Urologist Christoph Pies explains why erectile dysfunction is an early warning sign: “The penis is the antenna of the heart.”

Almost two-thirds of heart attack patients suffer from erectile dysfunction, and this occurs more than three years before the first heart symptoms appear, Pies writes in the “Prescription impotence” guide. According to Pies, especially young men should take erectile dysfunction very seriously because their chances of having a heart attack in the future are very high. Erectile dysfunction can also be a result of being overweight and can be seen as a sign of poor health in general.

When it comes to erectile dysfunction, you immediately think of Viagra. Pies likens such pills to a bicycle pump that briefly inflates a flat tire. However, the cause of the problem (the hole in the hose) is still present. Therefore, he recommends a holistic approach, which means a complete change to a healthy lifestyle, including adjusting your diet, doing mindfulness exercises and, depending on the type of erectile dysfunction, participating in sex therapy. The easiest thing to implement is targeted training of the pelvic floor. The expert says five to ten minutes a day will be enough. “You can develop habits such as combing your hair and brushing your teeth.”

Pies says about the pelvic floor that it is a strange organ with contradictory functions. It consists of a multilayered plate of muscles and connective tissue that covers the abdominal cavity at the bottom, like a fire department jumping mat with openings. In men, they are located in the back, where the rectum is, and in the front, where the urethra passes. During erection, the muscles in the pelvic floor compress the blood vessels coming from the erectile tissue to the penis, making it difficult for blood to flow back. This means the erection will last longer and stronger.

Since you can’t see the pelvic floor muscles from the outside, you need to feel them before training them. According to Pies, this works best if the man imagines interrupting the flow of urine while urinating. “Maybe you can try it in the toilet,” Pies says. If you then feel something stretching and contracting in the anus and testicle area, you’ve found the right pelvic floor muscles. “From then on you can only activate them mentally. Otherwise you run the risk of becoming a pee stutter!

Pies recommends exercises that you repeat each eight to ten times. First, the man lies on his back, stretches his arms next to his body, bends his knees and places his feet on the floor. From this position, she alternately slowly raises and lowers her pelvis, just like Jane Fonda (85) did in her aerobics videos in the 80s (picture 1).

In another exercise, you lie on your back and press a pillow or soft ball between your knees (Picture 2).

As a motivational aid, Pies says it helps to remember that men have a particularly large number of testosterone receptors in their pelvic floors. “This means the muscles grow particularly well there.”