Dr. Marco Pelosi III: Our next speaker is probably best described as the Michael Jordan of platelet rich plasma, Dr. Charles Runels from Alabama, that pioneered the O-Shot® [Orgasm Shot®], the Vampire [Face]lift®, the P-Shot® [Priapus Shot®], and he’s taken all the abuse and he’s given the world some very, very useful procedures for everyone. He’s going to talk about the studies he did and the studies done in platelet rich plasma in regards to sexual function. Dr. Runels, it’s a pleasure to have you here.
I’m going to go through a whirlwind look at research that’s been done where people have used PRP to help with sex. Much of the research has been done by the people in our group, and I’ve described many of them in this room who have done this research. It’s a for-profit organization, but we pay for research, we pay for education, we pay for marketing for our providers. Just to echo what you just heard, sex is much more than about just having fun. Rainer Maria Rilke said it’s just so correlated to the creative experience that it’s affecting how we do our work, how you do your presentation, and how – of course – relationships and families.
I want to echo that sentiment, and remind us that back in 1980, if you look in ‘Urology’ – this was ‘Urology’ 1980 – the most common cause for erectile dysfunction was thought to be 85% psychogenic. Here’s a quote from ‘Urology’ where urologists were encouraged to become counselors, because most of erectile dysfunction was thought to be psychogenic. Of course, I’m echoing the penis stuff because if you take a penis and shrink it and unzip it, that becomes a clitoris. I’m thinking most of the research will eventually apply to that. Certainly, our attitude is applying because we’re back in the … We’re not, I’m preaching to the choir, but many of our colleagues are back in the 1980’s and saying the main thing we have for sexuality for women is counseling.
My thinking that perhaps, as you guys do, some of the pathology that applies to the penis may apply to the clitoris, and maybe some of these women are suffering from actual genital histopathology, not just psychogenic problems. We have this one FDA approved drug now for female sexual dysfunction that’s a psych drug, flibanserin. It’s a useful drug, but obviously, we need much more and maybe we should think in terms of systems, like we do for the rest of the body.
Platelet Rich Plasma.
Obviously, this is not a new idea. This is from, this month, over 9,000 papers indexed in PubMed about platelet rich plasma. Our orthopedic colleagues, our dentist, our facial plastic surgeons have worked with this, and all we have to do is take their ideas and then hopefully people in this room will extend what I’m about to show you and just take those ideas and adapt them to the genital space. Here’s some of the growth factors we know about. There are many more. They have these effects. These are good things for the genitalia. Down-regulating autoimmune response, proliferation of fibroblasts, new angiogenesis, the adipocytes enlarge and multiply – think labia majora, collagen production, neurogenesis and maybe some glandular function.
There’s never, in all those 9,000 papers, I still cannot find one serious side effect. No granulomas, no serious infection. PRP is what your body makes to heal when you do your surgeries and help prevent infection. Obviously, there are always certain things that can happen, bruising and such, but if you have a serious life-threatening complication from PRP, you will have the first recorded in all of that 9,000 plus papers. That’s a nice thing.
We have commercially available methods for preparing it, within 5 or 10 minutes of the bedside, and the devices are FDA approved. So you guys don’t get confused, obviously the FDA does not approve your procedures. That’s a doctor business. They don’t approve blood that belongs to you, just like your spit and your saliva and your skin. They tried, at one time, to control eggs and the gynecologists said, “Hell no.” So they don’t control eggs and they don’t control blood, but you should use an FDA approved device if you do this [approved for preparation of PRP to go back into the body].
Autoimmune Disease
Here’s some of the ideas about down-regulating autoimmune response. We have split-scalp studies showing that PRP helps alopecia areata better than triamcinolone. More hair growth that comes in thicker. Here’s rat studies looking at rheumatoid arthritis. What do we have in the genital space? We have lichens sclerosus. We did some before and after pictures where you use stem cells mixed with PRP, and before and after pictures show improvement. Of course, that’s two variables because you have stem cells and you have the PRP.
We took the same idea and just used PRP. Andrew Goldstein worked with me on this, and we had two blinded dermatopathologists. The protocol was biopsy, PRP, wait six weeks later, another PRP injection, and then six weeks after that, another biopsy. Two blinded dermatopathologists out of George Washington University did not know the before or the after. We showed statistical improvement in both the histology and symptomatology. Here’s our histology. You can see obviously, that’s the same magnification and we’re showing decreased hyperkeratosis. That’s obviously healthier tissue. A layperson could tell that’s better. Of course if you look at the gross pictures, lady on the left as you guys know, she has pain wearing her blue jeans. The lady on the right is back to making love to her husband. They’ve invited me into their close Facebook groups and I saw a post a few months ago. Quote says, “I was sitting next to my husband, whom I love, last night. I was afraid to hold his hand because I was afraid he would become aroused and I’m bleeding and hurting today.” That’s what you guys are helping.
We published that in ‘Lower Genital Tract Disease’. We extended it because it worked. We published this past January in the journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. You have some science to go do this now.
One of our providers, Kathleen Posey, who’s a gynecologist out of New Orleans, took this idea and then she said, “Let’s do some dissection in the office”, and she presented this in Argentina, published it in the same journal ‘Lower Genital Tract Disease’. Here’s one of her patients, where you can introduce [inaudible 00:06:44]. It had been 12 years since she had had sexual intercourse, penis and vagina intercourse, with her loving husband … 12 years. She was being followed by a dermatologist on high dose clobetasol. Kathleen dissected it out in the office and then injected PRP … 8 weeks later, she’s having comfortable sex with her husband. She’s now 3 years out. She’s had to be treated with PRP, not repeat surgery … PRP now, 2 other times a year apart to maintain that result. She now has a series of 60 or so patients that she’s now going to publish with similar results, where she’s dissecting out – as you guys know how to do – treating the [inaudible 00:07:27], but then following that with PRP injections to help the healing and decease the autoimmune response.
That same doctor, Casabona, repeated his study with lichen sclerosus in men [BXO], and showed with just PRP alone … This study of 45 men with repeat treatments … It is cumulative, 2 to 10 treatments, the same thing. All of them stopped their steroids. None of them started back. Only one went on to have circumcision.
Peyronie’s
Peyronie’s disease, another autoimmune disease … This came out this month out of Wake Forest, where they took men and they followed their results with Peyronie’s disease. Not only did their Peyronie’s improve statistically, but they also improved their erectile dysfunction by 5 on that scale of 5 to 25 that the urologists use. For some reason, thankfully, they threw in one woman just for good measure, and showed that it helped her incontinence. They just tucked that in as an aftermath.
Ronald Virag, as you guys know as the legendary vascular surgeon who was first to present the idea of intracavernosal injections for erectile dysfunction, out of Paris. His big thing now is PRP for Peyronie’s. He just published a study where he showed that this is comparing PRP with Xiapex, which is a $50,000 series of injections, FDA approved version of collagenase. He showed that PRP works better with few side effects. There’s a risk of about 1 in 30, that actually go from a bent pencil to a fractured pencil and a limp noodle. You don’t see that with PRP. You see the side effect is the erectile function improves. He showed the same thing, actually, in his studies that erectile dysfunction improves by an average of about 7 on that 5 to 25 point scale.
Wound Healing/Scar Resolution
Let’s think about the [inaudible 00:09:29] literature. Look at this, there’s so much of this out there. This is looking at post-operative adhesions, lots of studies looking at scarring with microneedling and PRP. This is a split-face study comparing PRP with microneedling verus PRP … Excuse me, microneedling with saline or Vitamin C serum and split-faced studies in PRP wins. Dr. Sclafani did some studies in the cosmetic space looking at increased collagen production and fibroblast activity, and never a neoplasia documented. People worry about that. This is not indiscriminate blindness blind growth. You don’t worry about carcinogenesis when you do surgery and it’s the same PRP that’s causing healing. There’s actually some helpful immune processes that go on, that you could argue actually might help prevent cancer. I’m not going to make that argument but it might need to be made one day.
If you look further, here’s a wound healing study looking at reepithelialized exposed bone and tendon of the foot and ankle. When I took that and applied, this is a hypertrophic scar that was a year old from cortisone, and then using PRP and Juvederm or HA filler, this is a few days later, a month later, and that’s a year later. Now, take that and think, “How could I use that in the genitourinary space?” Doing that anecdotally, we have many of the members of our group are seeing help with episiotomy scars or dyspareunia, pelvic foreplay instead of injecting that pelvic floor tenderness with triamcinolone. Physiatrist for the past ten years has been using PRP, your sports medicine doctors. Now, when you palpate it, consider injecting with PRP instead. Dyspareunia from mesh and that unknown dyspareunia, we’re seeing this is where we need you guys to help extend the research. The science is there that it should help and it seems to be helping. Not 100%, but about 80% in people with dyspareunia.
Mesh Pain
Here is a look at a gentleman who did … He took the mesh out and then he patched the hole with a gel form of PRP and showed benefit. We’re finding anecdotally – no one’s done this study yet, here’s another one for you to pick up … I’m giving you low hanging fruit. We’re seeing anecdotally that if you inject in the distribution of the pudendal nerve, which seems to be inflamed in some women with mesh pain, that their pain will frequently go from 9 out of 10 down to 1 or 2 out of 10, without even taking the mesh out. Just another place where we need some research done.
Interstitial Cystitis
Here, we have rat studies looking at inflammation. Let’s think about this one. Here’s a rat study where they modeled cystitis and we are seeing in chronic interstitial cystitis without even infiltrating the bladder, just infiltrating in the periurethral space, some of our women are getting better. I’ve had two separate urologists call me and say, “Charles, I can’t believe it. I was doing this and expecting not this to happen. I have these patients now who have had chronic interstitial cystitis pain for years, and it’s gone.” Not 1005 but finding out who’s going to respond and who’s not and why, there’s a lot of variables that need to be thought about that you guys will hopefully do the research.
Penis Growth
Here’s a study that came out in the ‘Journal of Sexual Medicine’, where a guy took … the [inaudible 00:12:51] men who have an erection of 3 inches or less and then he treated them with PRP, combined with a pump, and showed that if you repeated it every time you did it, it grew by about 7 millimeters. I’ve always thought if I could give you a guarantee half an inch to an inch with anything, I’d get my picture on a postage stamp. I don’t have that yet, but I can tell you that we’re seeing about 60% of the time we do this procedure, men will see some sort of growth.
If you look at the neovascular space, there was a study out of Southern California that was published in the ‘Journal of Sexual Medicine’ where they transferred adipocyte stem cells to the penis of diabetic rats. They showed new endothelial cell growth and increased nitric oxide activity in the dorsal nerve. Would that be helpful in the clitoris? Probably, but the interesting thing is the adipocyte-derived stem cells were attacked and they died. The postulate was the improvement was from the growth factors.
Penile Rehabilitation and Erectile Dysfunction
I have seen what [inaudible 00:13:52] have seen in that when you inject this in the penis, erectile function goes up on the average of about 5 to 7 per injection. Think about nerve repair. We have rat studies modeling prostrate surgery, showing that the nerves improved with PRP and so we have, again, another clear place where we need studies if you add this now to the usual protocol for rehabilitating the penis post-prostate surgery … would you see benefit? We have seen that in some of our patients who are a year or two out who failed the rehabilitation part of that. Would that help your patients who have, say, numbness and decreased function from riding their bikes too much, or trauma? I don’t know, but it’s worth thinking about and publishing research about.
In thinking about where to put this, where we do our O-Shot, when we do PRP to the anterior vaginal wall, we’re putting it as distal from the bladder as possible. We found that it works better. We’re essentially making a liquid sling. Think infiltrating and getting ready to put in the mesh. That’s what we’re doing. Very simple, only we’re using a material that has never caused a granuloma ever. Doing that, frequently our patients will have their incontinence go away that day from the actual liquid and as it’s replaced with new tissue, it never recurs. Usually, you’ll have to repeat the procedure at a year or two out depending on the etiology. Sometimes it lasts longer.
The interesting idea is what might be happening with those [inaudible 00:15:21]. They become more active, and does that help with sexual function? The other place we put it is in the actual corpus cavernosum of the clitoris. We use [inaudible 00:15:29] ultrasound visualization and see it flow down into the body of the clitoris by the pubic ramus and the wave form goes to what you see in a flaccid penis to what you see in an erect penis.
Improved Orgasm & Libido in Women
That’s my time, almost done. Just 30 more seconds. Here’s a pilot study we did where we showed that in women with female sexual distress, that it dropped by an average of 10 and female sexual function went up by 5 when you do what I just showed you. Here’s a study that Dr. Neto, who may be here, published where he looked at incontinence and sexual function down in Brazil and showed that 94% of the people loved it. The question here is how would you combine it with your energy source? It works great in the face if you do laser and follow it with PRP … better results, faster healing. Is it going to … We need people to help us work out the algorithms. Not everybody has laxity, but when you have something, when do you use which treatment and when do you combine it with PRP? We need those answers, because I don’t have them yet. This is possible helps.
I am done. Thank you very much for having me. I put all these references at that website, if you want to go download them. Thank you. You guys have a wonderful conference.
Dr. Marco Pelosi III: Thank you Charles. Beautiful
This is a really important study, the Journal of Sexual Medicine July of this year, 2017. What these investigators did is they had two groups of men, 30 in one group and 16 in the sham side, and then they did penile triplex ultrasonography. And then they repeated it at three months after treatment. And then they accessed them at six months, nine months to twelve months.
So, studies have been done like this before. Here’s one where they did the same thing, and other studies. And multiple studies now showing results, like this study they showed results with improvement of erectile dysfunction scale after low intensity shock-wave therapy. But this one, they actually have a new objective measure. And they measured blood flow. Let’s think a little bit about how they did, how they applied it and then I’ll give the results.
If you look at the picture here, what they did was 300 shock waves here, here, here, here and here. So five locations. If they did 300 waves at 160 shock waves per minute, then it takes about 20 minutes to treat one person. And you can see the energy there that they use. So it’s about 1500 shocks. It sounds horrible —shocks— but if you’ve experienced it, it’s like someone tapping you with their finger, and not even in a very hard way, just a tap. No pain control is needed at all.
Here’s what’s exciting. If you look at this… here’s baseline, one month. Here’s erectile function scale. That’s a huge jumpfrom baseline to one month. From an average around 12 or 15 up to around 20. And then, if you look, that’s sustained at a year. That’s impressive, it’s very impressive.
