THE
Hardness
FACTOR
How to Achieve Your Best
Health and Sexual Fitness
at Any Age
STEVEN LAMM, M.D.
with GERALD SECOR COUZENS
To my beautiful wife, Kiki,
whose love nourishes and supports me.
To my mother, Lucy, whose vitality inspires me.
And to my five loving children,
David, Suzanne, Alexandra, Morgan, and Owen.
STEVEN LAMM, M.D.
To Elisa, Gerald, Dominic, Mary, and Rose,
my love and appreciation forever.
To F.X.M., who kept it real.
GERALD SECOR COUZENS
Contents
The Mental and Physical Aspects of Hardness
How Dependable Is Your Penis?
Sex Is a Measure of a Mans Health
How Hard Is Your Penis?
Beginning The Hardness Factor Program
Heart Health = Hard and Healthy
Eliminating the Sexual Confidence Gap
What Is Your Hardness Risk?
Hardness 101
The Refractory PeriodCome Again?
Saying Yes to NO
Hardness in Both Body and Mind
Hard Is Good; Harder Is Better
My Hardness Prescription
Sensuous Nutrition: A Connection to Hardness
Hardness Factor SupplementsNatures Viagra
Getting Fit for Sex
The Hardness Factor Six-Week Program Hard Is GoodHarder Is Better
The Start of a Lifetime of Hardness
Vitamins for the Penis
Pycnogenol Battles Free Radicals
A Hardness BoosterHow L-Arginine Works
The Hardness Factor Pycnogenol/L-Arginine Program
Walk Your Way to Fitness
The Hardness Factor Walking Program
Visualizationa Powerful Preview
Who Has Time for a Libido?
Halfhearted Sex Results in Half-Hardness
Lets Get Lust
Essence of a Man: Testosterone
Testosterone Checklist
Men and Masturbation
Horny Goat Weed Makes You, Well, Horny
The Hardness Factor Horny Goat Weed Program
Make Time for Tea
Renew Your Hard Resolve
Hardness Factor SupplementsOmega-3s Are #1
The Hardness Factor Omega-3 Program
Another Guy ThingFear of Doctors
The Blues Can Be a Medical Condition
Taking Care of Your Prostate
Red Wine Extract for the Heart and Hardness
The Hardness Factor OPC Program
Over Before It Begins: Premature Ejaculation
The UnquickieTantric Sex
Renewing Your Energy Sources
Peyronies DiseaseLifes Curveball
When Its Harder to Get Hard, Tell Your Doctor
Heart Disease Checklist
Boosting HDL Boosts Hardness
Niacin Works Very Hard
The Hardness Factor Niacin Program
Eating for Enjoyment and Health
Understanding Your BMR
Downward Motility
Better Sex, Better Health, Better Life
OneTwoThreeForeplay
Antioxidants = Antisoftness
The Hardness Factor Vitamin C and E Program
Diabesity: A Natural Softener
Diabetes Checklist
Sexual Fitness: Men Never Had a Jane Fonda
Hardness for Life
(or at Least Through Friday Night)
TO BE OPENED ONLY IN AN EMERGENCY
Sensual Nutrition: Make Changes in What You Eat
Supplement Your Hardness
Sexual Fitness for Hardness
Impact of Aging
Stress Can Keep You Down
Sleep Apnea Erases Erections
Excessive Drinking Makes Erections Soft
Drugs Prevent Hard Erections
Diabetes Limits Erections
Sexual Medicine Is Medicine
Viagrathe Beginning
Levitra
Cialis
Which Erection Drug to Choose
Erectile Dysfunction Therapy
Fear of Ugliness
My Hardness Workout
Why Weight?
NO: Good for the Pump
Its Your Body, How Hard Do You Want It?
S EX is important to a healthy man. The Hardness Factor is, first and foremost, a health book. When you are physically and emotionally healthy, your penis is hard when you are aroused. This book is also about the essence of maleness and how masculinity is intimately bound up in the idea of hardness and its relation to the penis. And yes, it is politically correct to admit that you have a penis and that it does get hard.
Lets face it, men need to be hard. Not only is much of our self-image dependent on it, but so too is the creation of life. So much that is important in our life flows from this notion of hardness. Mens sexual identity is intimately linked to this fragile appendage that becomes engorged how engorged is the reason behind this book.
The Hardness Factor is about a new definition of maleness. In the last forty years, the old chauvinistic notions of male superiority have been properly discarded as hurtful relics of the past. Eliminating this old baggage is well deserved. Nevertheless, in jettisoning those stereotypes, I believe, some important and positive aspects of being a man have been lost or marginalized.
The ideas of self-sufficiency, physical strength, and confidencea mans mental hardness as well as his physical hardnessare vital parts of being a man. Moreover, a crucial aspect of male hardness is the strength of his erection. When the penis is hard, life is good. When hardness diminishes, so does a mans health and his innate sense of who he is.
For all of us, there comes a time when there is a change in penile hardness. The dependability of an erection waversthis is a physical reality.
There are important medical and psychological implications that often come with these changesimperceptible changes. I am talking about subtle changes that occur in every man, more slowly in healthy, younger men, more precipitately in those who have ignored their health or are affected by certain illnesses.
When the penis is hard, life is good. When hardness diminishes, so does a mans health and his innate sense of who he is.
We are all sexual beings and sex is an essential part of who we are. The fact that you are reading these words shows that you take erections, sex, and health very seriously. Unfortunately, most young men (and women) in this country fail to understand what links the three.
Men are an endangered species. We are dying from a variety of diseases that could easily have been prevented had they been addressed much earlier. We are dying from cardiovascular disease, our number one killer. We die of cancers (particularly of the prostate and colon) that have either metastasized or were detected too late. We die from the effects of depression and bipolar disorder, which often result in fatal heart attacks and suicide as we age. In essence, we are dying of a slew of disorders that can be prevented. Moreover, men are extremely slow to react when it comes to our own health and well-being.
What is it going to take to change this particular male trait of medical denial? It has always been very clear to me that men need some kind of motivating force to bring about positive health changes. And when you think of men and think of motivation, I think of only one thing: sex.
In just the past decade, researchers have made the all-important link between sexual activity and good health. When a mans blood vessels are healthy and elastic, his heart and brain are functioning welland his erections are rock hard.
When his neural connections are firing and nitric oxide is being released in great abundance throughout his body, his cognition is highand his erections are rock hard. When testosterone levels are normal and weight is controlled, he has the ability to train most effectivelyhave a healthy, trim bodyand his erections are rock hard. Once men start to connect the dots, once they fully understand that good health and a hard erection are synonymous, they will begin to take better care of themselves.