available. I'm going to give this a try. One recommendation I read suggested taking walks in the early morning sunlight because it is especially rich in vitamin D. Also, you avoid skin damage earlier in the day. I've gotta do something. I lost an erection last week at a very bad time -- and that's not the first time in the past year or two. Pretty tough to deal with when you've got about the hottest lady you've ever been with just waiting to hop on. We made some adjustments and I got through it, but it was an ego-deflating experience to say the least. Anyway, I'll buy some vitamin D tomorrow and start spending more time in the sunlight (something I no longer get nearly enough of). Thanks again!

Very interesting. What form of Vitamin D supplements have you been using?

I use D3, 2000 IU.

All of this is true and it won't be long before all of the medical establishment wakes up to this. It is the hot area of research, and the institutes doing it are the most established ones around so it doesn't have the taint of "alternative" medicine. It will revolutionize everything, and increase life expectancy to the point that most retirement systems will go bankrupt, including Social Security!

Thanks for the terrific information.

Time to hit whole foods!