Here we go. That gives you a look at it, in a bar graph. But this is what’s really interesting to me. This is what makes the study unique. Lots of study showing benefit from shockwave therapy, but in this one they show that maximum peak systolic velocity increases.
You don’t have to look hard to see which one of these groups you want to be in. Obviously, there’s some outliers. For example, in this active group, I don’t know what happened here. And here’s one where he’s treated with a sham, and he went and got a new girlfriend or something. I don’t know what happened.
But as a general rule, you can just see you want to be in this group, not this group. And that’s in three months with sustaining benefits. So, I don’t want to belabor this… just wanted to make you aware of it and let you know how we’re doing this now.
There’s a protocol, one of our Priapus Shot® providers invented a more aggressive protocol (GainsWave) with excellent results, but most people are using the protocol in this paper. Who knows what the right protocol’s going to turn out to be? We’re still in that phase where we’re proving that it works, and not yet developing the nuances of what works best.
The same way with the Priapus Shot®, in one of the urologists in our group, published findings showing decrease venous leak and increase arterial pressure at one of his big urology meetings with our Priapus Shot® procedure.
The thing that’s different about both of these, versus what we have available, for example, Viagra or injecting a vasodilator, neither of those two things correct the problem. What’s exciting about this is we’re getting to the place where we’re getting to the etiology.
Notice that in this treatment group, this guy didn’t get better. And nothing is 100% … remember, 20% of the people in the hospital with pneumonia still die but that does not mean antibiotics don’t work, it just means that some people are more complicated. And so, for example, if someone has vascular disease in the iliac arteries, not getting good blood flow to the penis, or his testosterone level is in the dirt, then this is not going to work as well.
In this study, they selected all their inclusion and exclusion criteria and selected out supposedly for a lot of those things that would’ve sabotage it. For example, radical prostatectomy can’t be in the study, penile anatomic abnormalities, or hormone abnormalities can’t be in the study. But we don’t want to simplify this, and obviously make our patients think that this happens to everything. Jumping this much, that’s a change in your life. So, check out the links below here. I’ll keep them updated for where you can find providers who have this method, providers who can combine this method with a Priapus Shot®. If you’re a urologist or gynecologist or family practitioner, then I’ll put link below the video about where you can find training and where you can buy the materials needed, or when you can find materials to both do this procedure and materials and training to do the Priapus Shot®, in combination —it’s the bomb!
Dr. Runels Explains How Walking Can Improve Your Penis & Your Life
Since sex can ask for the heart about as much as walking up stairs, man is good in bed for about as long as he can comfortably walk up stairs. Is that enough to encourage you to think about walking?
Ask your physician before following any advice on this podcast…
Let’s talk about walking. Now, why is walking so important and other forms of aerobic exercise are important, but why do I prefer walking over those other forms of exercise? I’m a big fan of swimming. The problem with swimming is that it requires a swimming pool. If you don’t have an indoor pool, then the weather must be proper and it’s expensive to maintain this. Usually if you’re using a YMCA pool or something like that, access to the pool is a problem.
The problem with biking is that it’s been shown that long-term use of the bicycle seat can cause erection problems because you’re sitting on the pudendal nerve. You can have numbness and it can cause erectile dysfunction. It’s not just one study but multiple studies showing this to be a risk. Of course you could have a properly seated or fitted bicycle seat that might help with that but, again, you’re also limited to you need your gear and there’s some risk involved with actually being on the street. It seems like there’s a person killed about every third year in the town where I live where there’s a lot of biking that goes on. I used to do triathlons. The culture of the triathlon crowd was that it wasn’t if you’re going to crash, it’s when you crash your bike, how badly would you be injured? It’s just a part of the risk that you have from using a bicycle everyday.
Part of the reasons that I prefer walking over other aerobic exercises is that it’s safe. You don’t need much gear. You can do it anywhere and it seems to be very, very, very effective. Now, walking does much more than just “increase your circulation.” It’s the best. It’s probably the best, at least in the top three best habits that I could tell you to do. Here I mean this is a keystone, cornerstone habit. For example, what do I mean by cornerstone habit? Let’s say that I tell you it’s a good thing to have an apple a day. Well, one apple a day is a good thing. It’s an appetite suppressant for more caloric, calorie-dense foods that may not be so helpful. An apple has some nutrients that are useful to you.
But one apple a day does nothing, relatively nothing, in comparison to walking a certain number of miles per day, which we’ll get to. Walking does so many other things because it changes other things in your secondarily. So, for example, keystone bad habits might be smoking. Smoking does so many harmful things that it’s really a cornerstone bad habit. So this is the thing that I see most consistently. It’s the thing that I see most consistently in men who function sexually into their eighties with normal sexual function without any medications, and it’s the thing that I see most consistently in people who just maintain clear thinking and productivity and excellent health into their seventies and eighties. And of course, it’s not just about maintaining this excellent health into your eighties, it’s the fact that this same cornerstone habit gives you improved health in your forties and fifties.
I’m a big fan of George Sheehan, who wrote prolifically. He’s a cardiologist who wrote prolifically for Runner’s World when other cardiologists were saying that walking and jogging would create this athletic left ventricle hypertrophy, and it was a bad thing to do. And now we know of course that is not true, and that walking is a very good thing to do. We’ll get to why that is so very shortly. But George Sheehan always said “You know, even if walking or jogging does not improve or extend the length of my life, being out on the street everyday, doing the miles improves the quality of my life today.”
You know, one of the ways I like to think about health is what I call the Titanic philosophy. If you’re on the Titanic would this be a habit that you would do everyday while you’re on the Titanic? Suddenly you wake up, you’re on the Titanic and you think “Hm. There’s a good possibility I will be gone in this very cold, very frigid water within a week.” What would be the habit?
I would still do miles because I’m going to show you how these miles add to the life of that day, but I don’t think that I would overdo it and be a marathoner that day because then it would take to much out of my day for the other things that I want to do. But I would still do the number of miles that I’m going to tell you because I would do things during those mile that would make me happier, and there would be things that happened during the day after those miles that would make my day better.
So walking is extremely, extremely important. And let’s talk about some of the more specific reasons about why I’m saying all these things and going on and on about walking. There’s research showing that it helps with depression, that it helps with your bone density. It helps with so many things, so here’s some more specifics. One study showed that in women, their ability to orgasm improved for the first hour after aerobic exercise. Think about that. This is like an aphrodisiac, orgasm enhancer. Suppose you had a pill that did that. What would that sell for? But here’s something that’s free if you just go walking with your lover, take your wife with you. And then you have sex when you come home. It’s a free aphrodisiac that’s been proven to increase her ability to have an orgasm.
Next reason. It does actually do more for your heart and your circulation than any pill. Now we’ve talked already about how your erection is basically a water balloon that’s filled with the waters, metaphorically, the water is blood, and the ability to blow up the balloon depends upon your ability to pump blood into the balloon and the integrity of the blood vessels so that the veins are not leaking and the arteries are open, so the veins have to close off, so that there’s no blood flow out of the balloon, and the arteries have to be able to pump enough pressure into the penis to blow it up. And the extent of the hardness and the size of the penis is going to be determined by that pressure.
So let’s suppose that you had something that’s been proven to improve your blood flow and improve your heart better than any other pill on the market. Better than diabetes pills, blood pressure pills. What would that be worth to you? What I’m saying to you is that walking is that magic bullet, and it was actually used, that exact phrase was used. “This is the closest thing we have to a magic bullet” in the New England Journal in reference to walking, but the walking has to be to a certain extent, so another research project, and we’re getting to what that needs to be shortly, but, another research project showed that the greatest predictor of whether you’re going to have heart attack within the next year is not even whether you smoke.
The greatest predictor is whether you’ve had a previous heart attack. That puts you at high risk, but the second greatest predictor, even if you’ve had a previous heart attack. The next best thing, the next best predictor of whether you will have a heart attack this year, and of course, that … but whether you’re going to have a heart attack is an overall guide to how healthy is your heart. The greatest predictor is your anerobic threshold, meaning what’s your aerobic fitness level. Anerobic threshold has to be measured with a mass spectrometer, or it can be calculated. The most direct measurement is you breathe into a mask while you’re walking and then you extend your intensity or you increase your intensity while you’re walking and then jogging until your body has to swap from aerobic to anerobic metabolism. So the amount of oxygen you’re burning exceeds the amount that you’re able to pull in and supply. So that involves everything from the function of your lungs to the pumping ability of your heart. All the way down to the mitochondria within the muscle cells and how they’re able to metabolize the oxygen.
You can actually measure the number of mitochondria, and within a week or so of starting an aerobic program of walking, you can see an increase in the number of mitochondria per muscle cell. And very elite athletes have a high number of mitochondria, so that makes them more efficient at burning oxygen.
So that is the number one predictor, second only to a previous heart attack. The problem is, and the reason it’s not talked about by your physician is there’s no drug to sell. There’s no beautiful drug rep that comes into your doctor’s office and say “Hey, you should prescribe walking because it’s the best thing on the market for preventing heart attack” and improving erectile function and all the other things we’re going to get to about mental state and such. And there’s no ads on TV to tell you that. There’s no one teaching you that because there’s no money to be made. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s a thing, and it’s the reason your doctor doesn’t talk about it so much, or maybe yours does if you have a more progressive thinking physician.
So, I want you to think very deeply about that. What I just told you is that even if you smoke, if you have a high aerobic capacity, you’re at less risk of a heart attack than if you don’t smoke and your aerobically out of shape. Next reason for walking, hormones. You get this whole change in metabolism that comes from your hormones. It’s not just about pumping blood around your body or even about increasing your aerobic capacity. Some things happen, your thyroid functions in a different way, in a more efficient way. You make some hormones that decrease your appetite for sweets, what you want to eat changes. The amount you want to eat changes. It’s a free appetite suppressant that, rather than putting your heart at risk for a heart attack as some appetite suppressants do, walking actually improves your heart and decreases your appetite for about two hours afterwards.
This is another reason why I prefer aerobic exercise as opposed to say biking. When I did biking, when I did bike races and triathlons, and the reason I use the past tense is the risk of crashing, I just saw so many serious crashes. I decided it wasn’t worth it. And noticed that my penis would go numb sometimes after biking a long way. That didn’t seem to me to be a healthy thing, so before I ever read the research about this being associated with erectile dysfunction, it just made sense to me that anything that put my penis to sleep like your arm goes to sleep or your hand goes to sleep when you sleep a crooked way, in the same way, I thought, wow, something puts my penis to sleep doesn’t seem to be a good idea, so that’s why I keep using the past tense. I don’t bike anymore.
But, when I did I noticed my appetite went up. When I lift weights heavily, there’s a little bit of a decreased appetite immediately afterwards, but my overall appetite can become more ferocious, which again if I’m trying to build strength or I’m trying to build the size of my thigh muscles so I can be an Olympic biker, then maybe that’s not such a bad thing, but when I’m trying to maintain a lean body and a healthy aerobic capacity, then perhaps a decrease in appetite, especially for unhealthy foods, is a good thing and that’s exactly what happens, what’s been proven to happen after aerobic exercise.
The other part, and I can … this is part is maybe you’re going to call science fiction, but it’s real, is that there’s over two hundred hormones made by the pituitary gland. And the possibilities of what might be going on that we don’t the exact mechanism for but we see the effects of are really extremely exciting. What happens with those two hundred plus hormones with aerobic capacity we’re not sure of, but we know that some of the things that happen with thinking are not just with the body habitus or the shape of the body and the function of it, but the way the thought processes go are extremely, extremely exciting.
For example, and let’s talk about that thinking now. If you look at the people who are walkers, Harry Truman always wanted the reporters to go walking with him to talk with him. Steve Jobs is well known for the fact that he preferred to do meetings while walking in his per usual uniform at work was walking shoes. Charles Dickens wrote in the morning and then he walked and walked and walked for many hours around London even into the evening, late even hours, was a very robust walker. When you look at the prophets, Gandhi walked and he walked, he walked across India. Jesus, you read stories of him walking on the road to Damascus and walking from city to city, and if you look at the miles that he walked, he was a walker. And Beethoven, he composed in the morning and in the afternoon, he walked for hours and hours and hours through nature and took little slips of paper with him where he would listen to nature for sounds and rhythms and then stop and compose while he was walking.
Thomas Jefferson, brilliant statesman, wrote, you know, he was one of the founders of our, basically a revolutionary, we think our founding forefathers, but it’s nice to stop and think about, hey these guys were risking their lives to basically tell the king to kiss off. These were smart guys but they were also bad asses, and Thomas Jefferson thought anything less than two hours of exercise per day put you at risk and made him less thoughtful.
Also, walking has been shown to decrease inflammation. There was this time that we thought people with arthritis should not move, but now we know that actually movement decreases the inflammation in people with rheumatoid arthritis, forms of inflammation. And of course, we are talking about the penis, and walking has been shown, it’s almost cliché now, I don’t know why we even need any more studies to show it. It’s been shown over and over and over again that aerobic exercise improves the erection usually by about five on that five to twenty-five scale.
Now why would you not want to walk? There are some legitimate, there are legitimate reasons for not going walking. First it does take some time, and I don’t know many people who feel like they have extra time. Most people between their work and their hobbies and their avocation and their vocation and their family and their spouse, their children and their friends, their clubs, their associations, their … all these things that are pulling at them, they feel pressed for time. Part of the reason that Americans are probably sleep deprived, well no “probably”. We are sleep deprived, most of us … is that there’s this urge to do more, do more, do more, and so to ask someone to do the amount of walking that I think makes people healthy, if it takes away from your time, you’re not going to do it.
But of course, I’m going, if you follow my plan, you’re going to have more time in your day if you do walking the way I show you how to do it. So I’ll take that reason away from you, if you follow my plan.
What about the fact you have to go outside to do it. If you live in an area where’s too hot or it’s raining, in my area sometimes there’s lightning, there’s a lot of rain, we have the most inches of rain where I presently live of anywhere in the United States. Not the most days, but the most inches, and huge amounts of lightning. You may live where it’s cold. You may live where there’s traffic or crime, so getting out of your safety zone of your office or your house could be a problem, and then there’s of course injury. Are we going to wear out our joints or twist an ankle or be hurt by a car, or mugged or shot or robbed. These are things that are legitimate concerns.
