I've been going deep on the vascular side of erectile health for a couple years now. Mostly with guys who've got the hormone bit handled yet still aren't all the way there in terms of function. Want to share some of what I've been finding.
Started running a small group protocol a few months back to test what I was finding. 90-dayset up with a clinical assessment at the start, included a custom protocol around what we find, re-test at the end to see what moved (I promise this isn't a ugl). A few of the guys were already on TRT with labs looking solid with some of them on daily Cialis on top of that.
Not quite on point though.
One thing came up early that I wasn't expecting. A lot of them had already tried stuff like citrulline and beet root before they came in. Felt something in the first week or two then nothing. Didn't know why.
What we found was there are two things your body needs for erectile blood flow to work the way it should. Citrulline handles the first part, giving you what's needed to make nitric oxide. But there's a second thing going on. when your body breaks down protein... it produces a by-product that builds up in the same pathway and blocks the body from actually using what you're giving it. A lot of protocols/programs might just touch the first part. And that's where I kept seeing the gap.
Same thing is why Cialis helps but doesn't always seem to work orif it does, it's less effective over time until you up the dose. It's working downstream of that block with the problem upstream staying in place.
Something else I started paying closer attention to through this was morning wood. Most track it as an E2 signal which makes sense, but it's also a direct read on blood flow. It happens during REM sleep and driven by circulation through the tissue. So if E2 is dialed in and morning wood is still inconsistent that gap may well be on the vascular side.
If you want to test whether the pathway is even responding, here's what you do:
- 3 grams of L-citrulline
- A teaspoon of organic beet root powder
Take both first thing in the morning on an empty stomach for two weeks straight
Then pay attention to what happens overnight and when you wake up. You'll know within a couple weeks whether flow is responding and can go from there.
For the guys where nothing moved we went after that upstream block directly, with compounds that work at a different level than what they'd already tried. Around week 2-3 most of them could tell something had shifted. Morning wood started coming back.
I put together an online assessment that helps you figure out erectile health baseline and a protocol built around your results (both backed by research).
Full disclosure though: the protocol is paid (and custom based on your results) btw. The assessment and your results are free. If you're trying to figure out your erectile situation, feel free to message me. Otherwise, happy to chat/share more in the thread.