Last updated 24 June 2019<\/small><\/p>
![\"historical](\"\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/historical-erectile-dysfunction-cures.jpg\")
Erectile Dysfunction (ED) is a common problem that affects a lot of men. It is estimated that half of all men between 40 and 70 will suffer from it to some extent. ED can occur for numerous different reasons, including anxiety, depression, obesity, and drinking, and can today be effectively combated with a variety of treatments such as therapy, penile pumps and Viagra.<\/p>\n
Erectile Dysfunction isn\u2019t a modern male phenomenon. In fact, the condition goes back for thousands of years \u2013 and throughout history the condition has been blamed on a cornucopia of culprits, from the curse of the gods to yin-yang imbalances.<\/p>\n
It hasn\u2019t always been as simple as popping a blue pill, or a getting a prescription from your GP. Here are some of the wildest, weirdest and most wonderful attempted cures for male flaccidity through the ages.<\/p>\n
![\"Ying](\"\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/ying-yang-sexual-energy-300x199.jpg\")
The yin and the yang was such a large part of ancient Chinese culture that it even extended to a man\u2019s performance in the bedroom. Philosophers believed that a man\u2019s yin and yang \u2013 contrary forces that interconnect, such as hot and cold \u2013 would leave him bereft of sexual energy by the time he hit 60.<\/p>\n
A textbook of traditional Chinese medicine that dates back to 2500BC notes a potion created from 22 different ingredients that was concocted to help the Emperor bed 1,200 women.<\/p>\n
As well as this miracle elixir, acupuncture \u2013 sticking needles in the body to align energy streams \u2013 was also seen as an effective way to treat erectile dysfunction and to this day it\u2019s still a very popular ED treatment in America and China.<\/p>\n
![\"ancient](\"\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/ancient-egypt-impotence-remedies-300x199.jpg\")
<\/div>\nAround 1600BC, Egyptians believed the curse of the limp noodle was the result of an evil spell or natural disorder. And they were nothing if not inventive with their ED remedies \u2013 mashing crocodile hearts to rub on the penis, anyone?<\/p>\n
Less radical forms of Egyptian treatment, however, are making a comeback in the form of blue lotus flowers. It is believed Egyptians used the lotus flower as an aphrodisiac and a possible cure for impotence, and we know that its active ingredient, apomorphine<\/em>, is an effective remedy for ED.<\/p>\n These plants were regularly used in the ancient world during religious ceremonies, but researchers and historians have speculated their properties might have been used to treat ED.<\/p>\n Now associated with a variety of supposedly erotic foodstuffs, such as chocolate and oysters, the word \u2018aphrodisiac\u2019 is derived from Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. In 300BC the Greek philosopher Aristotle extracted an aphrodisiac from the dried bodies of beetles, known as Spanish flies.<\/p>\n Roman Emperor Tiberius\u2019 wife slipped Spanish fly into family banquets in order to blackmail relatives who had indulged in extra-marital liaisons and sexual transgressions. In fact, Spanish fly was used for centuries as an aphrodisiac. Nowadays, however, it\u2019s both too toxic and ineffective to render it a successful ED remedy.<\/p>\n Medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas believed, in the 13th<\/sup> century, that evil spirits and demons were the culprits for erectile dysfunction. A medieval textbook called Malleus Maleficarum<\/i> (\u2018hammer of witches\u2019) urged witch hunters to track down the woman who had cursed and bewitched their penises, using gentle persuasion \u2013 then violence, if necessary \u2013 to get them to restore their erections. Unsurprisingly, such crazed and hysterical persecutions did nothing to help men suffering with ED.<\/p>\n The general consensus during the 17th<\/sup> century was that if the miracle of a woman\u2019s touch couldn\u2019t resolve your embarrassing flaccidity, nothing could. The end of the century, however, yielded a much more considered and sensible realisation \u2013 that it was the prevention of blood to the arteries that impeded a man\u2019s state of arousal.<\/p>\n By the time the condition had been properly researched, 1873 saw the arrival of the first ED surgical treatments. An Italian doctor (who else?) found a way to successfully treat ED by blocking veins that drained away blood from an erection.<\/p>\n Studies into erectile dysfunction went seriously off the rails during the early part of the 20th<\/sup> century when, in 1918, a Russian doctor came up with the unorthodox (and undeniably disturbing) idea of transplanting monkey testicle tissue into human subjects.<\/p>\n The genie was out of the bottle, and a plethora of mad-cap and ill-conceived ideas to transplant testicle parts from goats, deer, and even human cadavers into men with impotence became the (not-so-scientific) focus.<\/p>\n That all changed in 1935 when scientists in the Netherlands identified the male hormone, testosterone. This discovery kick-started the real revolution into finding treatments and a cure for ED.<\/p>\n Penile implants were initially based on the observation that many animals had penile bones. Implanting bone or cartilage into the human penis was not successful, however, as grafts were quickly absorbed.<\/p>\n The 1960s saw the introduction of much more effective synthetic implants, although the very first versions were hard and caused a lot of discomfort and pain. It\u2019s an ED treatment that\u2019s still popular today, although it does involve potential surgical risks.<\/p>\n Who\u2019d have thought that a Pentecostal minister in the tyre repair business would have conceived the first penis pump? Well, it\u2019s true. Attaching a pump to a cylinder and placing the cylinder over his penis to pump an erection resulted in the first medically-approved penis pump system. Many men still use them today, with most pumps allowing a man to maintain an erection for up to 30 minutes.<\/p>\n So men can be thankful they\u2019ve been born into a time when treatments for erectile dysfunction and impotence have come a long way from blaming them on evil spirits, sprinkling flies in your dinner, or having bits of human cadavers injected into your testicles.<\/p>\nAncient Mayan civilisation ED remedies: 1000BC<\/h2>\n
![\"mayan](\"\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/mayan-lotus-flower-295x300.jpg\")
Much of ancient Mayan art depicts Mayan priests standing with their \u2018Jaguar god\u2019 with a flower protruding from their headpiece that looks very similar to the ED-combating lotus flower of the Egyptians \u2013 a flower that belongs to the genus Nymphae.<\/p>\n![\"Aphrodite](\"\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/aphrodite-goddess-of-love-200x300.jpg\")
<\/div>\nThe goddess of love and aphrodisiacs: 300BC<\/h2>\n
![\"st](\"\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/st-thomas-aquinas.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\nThe Devil\u2019s to blame: the Dark Ages<\/h2>\n
The hands of science: 1600\u20131900<\/h2>\n
<\/div>\nWeird science in the early 20th<\/sup> century<\/h2>\n
Penile implants: 1960s<\/h2>\n
<\/div>\nPenis pumping: 1970s<\/h2>\n
Penile injections: 1980s<\/h2>\n
When a French surgeon accidentally injected the drug papaverine into the open blood vessels of a patient\u2019s penis \u2013 thereby causing an immediate erection \u2013 little did he realise he\u2019d created a revolutionary new approach to treating ED. It was, in fact, the beginning of intracavernosal injection ED therapy. In 1983, a British scientist bravely \u2013 and successfully \u2013 injected his own penis to prove how effective an ED treatment it was.<\/p>\nThat little blue pill: 1990s\u2013present<\/h2>\n
Another happy accident occurred in 1994, when scientists studying to treat angina with the drug sildenafil<\/em>, discovered it is also caused erections. And in 1998, the FDA approved Viagra<\/a> as a way of treating impotence. Within five years of it being made widely available, erectile dysfunction diagnoses had increased by 250%.<\/p>\n