As far as the physical injury, there’s this logarithmic curve where, if you look at the injury rate, there’s almost nothing, if you’re at home, of course you could fall off the couch or something, but generally speaking you’re unlikely to be injured if you just don’t walk at all. But if you look at the injury rate, it stays near zero until you pass about twenty-five miles per week. Once you pass the twenty-five mile a week mark, the injury rate goes up. When was in a marathon club, everybody had a little nagging something that was bothering them. Eventually I developed some heel spurs and people just get stuff when you start running twenty miles a day or you’re doing eighty miles a week, a hundred miles a week. You start to have injuries. So I think that you should keep your range in a particular range, and particularly under the twenty-five mile mark to avoid those injuries.
So let’s plunge into the way I think you should, can walk in order to avoid these problems. First of all, as far as the way to make sure you do the miles, I recommend that you do an out and back course. If you walk in a circle, it’s too easy to stop. If you walk on a treadmill, it’s too easy to just stop and get off the treadmill, and so there are times when you need to do that because of the weather and traffic and such, but as a general rule I recommend that you walk outside of your door, your hotel or your mother’s house, wherever you happen to be that day. And you walk half the distance you intend to walk and then you turn around and you walk home.
Now you can split it up so if you’re goal is to walk five miles a day, you walk two miles this morning and three miles in the evening, and so you walk a mile out, turn around and walk back, and you’ve done two miles. Or you could walk two and a half miles out and turn around and come back and you’ve walked five miles.
You realize that, when I say Cortez, that’s the guy who came here, the conquistador who came here and his … to the states and his men were about to rebel and wanted to go home, and he just took that option away by burning the ships. Then his men knew they had to either win or they would be destroyed by the natives. So they fought ferociously because there was no retreat. So in that same way, if you’re walking laps, you can stop, but if you walk out and that’s usually the easiest part of your walk is when you are starting, and then you have to come home unless you call someone to come pick you up. You have to walk home, so that helps us with the psychology.
Another thing is what I call my “ten minute rule.” When you’re ready to walk, never decide to not walk sitting on your booty. Get up, walk for ten minutes, and after ten minutes if you still feel like you don’t want to walk, you can stop. But make that decision after walking ten minutes, and you’ll discover that you’ll have some of your most wonderful walks after you do that. After you think that you don’t want to walk, but then you go ten minutes, you think “Hey, I feel pretty good” and then you want to keep going. So you just keep going. So do follow the ten minute rule.
So how far should you walk? I recommend that you make a goal of twenty-one to twenty-five miles a week. And I prefer a weekly goal because you might have days when you’re busy and you can’t walk at all. Or maybe you have a rest day because of your convictions with your religion, you prefer to rest on Saturday or Sunday and not do anything. That’s fine. It’s a good thing. So take that day off and don’t walk at all. But if you make up for it, so if you’re only going to walk five days, I prefer a twenty-one to twenty-five mile week. That gets you into the range of health, and that range has been show to decrease your overall mortality in half. It cuts it in half. So over the course of the coming year, it’s been proven all cause, I mean it’s getting shot by a thief, crashing your car, all cause mortality. I think this reflects the fact that it changes behavior. It changes what you do and where you go because how else can you account that there’s even less trauma who walk to this amount.
But it doesn’t happen with ten minutes a day or three miles a week, it starts to happen when you approach the twenty mile per week mark. So twenty-one to twenty-five miles per weeks, that could be three miles seven days a week, it could be five miles five days a week, it could be two miles today and five miles tomorrow, and six miles the day after that and one mile the day after that, but I would set a weekly pattern so if you intend to rest on Saturday and not walk at all, and Monday’s a busy day, maybe you walk five miles on Sunday, and one mile on Monday, and four miles on Tuesday … you get the point, but you decide how many miles you’re going to walk each day and you keep that pattern.
I have found that that pattern changes for me depending on what’s going on in my life. When I was a medical, when I was in my training as a resident, I trained for a marathon by running thirteen mile twice a week. Thirteen miles twice a week because I two days when I could be out of the hospital and fairly rested, but then the other days I was in the hospital often working all night, unrested, unable to go outside because of my duties within the hospital, so that was what I had, I had two days. So those two days went thirteen miles. For a total of twenty-six miles a week.
So I prefer that you spread it out more than that. Actually it’s been shown that you do better even doing two episodes. Doing a walking session twice a day so you would have, you could have ten walking sessions per week. So I don’t want to beat this to death, but those are the principles I would follow. And then, very, very importantly, keep a record. It’s been shown over and over again, if you want to change the behavior, one of the most powerful things you can do is just start keeping a record of it. Keep a daily record, keep a weekly record. I prefer that it be actually on a piece of paper, although you can use your computer or your phone to record it while you’re doing it.
I like it to be out of my computer where I can look at it, in a notebook or on the wall somewhere. But I can’t stress the importance of this enough. As a matter of fact, I will almost guarantee that you will not be successful with your walking program if you’re not keeping a record. It’s been shown over and over and over again in research that people over-estimate the amount of exercise they do and the under-estimate the number of calories they eat. You just can’t, some things we are just too biased to be accurate recorder, estimates of, and these are two of those things. So you will lie to yourself and as Shakespeare and many proverbs have said, we tend to lie to ourselves. So keep a record. Let me say it again, keep a record.
Okay. So another thing. Bring a few, as far as comfort along the way, don’t make a big deal out of it. Bring a few bucks in your pocket if you want to stop and buy a bottle of water while you’re walking, if you want to stop in the park. If you have a turn around point that involves a park bench or a rock that you want to sit on in the forest. Stop and sit on it. I don’t want you to get hung up on how fast you’re going. I want you to think about the distance. I want you to think about the distance. That seems to be the most important.
So, I want to stress this also. If you get hung up on your pulse rate, you will probably stop doing this. Imagine that I told you the most healthy thing you could do on the planet, would be go get a massage for an hour, seven days a week. Giving up that hour, I would actually have more trouble with that than walking because sitting there is a zombie state where I’m either meditating to a different level of consciousness, I’m not reading, I’m not learning, not doing all the other things you’re going to learn how to do when you’re walking, I’m just basically losing that hour for some benefit from the massage but probably more benefit, there’s a decline in the amount once you pass a certain state. There obviously are some benefits from massage. I don’t want to take away from that.
But too much of it, where I’m giving up my life, I’m back to the Titanic principle. So, I would quit doing it. The point being that even for something pleasurable, you can’t do it, you won’t do it consistently. Even if it’s pleasant, if it’s pulling from your life. So how can you expect to do walking consistently if you make it unpleasant. If you make it ferocious. Now you will reach a point to where you sometimes want to touch into the pain zone, maybe you want to do what’s called the Fartlek System where you get your heart rate up by walking or jogging or sprinting depending on your level of fitness and the health of your joints, and then you slow down, you go fast and you go slow.
That’s good, and maybe you have a time when you want to train. You’re young enough, you’re training as an elite athlete, and it’s a different level of fitness. But if you’re in this for the long haul to be healthy and you say to yourself “This walk is worthless unless I reach a certain level of pulse or discomfort” then you’ll stop doing it. As far as the calories go, it’s a physics problem. If you tell me you went walking for thirty minutes, that tells me nothing. You could walk a foot and stop and you could take a thirty minutes of being, a little bit over exaggerating here, but you could sure take thirty minutes to walk across a room, just move a foot, one of your feet every inch or so.
And you would be honest to say that you walked for thirty minutes. But if you tell me you took a body, a mass that weighs 50 kilograms and you move it a mile or a meter, then you can calculate that. It’s mass times distance and that’s foot/pounds. So if I take a hundred and ninety pound man and I move him 5,280 feet, then I’ve moved him 190 pounds times 5,280 feet and that you get the number of foot pounds. That are the work that, of a hundred and ninety pound man uses to move his body a mile. So when you look at calories per mile on the charts, what they’re doing is assuming a twenty minute walk or a ten minute jog which … and then there’s extrapolating from that the number of calories. They don’t actually know to get the exact number of calories you would use, the weight times the distance and you would have a finagle factor based on the amount of heat produced.
You only have about ten percent more calories if you’re jogging versus walking. , So listen to that again. If I walk a mile, I’m going to burn the same number of calories almost as if I jog a mile, I’ll just take twice as long to do it. And they’ll be about ten percent more, that’s it, if I do the jog versus the walk. So now knowing that, if you, as far as the calories go with the weight loss or the maintenance of weight, it doesn’t really matter whether you walk or jog it. What George Sheehan used to say was “Go at a speed that you’re able to talk comfortably. If you went a little bit faster you would be unable to talk comfortably.” So if you’re having to … stop … in the middle … of a sentence … like that when you’re jogging then you may be getting into an anerobic range and that’s not a bad thing, you can do that periodically by speeding up your walk or your jog, but it’s not necessary to do that the whole distance where somehow you’ve wasted your time. Which unfortunately some health people, physicians/personal trainers teach people, and I think that’s not a smart thing to do.
So you’re going to walk at a speed that’s comfortable, where, and if you want you can reach to a place where you’re able to speak easily but faster might make it less easy, and you’re going to record the distance. I wouldn’t worry so much about the time. Just record the distance. And you’re going … most people are going to take about twenty minutes for a mile or about an hour to walk three miles. So think about that for a second. If you’re going to commit to twenty-one miles a week, you’re committing to an hour, and average of one hour out of your day, seven days a week, that’s a big commitment.
Which brings us to the next part of this, which is when will you do it? And what can you do during that time so that you’re not actually losing time, but gaining time. So as far as the “when” I recommend when you first wake in the morning, during which time you can do your affirmations, you know, some of the other things we’ll talk about later. The affirmations are great first thing in the morning or prayers. Visualizations. Those three things go very well, even while walking, although you can do them while meditating, or sitting as well, but walking, affirmations are great when walking.
If you have a job that confines you and you have less freedom, you have to work strict brackets of time so you come in at eight and you work until noon and then you have an hour for lunch and then you have to start back at one, you will have a much healthier day if you walk during that lunch time and your lunch becomes a protein shake or something you can eat easily within fifteen minutes. I love protein shakes because you can drink them. You know exactly how many calories there in there. You can put fruit in there so you can have a couple of servings of fruit and some protein and you can consume it in five minutes and use the other fifty-five minutes for you walking.
Immediately after work is great, either, I prefer either before you leave work, so you put on your walking shoes and you walk at work, or you walk out the door. You walk and come back, you drive home, or you stop on the way home at the YMCA or somewhere, a park, or the forest, and you walk and then you complete your drive home. It’s really, really difficult when you come home and there’s family and they want to … then immediately put on shoes and walk out the door, unless which is the next option, you may want to come home, and put on your shoes, and you walk with your spouse or your children and then you come home and you have dinner.
If you wait for the walk after dinner, it can sometimes become very, very difficult to have the energy. It’s just too tempting to stay. So this is my least favorite time to go walking, immediately after dinner. I tend to get lazy and want to do other things. Right before bed, it’s a really nice time to walk, although this is time for more leisurely walk, or the increase in heart rate can cause you to have trouble sleeping.
Now, as far as walking with other people, this brings me to another thing. It’s very seldom that people want to walk at the same speed. So what do you do with that? I prefer to let the slower person set the pace or else you’re going to interfere with the slower person’s desire to walk. And with children, I let them walk ahead of me. If I’m with someone who’s somehow not as fit or bothered by something, joints or something, I let them set the pace. Another wonderful thing to do, thought, if you’re walking with children, and as a single father, with my children with me most nights of the day before they left the house, most nights of the week before they left, grew up and left, I had the ways of doing this.
One is that you walk back and forth in front of your house, so if you walk … if you have a quarter mile marked off such that your house is in the middle of the quarter mile street, so a block is a tenth of a mile, so it’s about, let’s say, two blocks. A distance with your house in the middle of it, then you walk a block one way, you come by, you pass your house, you walk a block the other way, you just walked two tenths of a mile. The you back past your house and the point is that every time you pass your house, your checking the house isn’t burning down, kids are in the front yard and behind the fence, everybody’s happy, you actually never lose sight of the house if you’re never more than a block away.
And you can back and forth again, I’m not a big fan of doing laps but that can be a way to do it, if it’s necessary because of children. I lived at a place once out in a rural spot where my drive way was two tenths of a mile so I could walk out to mailbox and come back and that was almost a half a mile. My children could be out in the front yard playing around the house and I never lost sight of them. Everything was wonderful.
Another great way, I love this next way, to do your walking if you have small children is get to a school somewhere and then you put the children out in the middle of the football field and you walk around them. So they’re out there with a ball or even in a playpen if they’re that young, and you never lose sight of them, they’re in the fresh air. They’re having fun and you get to walk around them. Again it’s a lap system, so it’s not ideal, but sill pleasant and most high schools or YMCAs … the high schools, of course if they’re having a football game you can’t do that, but it’s a way to do that. On the weekends or during the off season when their track is available. They usually like that especially if you have children going to that school.
Another thing that I like is when you’re at a sporting event. Let’s say your children are practicing football or baseball or soccer, whatever their sport, you can walk around the field so instead of sitting there with the other parents, which of course, you need to do occasionally to be sociable and those connections that are so useful between parents. Instead of doing that, you can walk around the field and still see everything that’s happening, and it’s wonderful. So that’s a great thing to do.
I sometimes even do that during the event, which is maybe a little bit disrespectful in the eyes of some people because it looks like you’re not paying attention. But of course you’re paying attention. You’re more alert and you can cheer as well as anyone, you’re just seeing … you happen to go to the enemies’ side because you go to the opponents side of the field if you make a complete lap. But I have done that, although I do that less often during events. It’s more appropriate I think during practice.
Other things you can do to help your walks … we just got through talking about how to walk and make it appropriate with your family. But what about just getting things done. What are some things you can do so that the walk doesn’t take from your day, it adds to your day. Remember I said that I promised you that if you … I’m going to show you how to make the walk not take time out of your day, but give time to your time. It’s counterintuitive.
One thing you can do is make phone calls. You know how Steve Jobs did his meetings while walking? Well, how much time are you on the telephone? In most work places, it can be more than hour per day on the telephone. You’ll be more alert. It’s wonderful the technology we have. Right now, I’m using the air buds that come with an iPhone. So they’re not getting tangles up with the cords. The sound is wonderful and I can have a conversation unless the traffic is really, really loud, and in that case, I use some Bose noise canceling earplugs that connect with a wire. It’s a combination. It seals the air, so it’s like wearing ear plugs and it counteracts the noise so you’re able to hear very well.
My preference is to never be in traffic, that that’s loud, that is that loud, and so the air buds are how I prefer to make my phone calls. I’m more alert, especially if it’s a call that’s going to be difficult for me emotionally, I have to deliver bad news or have a conversation, say with my attorney about something that’s not pleasant. There’s always battles to be … we all have battles. We have battles with the forces that want to kick over our sand castles. You know, I live near the beach, and it’s interesting. You can build a sand castle and then sit there in a chair and watch. And most people walk by and admire the castle, and ninety-nine out of a hundred people walk by without admiring it, they’ll walk around it …
But then you’ll get that one out of a hundred who will come by and take pleasure in kicking over your sand castle. And those people are there. They’re out there. And so we have out battles, we have the, just this thermodynamic force that says things go to a place of less organization. And if you want things to be organized with your business, with your personal life, with your spiritual life, you will fight battles. And for those conversations that require you’re warrior state, walking is … makes you more alert and it makes you a better warrior, so that’s when you make those phone calls.
Next thing. What if I told you that I could give you the equivalent of weeks of free time in class. Let’s calculate this. If you did an hour walking per day, and during that time you’re listening to books, that’s one hour times three hundred sixty-five days. That’s close to four hundred hours. So to make the math easy let’s say four hundred hours, and let’s say that you have a forty hour work week, four hundred divided by forty is ten weeks. That’s two and half months of full time, forty an hour per week, class. And when I was in college, I was not in class forty hours, but if you counted class plus studying then that was forty hours, sometimes more.
But so now that you basically … what I’m telling you is this. If you listen to a book, every time you go walking that’s equivalent to a full time class for two and half months out of your year. What could you learn with that? I know a Dad became a very successful investor and retired in his early fifties on his investments, and most of his learning about investments involved listening back then to cassette tapes. There was no … the options were much less. There were no … there was no iPhone. It was a cassette tape player to listen to. So listening to books is amazing what you can do.
Suppose I told you that you could go walking with Aristotle. You could go walking with Warren Buffet to learn about investing. You could go walking with spiritual leaders. You go walking and listen to St. Paul read his letters to you. You could walking and listen to the professors from the Ivy League colleges. It’s amazing. That’s exactly what you can do with a pair of earbuds and iPhone. So, would that add to your life? Would that make the rest of your life easier? And the other wonderful thing about this is I will promise you that you will, and that’s my iPhone telling me something now, but I promise you that you will, you absolutely will retain more. You’re going to learn more, you’re going to have ideas that occur to you more if you’re walking and listening to this.
What do you do if you have … if you suddenly have a problem that you just have to solve. It’s life or death. You have to figure this out. Do you sit at your desk? Intuitively, without thinking about it, without me telling you to do anything, you’re going to get up and pace the room. And it’s not just burning up energy, you’re thinking better on your feet. I love something George Sheehan said. He said “I never trust an idea that I get while I’m sitting on my bottom.”
Think about that. I’m not saying you don’t get ideas sitting. You might get amazing ideas sitting and meditating, but don’t trust it until you go walking and think about it.
So next thing I want you to think about is that don’t just think about the books. You can pose yourself a problem and say “Okay. I’m going to walk and think about this problem while I’m walking.” And my favorite way to do that, because when you’re … is to take note cards. Take a three by five index cards, two or three of them. Stick them in my pocket with a cheap pen hat doesn’t matter if I drop it or I lose it, it gets wet in the rain when I’m walking. And then say “What I want to figure out” and then instead of pacing your office, this is going to be theme of this walk. To figure out how I should deal with this problem with my child. To figure out a new way to market this particular product in my office. And then you go walking.
If you want you can listen to a book that relates to that while you’re walking, but you could also just listen to what’s inside of you, what the piece of God that’s inside of you, or the piece of you that’s inside of God, however you want to think about that. And sometimes it’s better to leave the phone off is what I’m saying and bring a pen and an index card in your pocket.
Just a safety thing I would say is that when you are walking with your phone, stop when it’s time to fiddle with the phone so that you don’t step in a hole or step in front of a car. Just stop walking, it’s okay. Remember I told you it’s more about the distance than your heart rate? I used to think when I was a teenager running track that if I was going to run five miles, if I stopped to tie my shoe, the five miles didn’t count. You just had to run it start to finish without stopping. But I grew up. Don’t worry about it if you need to stop. Just stop and fiddle with your phone, pull up the book, dial the phone, then after you dial the phone and you’re talking, now throw your phone in your pocket and walk and talk.
Now we mentioned this previously but another wonderful thing to do while your walking is to have meetings. You know, we talked about how Steve Jobs preferred to have his meetings that way, especially if you have a meeting that’s going to be emotional. It really helps if you’re walking and talking. Even a creative meeting, you bring paper with you or you stop and you make audible notes or recordings on your phone, and you and the person you want to meet with go walking, or persons. It gets to be a little bit more cumbersome if it’s more than three people. Two people. I think it’s ideal for a walking meeting. But you can do it with more. Once you get more than about three or four people, though, it becomes more awkward because it gets hard to hear. But it’s a great way to have a meeting.
Now let’s talk some about gear. I will tell you my preference, and my personal preference for my feet .. I have high arches … is High Balance. If your feet, it may be a different type of shoe. But I do recommend that you not skimp on the shoes. Find yourself some good shoes. Part of what threw my feet off is I decided it wasn’t most … it wasn’t difficult enough to do my ten mile runs in shoes. I had to do them in boots, and if goofed up my feet. You need well fitting shoes, and I recommend that you go to a real shoe store. There’s a subculture of people who just love to run, but they don’t just love to run, they love shoes. And they study them. These days they even have computers that analyze your feet if you stand on something, and these people study shoes. They love making your feet happy.
You can go see a podiatrist and have them think about your feet. If you have feet problems and they’re able to make inserts for your feet. They can make you whole, all the way up your spine happier. It’s amazing what the proper shoes can do for you. But unless you have a problem with your feet. I think it’s sufficient to go to a good running store. And when you walk in the store, id there’s … if it’s an assembly line, and that person you’re talking to is chewing bubblegum and they look like they’ve just started working there yesterday, find another person to help you or another store.
Persons who … when you walk in you should see somebody who loos like they’re a runner, and they should know … they should want to talk to you about the shoes because they love them so much. You’ll know you’re in the right place.
As far as clothing goes, I used to make a big deal out of what I wore and in the cold weather it was one thing and hot weather … you know, don’t sweat it too much. The more difficult you make it to get out the door, the more likely you are to not go walking. These days I just throw on my walking shoes. I’ll go walking in my suit. I’ll go walking with a tie. I don’t make a big deal out of it. Usually all I have … I prefer, though, a pair of jeans and a comfortable shirt and my New Balance shoes. I gran my iPhone with my air buds and I’m ready to go. I might grab an index card and a pen.
I like the old school, four color Bic pens. I just still like that it’s they’re great for note taking. If I lose it, I actually like to lose them because that way somebody finds a pen that writes in four colors. It makes me happy. So I have a four color Bic pen I throw in my pocket with an index card. And I like to get the index cards that have my name and address printed on them that I get from a stationery store, so it’s … if I make notes on it and hand it to somebody, they have my contact information. So that’s all I need.
I might grab a hat if it’s cold or gloves. If it’s raining I don’t worry about it. I just leave the iPhone at home and go walking or I put it in a plastic bag in my pocket. But lightning keeps me home. If it’s too icy where I’m going to fall and break something, I stay home. And when I stay home, I mean, I go walking on an elliptical trainer or a treadmill. I have a gym that’s close to me that’s twenty-four hours. I prefer a twenty four hour gym that’s available so it matches my schedule. You may not have something like that available. If you don’t, then I recommend that you by yourself an elliptical trainer or a treadmill.
I like ellipticals because they don’t put a strain on your joints. But have those for your bad weather times. I prefer to go outside. There’s something about the outside that’s really good for you, I think. But you may live in a place where the crime’s too bad or the traffic’s too bad. If you’re having to stop and just wait so much that it’s a nuisance because there’s so much traffic, then get to a place where there’s an elliptical trainer and do everything else the same. You can listen to the books, you can make the phone calls, and if you keep the pace at a comfortable pace, you’ll still be able to do your training and not jump off before you’re done.
Adjust the tension or if it’s too hard because … and you feel more like you’re lifting weights or pedaling up hill on a bicycle, then you’re elliptical trainer is either the wrong machine or the settings are off. Make it to where it feels about like you would feel if you were walking up a one percent grade or on flat land. If you’re on a treadmill, that’s usually about a five percent grade. If you’re on elliptical, you just have to fiddle with the setting on the tension to where it feels about like what you would feel if you were walking on flat land.
If you want you could use a Garmin watch or an iWatch to help you with your keeping track of things. I think that’s useful and fun and it helps you with your record keeping. I have a walking app on my phone that I’ll put the link to. All the links to all this will be beneath the podcast. Everything that I’ve talked about, so I have an app that’s wonderful. It keeps track of everything, and I even have it send an email to my EverNote account so there’s a record of where I went that day and what the weather was like. And it’s nice to have maps of where I’ve walked, whether I’m visiting family or happen to be on a business trip.
So those are my tips for walking and I hope what you’ve seen is it’s amazing. I just told you how to get almost three months of full time class and remember it better than if you were sitting in a classroom with the great thinkers of the world. I’ve told you how to do meetings in a way that Steve Jobs have done it. And how to do creative work in the way that Beethoven and Charles Dickens did it. And the way revolutionaries like Thomas Jefferson thought about overthrowing a fricking King. And these were walker people. And I’ve also told you how, as a side effect, you’re going to have a healthier penis that’s straighter. You’re going to have decreased inflammation if you have Peyronie’s. And it’s going to be harder because you’re going to able to pump blood into that thing because you’re heart’s going to be functioning better and you’re blood vessels are going to be more open to pumping blood.
So there you go. I sure hope you find this useful. I hope you’ll stay in touch with me, subscribe to my emails. Join our group. See the doctors that I’ve trained and stay in touch and let me know how you do.
Best Testosterone Calculator (click)<–
Hello this is Charles Runels and we’re still talking about ways to help Peyronie’s disease and erectile disfunction. Today we’re talking about testosterone. Testosterone is associated with Peyronie’s disease, we’re not sure exactly why, but I have a theory about that. Peyronie’s has an autoimmune component to it and for some reason men are less susceptible to autoimmune problems than women, so women have more rheumatoid arthritis, they have more lupus, they have more lichen sclerosus. All those things are caused by the immune system attacking itself. They have more multiple sclerosis and it’s been shown that men who get MS, more likely to get it, as they approach andropause when their testosterone levels fall. Men are more likely to get Peyronie’s disease if they have a low testosterone level. Likely that has to do with the protective effect of autoimmune, protecting from an over-active autoimmune system by having a normal testosterone level. There are other reasons for correcting your testosterone level and I’ll get to those.
First I’d say that after treating many thousands of women and men over the years, I would say that the primary hormone that regulates sex drive and erectile function is testosterone. It’s almost impossible to have a normal libido without it, for a man or a woman. It’s difficult to have normal erectile function. Without it the penis actually starts to shrink, just like the muscles would shrink and atrophy without testosterone. Other benefits of it though would include the heart, which is also a muscle and so testosterone is needed to maintain the health of the heart. There was at one time this idea that perhaps testosterone was dangerous to the heart, but now we know that not to be true. It’s the opposite is true, that if testosterone level is low, the heart suffers and can become weaker. Of course muscle mass is not just about looking pretty, it also has to do with functioning.
As people age, the number one reason for going in the nursing home is people becoming too weak to get to the restroom, and they start urinating on the floor. Muscle is not just about being attractive or looking fit, it has to do with functioning and as people get older, it becomes crucial to be able to move and there’s like a bank system, whatever, as you age and the muscles become less forceful, whatever you had banked as a young person is drawn upon and if you didn’t bank a lot of strength when you were young, there’s less to draw upon and you’re more likely to become feeble as you get older. Depression, we know that having a low testosterone level is associated with depression and correcting it help, but not only that, concentration and focus and just energy level. I’ve also seen some people who at one time were just absolute lawyers, people who were bouncers or special forces, military, or high intensity athletes. You know, snow board athletic acrobatic people.
Then they come to me with panic attacks and you think, how out of character that here’s a man that a few years ago was in a situation where he was required to be very brave and now he gets panic just sitting around the house, and when you do blood work on those men, oftentimes their testosterone level is very, very low. Which can be traced back to oftentimes a head injury and pituitary function is not working and so they are completely out of character and become like a castrated animal basically. Going from very bold to very panicky and fearful because they lost their testosterone. Bone mass is also related to testosterone levels, and even more so than with muscle there’s a deposit of calcium into the bone and inaudible 00:04:32 bone is not static like a board that supports your home, bone is constantly remodeling by osteo-blasts and osteoclast, adding and taking away calcium to the bone itself. As a young person there’s more deposits and as people get older there becomes more withdrawal on a flow system. There’s always coming and going of calcium into bone.
There becomes more going of calcium instead of coming as people get older. Testosterone helps hold onto the bone, it helps to bank bone, it helps keep bone strong. Weight. This is sort of tricky because weight, part of the reason that men have a lower percentage of body fat is because they have a higher testosterone level and yet, if you use testosterone as standalone to lose weight, it will not work because what will usually happen is people increase their, not only their sex drive, but they’ll increase their appetite for food. If they don’t counterbalance that with more exercise, they just gain weight. Although it’s true that testosterone as a general rule decreases percentage of body fat, if it’s not part of an overall health system that includes exercise and watching, being careful about how you eat, then it leads to weight gain. On the other hand, without testosterone, a man or woman can exercise ferociously and still have very much difficulty maintaining a normal body weight, and maintaining a lean body.
It’s crucial. Those are some of the reasons why you would want to use testosterone. Why would you not want to use testosterone? One reason is some men worry about it effecting the prostate. Now we know after multiple, multiple studies, over and over again for the past 20 years, that having a higher testosterone level does not correlate with prostate cancer. After a man has had prostate cancer, there becomes this strategy to sometimes lower testosterone levels to help keep it from recurring, but most urologists these days will tell you that at some point after a man has become cancer free for a while, they will put him back on testosterone. So prostate cancer is not a side effect of testosterone replacement. My personal opinion is that even though the evidence is still not conclusive to some physicians, I think prostate cancer probably evolves out of chronic inflammation and chronic prostatitis. Prostate cancer correlates more with that, with a history of sexually transmitted diseases and chronic prostatitis than it does with testosterone levels. We know that chronic inflammation leads to cancer, and we know that infection leads to cancer to in other areas like the cervix.
Other things that make a man may not want to be on testosterone do include weight gain, but as I mentioned before, this is not a problem if the man’s maintaining an active lifestyle. You can’t undo a sedentary life and a very self-destructive diet by just using testosterone. Using testosterone along with an active lifestyle and a healthy diet will improve the results of those two things. Another side effect of testosterone can be acne, again this can be controlled in most people by just watching the levels of testosterone that are given, or just treating the acne itself, usually with Retin A or something like that. Hair loss is a, male pattern hair loss can happen in men and women who use testosterone. I don’t have a solution for that. That’s guaranteed. Although there are helps, inaudible 00:08:58 is one that can be used topically to block the conversion of testosterone to inaudible 00:09:03 or testosterone and can help with that. Lipids, some people have worried about testosterone causing problems with Lipid profiles, but we now know that in most people testosterone improves the cholesterol and Lipid levels and profiles.
There was a time when people worried about the liver. The liver problems that arose from body builders using testosterone came from using oral testosterone supplements. Not from parental or avoiding the gut, because when you take testosterone by mouth, it passes through liver before it gets distributed to the body and that strains the liver to convert it or to process it. That can lead to liver problems, but when you take it as an injection or a cream and you bypass the liver, then that’s not a problem. Actually, it can help regenerate the liver. There are studies showing that when a man has, for example, cirrhosis of the liver, alcoholic cirrhosis, and if he stops drinking the testosterone can be used to help regenerate apatisites 00:10:13, or regrow the liver. Some things can’t be regrown, but the liver is one of the organs that can actually regenerate itself. Those are the basic why’s and why not’s of testosterone. If a man is suffering with Peyronie’s disease, I would highly recommend that he consider being, making sure his testosterone level is normal. We’re getting to how to check it and how to replace it.
Same with erectile disfunction, and any of those other problems that we mentioned. Now, let’s talk about how to replace testosterone. First to measure it is a little tricky because it varies during the day. It’s usually higher in the morning and then there’s a sine wave sort of response, but the highest level is usually in the morning. Some people make a big deal out of if you replace it, trying to somehow replicate that up and down that happens on a daily basis. There’s really no evidence that’s convincing to me that that’s necessary. That’s one of the arguments, for example, of using a testosterone cream is to apply it in the morning and it’s higher in the morning. Before we get to how to replace it pharmaceutically, it’s worth thinking how it might be replaced just naturally. Here are some of those strategies. One is just maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Those things your mother told you to do; sleep. Sleep is not just some thing that your body rests, it seems sort of a simplistic way of thinking about it.
What really is going on is that your brain somehow, which we don’t fully understand, does things biochemically. For example, the pituitary gland, which is the master gland that tells the others what to do and how and when, the pituitary gland controls your adrenals, your testicles, your thyroid. It secretes over 200 hormones that we know about, over 200. We’re not sure what all it’s doing, but we do know that it creates a separate spectrum of hormones in deep sleep, as opposed to when walking around or awake during the daytime. Those deep sleep hormones have to do with regenerating, not just the brain, but the entire body. There’s a spike in growth hormone for example. Sleep is one of the things that can help regenerate or elevate testosterone levels. Also, a high sugar diet has been show to lower testosterone levels and so a lower carbohydrate diet that’s higher in protein is helpful. Occasional fasting, not extensive, but periodic fasting on very low calorie diet for one or two days every week to a month is something that will boost testosterone levels.
The old-school body builders like Vince Geronda 00:13:24 were big into periodic fasting, not as a way to lose weight, but as a way to gain strength. Empirically they figured out that it raises hormonal levels and helps anabolic repair. Those are some of the things that we know. Other things that are less talked about that we know is for example, there’s evidence that the more a man ejaculates the lower his testosterone level will become. This thing that somehow it doesn’t, there’s really no downside to indiscriminate masturbation, is really false. Those are the natural things that can be done. Now, if that’s not helpful for whatever reason, and it can happen at any age, things that might lower testosterone level even at a young age include head trauma, even trauma to the head that does not cause loss of consciousness can effect the pituitary gland. It’s dangling from a little tiny stalk that with sheer forces can cause micro-infarction’s and decrease circulation to the pituitary. Head trauma.
It could be from playing sports or a fall, or post-concussive syndrome from a nearby bomb in a war situation. It’s a known phenomenon that’s been talked about in the New England Journal. Other things that might lower testosterone in a young man include smoking pot, which will not only lower testosterone, but raise estradiol levels and taking narcotics. Narcotics like Oxycontin and Lortab 00:15:10, those morphine-like pain medicines basically put the pituitary gland to sleep. There’s less luteinizing 00:15:18 hormone and folical stimulating hormone. Which are the hormones that tell the testicle to make testosterone. Pituitary goes to sleep and the man makes less testosterone when he’s on narcotics. Assuming all these strategies have been tried and the man still has a low testosterone level, the pharmaceutical ways to raise it, actually before we get to that, let’s talk about measuring testosterone. Testosterone is up and down as we mentioned before, but not only is it up and down, but it’s bound so some of it is floating free in your bloodstream, and some of it is connected to a protein.
Sex binding globulin. If you measure a total level, it can be misleading because you’re measuring not just the free part, which can actually activate your tissue and do the work, but the bound part. Picture it like a train and the proteins are like the box cars on the train that are carrying the testosterone around, but it’s only the testosterone that jumps off the box car, jumps off the train and into the bloodstream that’s doing any work. If you measure all the testosterone that’s on and off the train, you can’t really tell what you’re doing. The way to get to that, the most accurate way to get to the actual free testosterone, which is the part that’s jumped off the train, is to measure the total amount of it, that’s on the train and off the train, or what’s bound to the protein and what isn’t, and also measure the sex binding globulin. Then you can calculate what part of it’s free.
Then looking at that, my suggestion is that you put your testosterone levels in the upper 25% of normal for a 35 year old man. You don’t need to be 18, but you don’t need to let it just taper off down to nothing either. Okay. Once that’s measured and it’s determined that you need replacement and if you do the things that you know to do to try to bring them up normally, and that’s not helpful, then some pharmaceutical options include Human Chorionic Gonadotropin 00:17:46, testosterone pellets, injections and a cream. Now, HCG, or Human Chorionic Gonadotropin, is a small amino acid peptide protein like luteinizing hormone, and so the body thinks it’s luteinizing hormones, the testicles do, so when you use Human Chorionic Gonadotropin the testicles think the pituitary gland just told them to make more testosterone. For a young person who’s close to normal, that is a good option. It’s given sub-Q like an insulin injection twice a week, usually 2000 units twice a week. It’s an odd hormone though in that if you go up on the dose, it can actually cause less response. It’s better to start low and be patient.
You’re fertilizing testicles, so you won’t really know what the results of it are until you give it six to eight weeks, and then re-check your testosterone levels. The next thing that can be done are testosterone pellets. The downside to these are that whatever you put in, it’s there for the next three months. There are those who’ve made a really nice business out of doing lots of pellets. My suggestion is that you do not use a pellet until you used injections to get an idea about what the ideal dose for you is, because if the pellets not enough, you’re sucking wind. If it’s too much, then you deal with side effects. Although pellets are a very elegant treatment, I think it’s better to save that until after you’ve determined a proper dosage by using an injection of testosterone. Again, this is my opinion and there are many excellent physicians who have a different opinion and have amazing results. Medicine is still an art, and there are some parts of it that there’s still some discussion about what the best strategy is.
I’m acknowledging that pellets are a wonderful option, whether it’s something you start with or it becomes a second step, it’s up to you and your physician. My preferred first step is injections using depo testosterone, most men should start with 200 milligrams IM every 14 days, or 100 milligrams IM every seven days. This is one where I do not prefer a compounded hormone because it seems that the quality variable varies. My preference is a name brand testosterone injected IM every two weeks. There is are also testosterone creams, the downside of the cream is you don’t really know how you’re absorbing it. People forget it, one day you do something and you’re sweaty and you sweat it off. The next day you don’t. There’s just too much variability in my opinion. I’m not a big fan of testosterone creams. The problem with the cream is after being on it for six weeks, if you don’t see anything changing, you don’t really know what you have unless you do blood levels because you don’t really know how much of it you’ve absorbed.
If you do injections, you know that you’ve absorbed what you injected and then you can make decisions based on that. Those are some of the ideas and strategies with testosterone. I highly recommend that every man know what their level is and that they do something to maintain healthy levels. On the other hand, testosterone is not the end-all, be-all, for example, a prolactin can decrease sex drive and make a man impotent even with amazing testosterone level. As can a low thyroid level or a very low growth hormone level. So it’s not the magic cure, but it is a necessary ingredient and I highly recommend that you speak with your physician about it if you’re having problems with erectile disfunction or Peyronie’s.
Find Priapus Shot® Provider
The Priapus Shot® procedure indicates a specific way of treating the penis with blood-derived growth factors extracted from the man’s own blood (autologous). Some people call these blood-derived growth factors platelet-rich plasma (PRP) but there may be growth factors in plasma we don’t yet know about that do not come from the platelets. The name “Priapus Shot®” is registered with the US Patent & Trademark office as a “service mark” to protect patients by indicating a specific protocol. The name is not a synonym for the injection of blood in to the penis—such a definition would not be specific enough to indicate any particular quality of care. and so would not warrant protection as intellectual property.
The trademark defines a specific method of that providers agree to follow and develop; this agreement offers quality control and is followed and developed by over 500 urologists, interventional radiologists, family practitioners, and internists in multiple countries and by faculty in medical schools where further studies are being done.
The Priapus Shot® procedure protocol also involves patient selection, patient evaluation & education (including explanation of consent), preparation of the PRP, local anesthesia, PRP injection, post injection use of a penis pump on a daily basis, and a daily dose of tadalafil (in come men). Other post injection steps can include: stopping smoking, CoQ10 (12), vitamin E (13), Trimix, and aerobic exercise. Protocol steps vary depending on the patient and those variations also comprise the Priapus Shot® protocol.
Patient selection includes identifying those who may need hormonal treatment, or family counseling, or vascular surgery, as well as those who may have co-morbidities or who may be taking drugs that interfere with sexual function. Some patients are not treated with the Priapus Shot® protocol because another treatment or no treatment is more appropriate.
The policy of most of our providers of the procedure offers a complete refund to any man who is not happy with the Priapus Shot® procedure.
Consulting with the patient includes informing him that unexpected side effects could occur and the results will vary with some patients seeing no benefit. Antibiotics fail in 1 in 5 people in the hospital with pneumonia—resulting in death. Antibiotics “work” but do not work for all people. The same can be said for most all procedures including the Priapus Shot procedure.
The preparation of the PRP involves a device approved by the FDA for isolating PRP from whole blood for autologous use. Since blood is not a drug, it is not governed by the FDA but the devices used to isolate PRP for injection back into the body are regulated by the FDA. Multiple kits have gained FDA approval. Some of the approved kits include Regen, Magellan, TruPRP, Eclipse, Pure Spin, Harvest, & Emcyte. There are over 8,000 research papers on pub med discussing the science of PRP, and not one serious side effect has been documented when FDA approved kits were used to prepare the PRP.
Most men find the procedure very comfortable if a topical lidocaine cream is applied to the penis about 15 minutes prior to the procedure. A very small needle (1/2 inches long, 30 gauge) needle is used for the injection. However, some men do ask for a dorsal nerve block which can easily be done using 2% lidocaine for a near painless procedure (this same block can be used for prosthesis placement—so it makes a 30 gauge needle completely painless for most men.
The Science
An early report that PRP may be useful in the penis appeared in a paper published in Urology in 2003 mentioning that, in animal models, using blood-derived growth factors injected into the penis successfully treated erectile dysfunction and also mentioned that such a strategy may be feasible in men— actually providing a way to correct the underlying pathology (1). In contrast, Viagra and Trimix do not correct the underlying pathology of decreased penile circulation.
Another animal study in 2010 showed that transferring adipocyte derived stem cells (ADSCs) into the penis caused endothelia cell growth (new blood flow) as well as increased nitric oxide activity in the dorsal nerve (harder erection). But, the ADSCs were tagged before injection (to keep up with them) and most of the injected stem cells died! So the improvement seen was not from maturation of the ADSCs but rather from recruitment and activation by growth factors of stem cells already in the body—indicating PRP may demonstrate a similar effect (2).
Dr. Virag (also a pioneer of Trimix injections) published research demonstrating improvement in erectile function, size, and correction of Peyronie’s disease with the use of PRP. His studies both published (and to be published) demonstrate a mean increase of 7 on the ED Intensity Score when PRP is injected into the plaque and into the corpus cavernosum of the human penis (3).
One of the growth factors found in PRP (over 20 known) includes vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). In one animal study, the animals were castrated causing a shutting off of testosterone to create a penis that demonstrated, on microscopy, atrophy of smooth muscle and nerves as well as endothelial cell pathology. Then another group received VEGF injections directly into the corpus cavernosum along with castration. VEGF injection into the penis at the time of castration prevented the atrophy as effectively as did testosterone replacement. Moreover, VEGF reversed cavernosoetric findings of leakage (4).
The above studies and others not cited indicate an improvement in the health, circulation, and strength (density) of penile tissue with injection of blood-derived growth factors into the penis.
What Goes with the Shot?
In regards to improvement in erection firmness, the Priapus Shot® protocol also includes a recommendation of aerobic exercise which by meta analysis of 5 randomized controlled studies using the Erectile Function Scale showed an increase of 5 (5,6).
As previously stated, the complete Priapus Shot® protocol, also includes the use of a penis pump, which as a stand-alone therapy has been demonstrated to improve erection both as part of a penile rehabilitation program as well as an adjunct to other therapies (7,8).
This same penis pump strategy, even without the PRP, has been demonstrated to increase penis size by 2-3 cm, while traction (another physical therapy that can be included as part of the Priapus Shot® protocol) was shown to increase penis length by 1.5-2.5 cm (8, 9). Adding PRP to the protocol shows improved results according to data collected by urologists currently utilizing the Priapus Shot® protocol (to be presented). The 2.5 cm improvement seen with the penis pump alone is in the 10-20% growth range for the average sized penis. As previously stated, while patient results vary, any patients that are not happy with the procedure are given a complete refund.
Ultrasound studies of humans, post treatment, by Dr. Virag and by other physicians who offer the Priapus Shot® protocol demonstrate improved blood flow, an increase in endothelium (improved health), and decreased plaque size. Dr. Joseph Banno of Chicago recently presented a paper showing the Priapus Shot® procedure decreased venous leak as well as increased intra-penile arterial pressure.
Dr. Virag’s studies, using the injection of PRP as a stand-alone (without physical therapies), also demonstrate improvement in the angle of the penis in men suffering with Peyronie’s disease (3). Also, strict adherence to a penis pump regimen is part of the Priapus Shot® protocol and the pump alone improves the angle significantly in over one-half of those studied in one study in the British Journal of Urology (10). This same study demonstrated growth of the penis using the pump alone (without the PRP injection). The PRP alone, in Dr Virag’s study, out-performed the pump with demonstration of remodeling of the plaque. I recommend using both methods: vacuum pump and Priapus Shot®.
Studies show that the non-surgical treatment of Peyronie’s is most effective when a synergy of multiple modalities is engaged (11). So, the Priapus Shot® procedure includes the injection of PRP (demonstrated effective by Dr. Virag) combined with daily physical therapy using a penis pump for ten minutes twice a day and a daily low-dose of taladafil. Other modalities in the Priapus Shot® procedure that have been demonstrated to be synergistic include the following: stopping smoking, CoQ10 (12), vitamin E (13), trimix, and aerobic exercise. Such strategies are not intended to take the place of surgical correction or of the use of chemical surgery with collagenase—but rather to offer the man suffering with Peyronie’s disease the optimal non-surgical treatment as a first step with surgery reserved if non-surgical therapies fail.
The penis pump alone (part of the Priapus Shot® protocol) has been shown to improve the effectiveness of Cialis and of Trimix injections (8). We are seeing men decrease the dosage of Viagra and/or Trimix by about 50 percent when the complete Priapus Shot® protocol is used. The Priapus Shot® protocol does not intend to make any particular therapy obsolete (including surgery) but rather to offer a protocol for enhancing an overall, synergistic approach to correcting penile pathology. However the surgical treatment of Peyronie’s disease can be unsatisfying and lead to serious complications (14); we (the Priapus Shot® providers) are seeing the safety profile of PRP and the Priapus Shot® protocol as offering an appealing conservative and often effective step to take before proceeding to surgery. The risk from PRP is certainly much less than for surgery and less than for collagenase—offering another reason to start with the Priapus Shot® when treating Peyronie’s or erectile dysfunction.
When considering the duration of effectiveness of the Priapus Shot® procedure and risks involved, you may find it helpful to consider the nature of the cell biology employed. A review article considering the basic science of PRP discusses the fact that the autologous growth factors are exactly what’s generated to propagate healing should the man have surgery. The healing peptides, chemotactic factors, and pluripotent stem cells employed are exactly what’s generated by the normal healing process and offers no inherent risk for infection or allergy (16).
In over 8,000 papers published about PRP on pub med, there is not one serious sequelae reported that I can identify (multiple review articles address safety). This seems logical when you consider the material being injected is autologous and normally produced to help healing and to fight infection.
Wound care studies demonstrate the nature of multiple tissue types being regenerated (with no reported risk of neoplasia in multiple biopsy studies (17-20).
Moreover, in rat studies (where biopsy of the dorsal nerve is feasible), PRP has been shown to help regenerate nerve tissue and restore erectile function when prostate surgery is modeled with crush injury to the dorsal nerve (21,22). Some studies of stem cell therapies demonstrate that the stem cells do not actually mature into healthy tissue but rather signal for the improvement of the involved ganglion and nerve conduction by recruitment of stem cells to the area – exactly what happens with PRP.
Stem cells are not directly prepared as part of the Priapus Shot® procedure, but we are seeing similar results as what’s reported with stem cell studies. Stem Cell studies often use PRP as a carrier for the stem cells, bringing into question which is the active agent (23-24).
The idea of safety is further emphasized by the literature indicating that not only are there no reports of serious allergic reactions to PRP, but research also shows that PRP can attenuate the autoimmune response. One split-scalp study (with placebo control) showed improvement in alopecia areata, with the use of PRP, that out-performed triamcinolone (25). Another study using PRP in the genitalia of women, showed improvement in lichen sclerosus as determined by both patient survey and by 2 blinded dermatopathologists (26). This attribute of PRP (attenuation of the autoimmune response) could partly explain the effectiveness of the Priapus Shot® protocol for the treatment of both Peyronie’s disease and erectile dysfunction since Peyronie’s is thought to be partly caused by an autoimmune response.
Hard & Easy Cases
Hard Cases
Penis Growth-Only 60% of men achieve 1/2 inches or more in growth (circumference and length). But, men in that 60% sometimes see up to 1.5 inches in circumference & length (often after 2 to 3 procedures).
Men with long-standing vascular disease see less response. If the blood flow going to the penis (ileac arteries) is blocked, then the Priapus Shot® injection into the penis will not help much. The man needs a vascular surgeon. One way to get an idea here….if the man sees absolutely no response when taking Viagra or Cialis for more than 2 years, then he may have blockages or other problems that the Priapus Shot will not help.
Easy Cases
Post op for prostate surgery as part of a penile rehabilitation program. If the man could achieve erection before the surgery, the following the Priapus Shot® protocol could be very beneficial (even if it’s been 2 or 3 years since surgery).
Improved firmness of erection in the man who can already achieve erection. Typical results are that he may be able to cut the dose of Viagra or Trimix in half (but still need the drug) or if he needs only a low dose of the drugs he may be able to stop using them.
Improvement in lichen sclerosus. This is HUGE since lichen sclerosus appears on the foreskin with severe discomfort and often recurs even if the man has a circumcision.
Peyronie’s Disease. This possibility is another HUGE benefit of the procedure—with the Priapus Shot® probably safer and more effective than collagenase injections (research to be published soon). If a man undergoes surgery for Peyronie’s disease, the curvature often recurs later since the autoimmune process continues. Also, with surgery, there can be infection and shortening of the penis. None of those side effects have been seen with the Priapus Shot® procedure (side effects include INCREASE in size in most men with Peyronie’s).
Summary
In summary, multiple studies support the idea that blood-derived growth factors (when prepared in a proper way using a kit approved by the FDA for the preparation of PRP), as used in the Priapus Shot® protocol, support the health and function of the penis. Erectile dysfunction is associated with anhedonia, and successful treatment leads to better function, better relationships, and more pleasure in life (27).
Hope you find this helpful!
Peace & health,
Charles Runels, MD Inventor of the Priapus Shot® Procedure
4. Rogers R. Intracavernosal vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) injection and adeno-associated virus-mediated VEGF gene therapy prevent and reverse venogenic erectile dysfunction in rats. International Journal of Impotence Research. 2003;15:S24-9.
The Priapus Shot® procedure indicates a specific protocol for treating the penis with blood-derived growth factors: specifically platelet-rich plasma or PRP. The name Priapus Shot® is registered with the US Patent & Trademark office as a “service mark” to protect patients by indicating a specific protocol. The name is not a synonym for the injection of blood in to the penis—such a definition would not be specific enough to warrant protection as intellectual property and so would not indicate any particular quality of care.
The trademark gives a method of teaching a specific protocol that providers agree to follow and develop; this agreement offers a measure of quality control and is being followed and developed by around 500 urologists and interventional radiologists, family practitioners, and internists in multiple countries and by faculty in several medical schools where further studies are being done.
The Priapus Shot® procedure defines a protocol that involves patient selection, patient evaluation & education (including explanation of consent), preparation of the PRP, local anesthesia, PRP injection, post injection use of a penis pump on a daily basis, and a daily dose of Tadalafil. Other post injection steps can include: stopping smoking, CoQ10 (12), vitamin E (13), Trimix, and aerobic exercise. Protocol steps can vary depending on the problems presented by the patient.
It is the policy of most of our providers of the procedure to offer any patient that is not happy with the Priapus Shot® procedure a complete refund.
Patient selection includes identifying those who may need hormonal treatment, or family counseling, or vascular surgery, as well as those who may have co-morbidities or who may be taking drugs that interfere with sexual function. Some patients are not treated with the Priapus Shot® protocol because another treatment or no treatment is more appropriate.
Consulting the patient includes informing him that unexpected side effects could occur and the results can vary with some patients seeing no benefit.
The preparation of the PRP involves a device approved by the FDA for isolating PRP from whole blood for autologous use. Since blood is not a drug, it is not governed by the FDA. Multiple kits have gained FDA approval. Some of the approved kits include Regen, Magellan, TruPRP, Eclipse, Pure Spin, & Emcyte. There are over 8,000 papers on pub med discussing the science of PRP, and not one serious side effect has been documented when FDA approved kits were used to prepare the PRP.
The first indication that PRP may be useful in the penis is in a paper published in Urology in 2003 indicating that, in animal models, using growth factors was successful to treat erectile dysfunction and indicated that such a strategy may be feasible in men— actually providing a way to correct underlying pathology (1). Viagra and Trimix do not correct underlying pathology of penile circulation.
Another animal model study in 2010 showed that transferring adipocyte derived stem cells (ADSCs) into the penis caused endothelia cell growth as well as increased nitric oxide activity in the dorsal nerve. Interestingly, the ADSCs were tagged and perished – so the improvement seen was not from maturation of the ADSCs but rather from recruitment and activation by growth factors of stem cells from within the body. Also, indicating the PRP may demonstrate a similar effect (2).
Dr. Virag (also a pioneer of Trimix injections) published a paper demonstrating improvement in erectile function, size, and correction of Peyronie’s disease with the use of PRP. His studies both published (and to be published) demonstrate a mean increase of 7 on the ED Intensity Score when PRP is injected into the plaque and the corpus cavernosum of the human penis (3).
One of the growth factors (over 20 known) found in PRP includes vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). In one animal model study, the animals were castrated to create a penis that demonstrated, on microscopy, atrophy of smooth muscle and nerves as well as endothelial cell pathology. Injecting VEGF directly into the corpus cavernosum prevented the atrophy as effectively as did testosterone replacement. Moreover, VEGF reversed cavernosoetric findings of leakage (4).
The above studies and others not cited indicate an improvement in the health, circulation, and strength (density) of penile tissue.
In regards to improvement in erection firmness, the Priapus Shot® protocol also includes a recommendation of aerobic exercise which by metaanalysis of 5 randomized controlled studies using the IIEF showed an increase of 5 (5,6).
As previously stated, the complete Priapus Shot® protocol, also includes the use of a penis pump, which as a stand-alone therapy has been demonstrated to improve erection both as part of a penile rehabilitation program as well as an adjunct to other therapies (7,8).
This same penis pump strategy, even without the PRP, has been demonstrated to increase penis size by 2-3 cm, while traction (another physical therapy that can be included as part of the Priapus Shot® protocol) was shown to increase penis length by 1.5-2.5 cm (8, 9). Adding PRP to the protocol shows improved results according to data collected by urologists currently utilizing the Priapus Shot® protocol – to be presented later this year. It should be noted that the 2.5 cm improvement seen with the penis pump alone is in the 10-20% growth range for the average sized penis. As previously stated, while patient results vary, any patients that are not happy with the procedure are given a complete refund.
Ultrasound studies of humans, post treatment, by Dr. Virag and by the physicians currently utilizing the Priapus Shot® protocol demonstrate improved blood flow and an increase in endothelium (improved health) as well as such results being indicated animal model studies, only some of which have been cited.
Dr. Virag’s studies, using the injection of PRP as a stand-alone (without physical therapies), also demonstrate improvement in the angle of the penis in men suffering with Peyronie’s disease (3). Also, strict adherence to a penis pump regimen is part of the Priapus Shot® protocol and the pump alone improves the angle significantly in over one-half of those studied in one study in the British Journal of Urology (10). This same study demonstrated growth of the penis using the pump alone (without the PRP injection) though the growth was not as significant as in the other studies previously cited. The PRP alone, in Dr Virag’s study, out-performed the pump with demonstration of remodeling of the plaque.
Studies show that the non-surgical treatment of Peyronie’s is most effective when a synergy of multiple modalities is engaged (11). So, the Priapus Shot® procedure includes the injection of PRP (demonstrated effective by Dr. Virag) combined with daily physical therapy using a penis pump for ten minutes twice a day and a daily low-dose of Taladafil. Further, other modalities are also used in the Priapus Shot® procedure that have been demonstrated to be synergistic: stopping smoking, CoQ10 (12), vitamin E (13), Trimix, and aerobic exercise. Such strategies are not intended to take the place of surgical correction or of the use of chemical surgery with collagenase—but rather to offer the man suffering with Peyronie’s disease the optimal non-surgical treatment as a first step with surgery reserved if non-surgical therapies fail.
The Priapus Shot® protocol does not intend to make any particular therapy obsolete but rather offer a protocol for enhancing an overall, synergistic approach to pathology of the penis. The surgical treatment of Peyronie’s disease can be unsatisfying and lead to serious complications (14); we are seeing the safety profile of PRP and the Priapus Shot® protocol offer an appealing conservative step to take before proceeding to surgery.
For, example the penis pump alone (part of the Priapus Shot® protocol) has been shown to improve the effectiveness of Cialis and of Trimix injections (8). We are seeing men decrease the dosage of Viagra and/or Trimix by about 50 percent when the complete Priapus Shot® protocol is used.
Most men find the procedure very comfortable if a topical lidocaine cream is used since a 1/2 inch 30 gauge needle is used for injection (similar to a Trimix injection). However, some men do ask for a dorsal nerve block which can easily be done using 1% lidocaine without epinephrine for a near painless procedure (since this same block can be used for prosthesis placement, it makes a 30 gauge needle completely painless for most men) (15).
Considering the duration of effectiveness and risks involved it’s useful to consider the nature of the cell biology employed. A review article considering the basic science discusses the fact that the autologous growth factors are exactly what’s generated to propagate healing should the man have surgery. The healing peptides, chemotactic factors, and pluripotent stem cells employed are exactly what’s generated by the normal healing process and offered no inherent risk for infection or allergy (16).
In over 8,000 papers published about PRP on pub med, there is not one serious sequelae reported that I can identify (multiple review article speaks of the safety). This seems logical when you consider the material being injected is autologous and normally produced to help healing and to fight infection.
Wound care studies demonstrate the nature of multiple tissue types being regenerated (with no reported risk of neoplasia in multiple biopsy studies (17-20).
Moreover, in rat studies (where biopsy of the dorsal nerve is feasible), PRP has been shown to help regenerate nerve tissue and restore erectile function when prostate surgery is modeled with crush injury to the dorsal nerve (21,22). Some studies of stem cell therapies demonstrate that the stem cells do not actually mature into healthy tissue but rather signal for the improvement of the involved ganglion and nerve conduction by recruitment of stem cells to the area – exactly what happens with PRP.
Stem cells are not directly prepared as part of the Priapus Shot® procedure, but we are seeing similar results as what’s reported with stem cell studies. Stem Cell studies often use PRP as a carrier for the stem cells, bringing into question which is the active agent (23-24).
The idea of safety is further emphasized by the literature indicating that not only are there no reports of serious allergic reactions to PRP, but research also shows that PRP can attenuate the autoimmune response. One split-scalp study (with placebo control) showed improvement in alopecia areata, with the use of PRP, that out-performed triamcinolone (25). Another study using PRP in the genitalia of women, showed improvement in lichen sclerosus as determined by both patient survey and by 2 blinded dermatopathologists (26). This attribute of PRP, that of attenuation of the autoimmune response, could partly explain the effectiveness of the Priapus Shot® protocol for the treatment of both Peyronie’s disease and erectile dysfunction.
In summary, multiple studies support the idea that blood-derived growth factors (when prepared in a proper way using a kit approved by the FDA for the preparation of PRP), as used in the Priapus Shot® protocol, support the health and function of the penis. Erectile dysfunction is associated with anhedonia, and successful treatment leads to better function, better relationships, and more pleasure in life (27).
4. Rogers R. Intracavernosal vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) injection and adeno-associated virus-mediated VEGF gene therapy prevent and reverse venogenic erectile dysfunction in rats. International Journal of Impotence Research. 2003;15:S24-9.
1. What hormones to use to make your penis grow like fertilizer to a plant.
2. How to raise the hormone naturally without seeing the physician and how to know if you need a physician.
3. How to find a physician who will do what you need done!
4. The penis workouts that really work and how to do them?
5. How large should you grow your penis?
6. What are the dangers and how to avoid them?
7. How to make the effects permanent.
8. What herbs work and which do not?
Immediate download, credit card only says “Clickbank” on statement, start using the recipe today!
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You will be able to download the written recipe and listen while I spend 55 minutes and 28 seconds explaining the recipe and how it works.
186 men with “early chronic” Peyronie’s got 300mg Co-Q10 per day. The other group got placebo.
No other treatment!
At the end of 6 months…
Placebo group-average plaque size and curvature increased. 56% of the men in the group were worse. No one was better.
In the men who took 300mg Co-Q10, average plaque size and curvature improved and erectile function improved! Only 13.6% of the men worsened.
Conclusion. Co-Q10 prevents worsening 87% of the time, and improves curvature & erectile function & decreases plaque size in most men after 6 months of treatment.
Recommended Co-Q10. This is a 6 month supply of high quality in 1 bottle. Put this buy where ever you have your morning meal or protein shake and take with that….
Vitamin E used in combination with other therapies.(Click to read)<–
Men with Peyronie’s were divided into 2 groups and treated for 6 months.
In 1/2 of the men, vitamin E at a does of 1,200 IU was give once a day as part of a combination therapy.
The other 1/2 got the combination therapy without the vitamin E
The men who did not get the vitamin E saw and average decrease in curvature of 6 degrees. Average reduction in plaque was 36%. Of the men treated, 48% improved.
With the men who DID get vitamin E, an average decrease in curvature of twice as much occurred–12%. The average plaque reduction was 50% and of the men treated 96% improved!
No one in the vitamin E group saw a worsening of the curvature or an increase in the size of the plaque. Some of the men who did not take vitamin E did see an worsening of the curvature with 17% of them seeing an increase in the size of the plaque!
The vitamin E group also saw a more significant increase in erectile function.
This is a wonderful example of the “fire” analogy. Sometimes it takes more than 1 thing a the same time to build a fire.
One of each of these per day gives 1,250 IU’s (1,000 + 250) with an excellent quality and a few cofactors that help the E work better…
<–one of these + one of these–>
Beginning of Transcript of Webinar…
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Dr Runels: So thank you guys for coming. There’s this idea by some people that whatever you have with your erection, you can only make things better by taking medicines, and that the blood flow through the penis itself can’t be improved, but as a matter of fact it can be improved, and there’s research dating back at least the past 15, 20 years demonstrating that that is possible. Before, there was a Priapus Shot®.
So as we go through this, I’ll just run through this and lay down the research the best I understand it. There may be some other physicians on the phone here, actually I see several other physicians on the phone, and so at some point I’ll open the floor for discussion and I’ll also open the phone of some of the other physicians so that we can answer your questions.
After spending years, 25 plus years taking care of people, and intensively studying for the past few years ways to make the erection better specifically, other than things … if you think about it, if you take Viagra, that’s a great drug, but it’s not doing anything to correct the problem, it’s just making what’s there work harder. Same with an implant, but the idea of actually making the blood flow itself into the penis better is what we’re talking about here.
Some of you may be on this call because you subscribe to this newsletter here where I intend to put down what I determined from the medical literature to be things that have been proven to be helpful, like hormones, exercise, of course our priapus shot, nutrition, using a pump, so today’s topic is about the pump, and we’ll go to the sort of an outline, and I haven’t made this page available yet, but here are some of the most powerful things I’ve seen, and a lot of this, this comes from a lot of research, but much of what I’ll show you is summarized in a paper that you’ll find a link to on the page right here, and when you click on that it takes you there. I’ll tell you how to get to this page after the webinar, and I’ll post a recording of this right there at the top of the page so you can review it.
If you click on that, it takes you to this excellent review article that goes into all the things that have been demonstrated in the way of lifestyle and eating and supplements to improve the erection and how that works. So the most powerful one is exercise. I hate to say it, some people hate exercise, but so important that I’ll cover that in a separate webinar.
But getting to the supplements, folic acid, antioxidants, calcium I think is less helpful, vitamin C, vitamin E, and again hormones will be covered in another episode. Now when it comes to the antioxidants what I’ve observed and others, and what the research shows is that C and E are helpful, and even for Peyronie’s disease there’s a double-blind, placebo controlled study that I’ve posted, showing that, if you go to this part here about vitamin E and click on this, there was a double-blind … this showed that using the vitamin E helped Peyronie’s disease.
Also there was a study here with CoQ10 where they took 196 men with early chronic Peyronie’s and gave them 300 mg of CoQ10 per day, and no other treatment, and then at the end of the six months, the people who were taking the placebo on average saw a worsening, and no one was improved, but in the people who took the coq10, the plaque size improved on average and only 13 percent of them worsened. This was a true placebo controlled study.
All of the studies show that there’s a synergy, there’s an actual synergy, so what I see, and this is a huge problem I think, is that people will try one thing and they think that doesn’t work, so they discard it instead of adding that one thing to the other things. My favorite analogy with that is starting a fire. If someone told you, and you had no idea what a fire is, told you to light a match, you wouldn’t see very much, so you decided okay, matches don’t work. And the next day someone told you that you should use wood, pile up a bunch of wood, but alone of course that wouldn’t do much for a fire. Someone says, okay really what you need to make a fire is a stack of wood, put some lighter fluid on it, and then light a match, then you would have a real fire.
This is what you’re looking at, this picture is the match that starts the erection fire of improved erectile function in your penis. The way this works is that nitric oxide, neuronal nitric oxide synthase relaxes the arteries, so the things that promote neuronal nitric oxide are these, and you have to have the right dose, at least enough of the stuff.
Vitamin C I like at least three grams a day with food, vitamin E at least 1250 mg, that’s what’s in the research. Now, let’s go and look at arginine and citrulline, because that’s very interesting, if you look at what he writes about here, he said there was no effect at all at the lower dose of one and a half grams per day. That’s a big tablet, most people have trouble swallowing a tablet that’s more than one gram. But in a randomized trial of five grams per day, there was improvement in 31% of the men.
What I recommend is arginine or glutamine at four grams, three times a day, twelve grams a day. If you take that in tablets it gets to be very expensive, so what I recommend you do is buy it in a powder and taking that many pills will exhaust you, so I recommend that you mix the powder with water. Now, hang with me here, because it does no good in my opinion to look at all this research. As a matter of fact, I don’t like looking at research unless there’s a way to actually use it to make people healthier.
I like the science piece of it, sometimes it’s interesting, but if I can’t tell you exactly what to do to make your life better and your erections better, then it’s a waste, you might as well be watching the news. So I’m telling you how to implement this. Everything on here is going to be exactly how to do it.
So arginine. Not only does arginine help with nitric oxide production, but what he doesn’t say right here is arginine and glutamine both, taken on an empty stomach, stimulate the pituitary gland to release growth hormone, which causes somatomedin C production by the liver and other tissues. So it causes you to make more growth hormone, which also is associated with firmness of erection and associated with decreased vascular disease. It’s a cheap way of taking growth hormone, but it doesn’t work if you mix it with your milkshake or your food because it doesn’t act pharmacologically.
So for it to have its effect on the pituitary gland, arginine or glutamine or citrulline, they have to be the only amino acids in the bloodstream. A practical way of doing this is to wake up, and the first thing you take in the morning is not food, and it’s not your protein shake, it’s the things that work best on an empty stomach. So that might be your SAMe, if you take SAMe, it’s your arginine, if you’re taking thyroid medication, this is when you take your thyroid with something without amino acids like water or some juice.
Then you wait about 20 minutes, you don’t have to wait a long time, 20 minutes before you have your protein meal, or protein shake, or whatever you’re doing. So arginine, they say three grams once a day, I would say that’s a minimum. Shoot for four grams three times a day on an empty stomach. Now how to get an empty stomach three times a day. What you do is when you think of eating, take the arginine first, just mix a scoop of it. It’s interesting, in the pills, hard to get it down, it’s a bunch of pills, but you’ll see four grams in a scoop is not very much. Mix it in half a glass of water or juice or something, you down it, and wait 10 or 15 minutes before we eat. Arginine is huge.
Now, testosterone. We’ll get to, when we talk about hormones in a future episode, it’s huge but it’s not the subject of today. Omega 3 fatty acids, you’ll see here he talks about that, it’s proven over and over again it helps circulation. They recommend a gram of omega 3 fatty acids because that’s what the American Heart Association talks about.
I’m not as big a fan of folic acid. You can read the paper, take it if you want. Calcium I think it makes people constipated sometimes, and although talk about lowering blood pressure, I think magnesium lowers blood pressure better than calcium, so I’m not as big a fan of those. Vitamin C they say 500 to 1000 mg. I would reduce that to 300 mg, but take your vitamin C at the beginning of a meal, so don’t take it with an empty stomach because it’s acidic, take your vitamin C and your vitamin E at the beginning of a meal.
So let’s go back and look at this again. So arginine and citrulline, arginine’s what I would go for. They are going to help with the nitric oxide, promote it, and they also boost growth hormone levels, which he doesn’t talk about here. He also mentions another antioxidant that I put here on the page, this. Pycnogenol, it’s a very, very, very powerful antioxidant, but you need to take it at least 100 mg per day, and you can take that with food.
Now, what about food? It’s interesting to me, by the way this whole, remember you can click there to get to this article and I’ll give you a link to this shortly. Food. Food is, it’s interesting to me when people talk about, we want to talk about medicines and supplements, which are measured in milligrams. Think about this for a second. Your food is measured in pounds. So if milligrams of supplements can have an effect on your body and your life and your brain and your sexual function, you better believe that food can make a huge, huge difference in your life, and your body, and the way you feel.
Now, I did some research participating with Dr. Atkins. I went to San Francisco when Barry Sears first came out with his own diet. Actually their zone bars, you have to be a certified provider, and be in his training, which was more nutrition by far than I ever learned in medical school, before you could sell the zone bars. I never sold the zone bars when I went out and trained with him, and I’ve come up with my own ways of combining things.
The problem with the Zone diet is that it’s difficult, it takes a lot of time. The low carb diets are not so energizing, so it gets confusing when people talk about food. Counting calories, people don’t like that. The bottom line is, after taking care of people for 25 plus years, and I ran a weight loss clinic for about 12 of those years, it’s just miserable when people start trying to monitor their food. So there are some principles that I like to teach, and I would recommend two things. I would recommend the Zone book sort of as a way of swinging two bats before you swing one. If you just make a point, and his website’s very supportive, make a point of following his diet the best you can for about a week, you’ll learn some principles.
For example, it’s best to eat about the number of calories that you’ll need over the next three hours or so, and then you’re sort of titrating the amount of calories, and then if you get the ratios right of protein, carbohydrates, and fat, there’s neither a lethargy nor a hunger, both of which make you not at your best function, which is the idea behind the Zone, like a zone an athlete is in.
Now, trying to come up with a cram course in how to teach you both the ideas of fasting, which also does some things with growth hormone, it does some things with your pituitary gland and your brain that make sex better, not during the fast but immediately afterwards, and how to teach the zone, and how to teach low carb, I came up with this crash course that I call the three day fat burn, and it comes with some ideas about exercise. Either way, get one or both of those if you need to think about your nutrition, because if you go back to this article, it is absolutely imperative, if you look at this, look at food. What inhibits, doesn’t matter if you’re doing your testosterone, your vitamin E and your vitamin C, it does not matter.
You realize this inhibits, so this is lighter fluid for your erection fire, this is water. All these things are putting water on your erections. Smoking, I think if you’re a smoker you probably should just consider being a priest, because eventually most guys who smoke, not all, but most guys eventually have some problems with their erections if they’re smoking. I don’t want to start preaching about smoking. I have some ideas, I have a very high success rate with addiction in general in my practice, and I’ll tell you right now, the smoking idea, I’ll give you a preview because I have an episode of this coming up, here’s a preview.
Freud says you never quit a habit, you only substituted one for the other, but if it’s a strong habit like smoking, you have to substitute a bunch of habits for the one habit of smoking, and so I cover that later. High fat, high sugar intake, I think the sugar is by far, in this article you see is 17 years old, but it’s still very, very true, and the parts that aren’t true I’m telling you, and the high fat has become less important than it was 17 years ago. Now we know you can actually lower cholesterol, and lower and improve blood pressure with high fat diets, as long as they’re low sugar.
If you’re high fat and high sugar you’re just going to gain weight and it’s poison. Sugar is the thing that’s the poison, and when people say they go on diets where all they do is cut out sugar and white bread, well white bread, bagels, that’s just sugar in disguise. It almost instantly turns into sugar, so you might as well just take a spoonful as sugar any time you eat white bread or pizza crust or a bagel. It’s literally like eating a candy bar.
The obesity of course, and diabetes, we’re not talking about the results here, I’m talking with you about the habits of food, and supplements that will change these other things. Of course diabetes and obesity, because diabetes interfere with erections, because diabetes causes nerve damage, it causes increase atherosclerosis. This is key, and a lot of patients, a lot of people don’t think about this. I want you to think about this really, really hard if you’re a diabetic person, if you’re a person suffering with diabetes, or the trouble of having diabetes. Lowering your blood pressure tied to diabetes, not type I, if you’re a type II adult onset, which now sometimes occurs in children, if you suffer with type II diabetes, lowering your blood sugar with a drug is like force feeding your body.
Realize the reason the high blood sugar occurs is your body says, “I’ve got enough nutrition here.” The insulin receptors go down, so the insulin doesn’t work anymore, so insulin levels go high. That’s why it’s called insulin resistance. And blood sugar goes up because the body says, “I don’t want this sugar anymore, i already have all the sugar I need.”
So it goes high in your bloodstream and you start to urinate the sugar, you start urinating a lot. Now, when you take the insulin, or you take the drug, you’re basically force-feeding the body that extra sugar instead of just not eating, or going for a walk and burning the sugar off. The reason I tell you all that is, if you suffer with diabetes I want you to know that, just like being on a blood pressure pill and controlling your blood pressure does not take away the risk of hypertension for increasing your risk of heart disease, having the diagnosis of diabetes and insulin resistance does not take away your risk or problems from that.
As a matter of fact, the research shows that the more tightly you control your blood sugar, more than one study, both as an outpatient and in the hospital, the more tight you control your blood sugar, the more you have an increase in heart disease and stroke. That’s a really scary thing, because you’re stuck. You need to take the medicines to keep from the problems of hyperglycemia, but yet if you take the medicines then you have problems, too, and that’s why, because it’s basically force-feeding.
The way to deal with it is increase insulin resistance, and decrease diet at the same time. Increase resistance by exercise, and to do that, if you’re on medicines you really need the supervision of a doctor. I don’t want to dwell on that too much, but there may be some people dealing with diabetes right now and you need, in my opinion, I hate to say it but unfortunately the nutritionists who were trained by the powers that be that deal with diabetes, in my opinion, often they’re not as effective as something, a combination of therapies using something like the zone diet with walking.
The walking or the exercise, again we’ll get to that later, but it’s not 30 minutes two or three times a week, it’s just not adequate. But I have a way of making it easy, so we’ll get to that.
Back to his list, he’s got … I think we’ve covered, and then I have a couple more we’ll talk about. So the inhibitors are high fat, although the fat doesn’t bother me much, the poisonous sugar, smoking, excessive alcohol. The alcohol changes, here’s the thing about alcohol, it changes the way you metabolize sugar. It’s not just the sugar in the alcohol, and that’s where some of the commercials sort of trick them. They do trick people, because having a low calorie alcoholic drink doesn’t make it not change they way you’re dealing with sugar. It’s effect on the liver has an effect on the way you metabolize sugar that makes you more susceptible to problems with metabolism, even if alcohol itself doesn’t have that many calories in it.
Again, I’m not trying to turn you into a priest, but my advice to people is instead of doing drugs like alcohol and caffeine, be a drug. That’s what one of the gurus said. Be a personality that is a drug instead of taking drugs.
Again, I don’t want to preach at you too much, I’m just telling you we’ll get to this later. As a matter of fact, I don’t even want you to try to quit the stuff now, I just want you to focus on the things to do, and the things to do we’re talking about so far are the arginine, the vitamin E, the not so much calcium, the antioxidants, vitamin C, and folic acid. Now, this nitric oxide promotes cyclic GMP, which causes the erection. The reason Viagra, which is PDE5, the reason it helps the erection is it inhibits the breakdown of the cyclic GMP.
Let’s go back to here, we’re getting close, there’s no reason to make this go, I’m going to open the floor to questions here in a minute. Let’s go back to our thing here. So coq10, vitamin E, we talked about, when it came up here … by the way you can click on these and order from Amazon. You might have another source, but I just shopped Amazon for the best price on what I thought was the best quality. This is 1000 mg and 250 mg, that includes some other things that help.
Okay, so we’re into this long enough I think I’ll stop here and open it for questions. Before I do, I want to show you, this will be the second in this lesson. We’ve talked about pumps already. We’ll talk about the priapus shot in the next one and really details about hormones and exercise, and then my tips on how to quit smoking. If you want to get the whole thing and you’re not subscribed, here’s where to subscribe. It’s priapusshot.com/peyronies. Even though I’m talking about Peyronie’s and researched that literature very carefully, everything I’m talking about here helps erections as well.
Before I open it to everybody, let me see, is there any physicians on the phone who want to add to what we’ve talked about so far, just raise your hand and I’ll unmute your mic, because I know there are some people. Then I’ll unmute the mic for anyone else who has questions. So let’s see. Elizabeth Owings. So let me unmute your mic, Elizabeth. So Dr. Owings, let me give you a little preview. Dr. Owings has an amazing resume, she’s been trained as a pediatrician, a pediatric surgeon, four different residencies, just a brilliant woman, and she’s one of our priapus shot providers and she’s had some experience that I think she wants to share. Let me see if I can unmute you.
Elizabeth? Dr. Owings?
Elizabeth Owings, MD: Yeah, can you hear me?
Charles Runels, MD: Beautiful, yep. You’re up.
Elizabeth Owings, MD: Can you hear me?
Charles Runels, MD: Yes. Can perfectly.
Elizabeth Owings, MD: Okay great. All right, I just wanted to give some hope because I’ve not worked with a lot of men with Peyronie’s disease, but I’ve worked with a lot of men with erectile dysfunction. I was the chief medical advisor of a supplement manufacturing company for many years, so I know my way around the herbal and nutritional world, the amino acids, the arginine and citrulline. We saw some incredible results with combination products, especially arginine plus citrulline, these two things together. Apparently arginine can be turned interesting nitric oxide, or it can be turned into urea.
One of the things that citrulline does is drive it towards that nitric oxide pathway, and it’s just a beautiful thing when you see that work. Just a little piece of hope, I’ve seen men, diabetic, no erection for 20 years. I’m sorry, someone’s trying to call in. No erection for 20 years, successfully complete intercourse after three to six months of combination products like this. That just brings hope because you know that this, it’s like this relationship is flowering all over again.
That’s the main thing I wanted to share. Blood pressure tends to get better, all sorts of things get better when you’re supplementing these things.
Charles Runels, MD: So what does … two things, first of all three to six months, this is not … a lot of people think food and nutritional things can be immediate, usually they’re not, as she just pointed out. Usually with the change in metabolism there’s a change in body, and I know when you change someone’s hormones it takes four years for the full effect to take. For example, a woman has a hysterectomy, it’s usually three to four years before … and she’s not properly hormonally replaced, so you remove her ovaries, her hormones go crazy. It’s usually weight gain for three to four years before she levels off.
Same thing if a man starts taking testosterone, lifting weights, his body will change and he’ll plateau three to four years out, so even three to six months is really fast for a metabolic change where you’re rebuilding tissue. Obviously these are causing, rebuilding also is causing an accumulation of this nitric oxide, neurotransmitters, nerve. So I heard three to six months. Tell us what dosages you were using when you were in this experience.
Elizabeth Owings, MD: In that particular experience, it was going to be arginine at five to ten grams a day, and this was a liquid product we were working with, although I’ve had equal results with a powder, this particular one was liquid. I think I’m happier with the powder, we had a lot of diarrhea with the liquid, something about one of the mineral masks or something, but that’s okay.
Plus 200 mg of citrulline, 2-400 mg of citrulline. Now, I have seen a product that had some remarkable blood pressure results clinically in a study, that used 1000 mg of citrulline. It was a combination product. Again, just like you said, one of the frustrating things about some of these articles is that they’re trying to do one thing at a time, and that’s the way you’re supposed to do it in your test kitchen, but when we’re trying to get someone better from a disease they’re not supposed to be able to get better from, I say throw everything at it, do everything. Why are you holding back?
Charles Runels, MD: Yes.
Elizabeth Owings, MD: You have to do your studies in a certain way, but when you’re trying to help people get better like we are, I say give the body every chance that it needs, because you don’t necessarily know what tests to order to find out what they’re deficient in sometimes. You just know that if we do this combination of things they’re going to get better.
Anyway, most recent one had I think a gram and a half of arginine and a gram of citruline, and some other things like a micronized cayenne. They didn’t have hawthorn in this one, but just a couple other things in there, red yeast rice extract. Several things put together and you’re really going to see good results with that.
There are lots of things out there. You can get a good testimonial from anybody, I’m just saying there’s hope. If you’ve been told there’s no hope, and you’ve been impotent for 10 or 20 years and you just live with it, I’m telling you there’s hope.
Charles Runels, MD: Beautiful. Let’s see, so stay on the line. We may have someone else that you can help me with. Someone wrote in and said, “I’ve noticed I have back pain from taking one to two grams of arginine. Do I just need more water?”
I’ve heard the diarrhea and nausea. Glutamine has a similar effect of arginine, so that’s an idea, but you have any ideas on that, Dr. Owings, as far as the back pain? That’s a new one for me.
Elizabeth Owings: I don’t think I’ve run into that before, although I’ll tell you where the conversion is, is in the liver and the kidneys. I don’t know, it may be one of those things where you want to spread the dose out and see if the back pain goes away. I’m not as strict a disciplinarian as I used to be, nothing happens twice a day, or heaven forbid three times a day in my house. I have to take my arginine first thing in the morning or the last thing before I go to bed. Two scoops go in my big bottle of water, I shake it up and down it while I’m doing my workout or whatever.
This may be a person that wants, instead of that approach, spread it out two or three times a day and see if that doesn’t improve it. I wish I knew where the back pain was, if it was central or bilateral, or …
Charles Runels MD: I’ll go along with what you said earlier, too, about powder versus liquid. I just think the powder’s easier to carry around obviously than the liquid, as far as the practicality of taking something two or three times a day. The only way I’ve found to do that is to keep it at home, wherever I eat breakfast, and at the office or in my backpack when I was an ER doctor, so that whenever I ate lunch it would be there and it would be the thing I did right before I ate the lunch.
But you’re right, unless you have something to trigger it, or it’s there with you all the time, then it’s almost impossible to do something three or four times a day. Let’s see if I see any other hands up. Let’s see.
Annette has her hand up, we’ll see if I can … can you type the question in, Annette? I’m trying to unmute you.
Someone is asking, would you give her a combination of items again, Dr. Owings?
Elizabeth Owings, MD: Yeah, sure.
Charles Runels, MD: So your ultimate combination.
Elizabeth Owings, MD: Would include arginine, citrulline for sure, a combination of antioxidants, especially the ones that you cannot store, so your B and C, your B combination and C, vitamin D, it’s been shown to be a shepherd of the gene pool, we only have 20,000 genes, and vitamin D may influence up to 10% of those, and it appears to be favorable in every case. Down regulate cancer genes, and up regulate heart health things.
I once downloaded a cardiology article that had like 150 references of the impact of vitamin D on the cardiovascular system and cardiovascular health and heart disease. So definitely at least 2000 IUs of vitamin D and 5000 is perfectly okay. There’s never been a toxicity associated with even taking 10,000 units of vitamin D a day. Don’t let them scare you.
Those are going to be the main things. I love coq10, and now it’s less expensive. I’m not committed to whether the water soluble or fat soluble is better. I think it just depends. People have had their gallbladders out, there’s all sorts of factors that may play in there that are hard to determine, so I think the jury’s out on that one.
I’m still a hawthorn fan, it doesn’t take a lot of the hawthorn berry to get some benefit. Red yeast rice, I mean they’ll still hold the shipment offshore for a little while because somebody’s trying to say it’s a drug because it’s the same active ingredient that’s in some of your statin medications. The reason your statins are dangerous is that they don’t have coq10. They knew that statins cause liver and muscle damage 20 years ago, and they thought about putting coq10 with it because it seemed to prevent that, and they just decided not to. I guess it was an expense.
So definitely if you’re going to take the statin or you’re going to take something with red yeast rice, you better make sure you got your coq10. Probably even 30 mg is enough to offset some of the badness of it, but like you said up to 300 mg if you want the most positive effect.
That’s a long list. I don’t know if any one product has all of those things, but those are the kind of things that I look at when I’m looking at a cardiovascular product.
Charles Runels, MD: Let me add to some of the things you said. The vitamin D is not in this article, because as you know some of that research is more recent, and I just want to second that. Somewhere around 10,000 per day. The other thing that’s not really talked about very much anymore, there used to be a prescription version of yohimbe. It’s really hard to come by a pharmaceutical grade yohimbe, and if you don’t take the right amount, if it’s sort of low grade, it can make you have chills and headaches. But a 5 mg yohimbe, a pharmaceutical grade, would cure erectile dysfunction in 25% of men, and it’s one of the only things, only supplements out there that actually increases libido.
Now, I can also make people irritable, and there’s talk about it can raise blood pressure, but if you do the other things that we talk about with the walking, I never saw the blood pressure problem, but if you use yohimbe you have to think about blood pressure headaches and irritability. But a pharmaceutical grade yohimbe will treat, before we had Viagra that’s what we had, and 25% of men with erectile dysfunction would be cured.
Coleus root is another one. In rat studies, they castrated rats. C-O-L-E-U-S. They castrated rats and gave them, one group got testosterone, the other group got coleus, and coleus root caused them to start to have sex again as much as the testosterone. Let me add one other thing that I thought was interesting in this article, that the men who took a combination of arginine and pycnogenol also increased their semen volume, which you know some guys want to do that just sort of as a party trick sort of thing, it’s just fun to have lots of semen volume, but I think the semen volume contributes to libido, just like when you need to empty your bladder when it’s full, when your prostate’s full of fluid, of course that’s where most of the volume comes from is the prostate gland, when it’s full of fluid there’s I think more urge to have sex. I think that’s part of the reason our O-Shot® works is it causes women to collect fluid in their Skene’s glands.
Let me see I we have any more questions. I think that’s … here we go. I guess that’s maybe it. We have other doctors on the call. Dr. Posey’s one of our doctors, and others here. Anybody else have anything they want to say? If not I’ll just shut it down, no reason to make it go on, but that’s sort of our secret formula, and sometime in the next week or so we’ll cover the next part of this idea, and we’ll talk more about the priapus shot, then hormones, and then my ideas about walking and things such as that.
I’ll put this recording, I’m typing in here where it will be, it will be at priapusshot.com/food. So that’s where it will be, by in the morning we’ll have the recording there. I was honored you guys came and I hope you find this helpful. Thank you very much.
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