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Erectile dysfunction can be a distressing diagnosis for the vast majority of men, but not all hope is lost. The fact of the matter is that there are many avenues for treatment.
But what happens when altering your lifestyle and habits is insufficient in helping you fix your erectile dysfunction? It’s most often the case that your healthcare professional may prescribe you various medications to help cure your erectile dysfunction.
The typical prescriptions doctors would give to patients include PDE5 inhibitors like Cialis and Viagra, that carry severe side effects. But one particularly notable medication that’s been making the rounds recently—one that’s not even ED-centric—is apomorphine.
Today, we will be discussing the apomorphine-erectile dysfunction connection in more detail.
What Is Apomorphine?
Apomorphine is a medication belonging to a class of compounds called aporphines and acts as a non-selective dopamine agonist. It activates D2-like and D1-like receptors, and serves as an antagonist of 5-HT2 and α-adrenergic receptors with high affinity.
This type of medication is often prescribed to treat episodes of advanced Parkinson’s disease, particularly during motions like moving, walking, and speaking.
Many mistake apomorphine to work similarly to morphine, simply because it contains the word “morphine”. However, apomorphine is totally unrelated to morphine. Rather, it’s a dopamine agonist imitating the function of dopamine.
Besides minimizing Parkinson’s disease, there are many uses of apomorphine, which include relieving anxiety and alcohol cravings, inducing vomiting, and—as discussed below—improving erectile function as well.
What Is Erectile Dysfunction?
Erectile dysfunction is a medical condition where a person is unable to achieve or sustain an erect penis for sexual intercourse. This means they may have difficulty getting and maintaining an erection.
That said, having occasional trouble with getting your penis up when you want it to does not necessarily indicate erectile dysfunction. Erectile dysfunction is only evident if you’ve been struggling with it consistently and feel a reduction in your quality of life because of it.
There’s a high prevalence of erectile dysfunction around the world because of its intricate link with other medical conditions, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease. While treating the underlying health condition can reverse ED in some cases, there are times wherein more concentrated efforts are needed.
How Effective Is Apomorphine In Curing Erectile Dysfunction?
In clinical trials, apomorphine is found to be effective in curing erectile dysfunction when administered in small amounts. In fact, it’s three times as fast as conventional erectile dysfunction drugs in terms of their mode of action when administered sublingually, or under the tongue.
The reason for its effectiveness lies in its ability to trigger the hypothalamic centers responsible for inducing an erection.
In a normal brain system, dopamine receptors activate oxytocinergic neurons. But if stores of dopamine are low, patients can take apomorphine to facilitate the activation of oxytocinergic neurons instead.
This function triggers a chain reaction and induces the release of critical hormones like oxytocin, which help facilitate a penile erection.
While apomorphine is more effective for mild to moderate erectile dysfunction, your healthcare provider may prescribe you other forms of treatment should you have a more severe case of erectile dysfunction.
Alternative Treatments for Erectile Dysfunction
While you may have been prescribed apomorphine to counter your sexual dysfunction, this does not mean that it’s the only way to help you manage your condition. In fact, there are many other methods of improving your sexual function.
1. Adjust Your Daily Lifestyle
Treatment of erectile dysfunction doesn’t have to be done solely in a clinical setting—exercising regularly, having a balanced diet, cutting cigarettes, drinking less alcohol, and having sufficient sleep can all be effective.
Exercising regularly helps to improve our circulation and increases the level of testosterone produced by your body, which thereby helps you to get erect more easily. Several exercises that you can do include brisk walking, cycling, jogging, kegel exercises, and swimming.
Having a healthy diet, which includes eating more fish, fruits, nuts, and vegetables, while avoiding alcohol, red meat, and food with too much fat, salt, and sugar, can help to minimize the occurrence of erectile dysfunction.
By cutting the cigarette, you will experience an increase in the level of nitric oxide in your body. This helps to increase the flow of blood to your penis, thus making it easier for you to get an erection.
On the topic of nitric oxide, excess consumption of alcohol causes less nitric oxide to be released as it depresses the central nervous system, which may lead to further erectile dysfunction.
Lastly, having a consistent sleep pattern, accompanied by quality sleep, is crucial in fixing erectile dysfunction as sleep is closely linked to the synthesis of testosterone.
2. ED Treatments
If apomorphine doesn’t work, your doctor may suggest treating your erectile dysfunction with ED treatments.
This can include a variety of treatment options, from gels and creams to medications or ED therapies. Many of these medications inhibit the enzyme PDE-5—which is infamous for reducing blood flow to the penis and preventing it from being erect. Once PDE-5 is inhibited, you can get an erection more easily due to increased blood flow.
Aside from the oral medications mentioned above, other forms of medication, such as Alprostadil self-injections and RestoreWave therapy may be more effective in treating your erectile woes without undergoing highly-invasive measures.
However, do note that even though these medications are prescribed by a healthcare professional, there are always side effects attached to them that you have to be aware of before taking them.
3. Surgery and Implants
The most popular surgery to fix severe erectile dysfunction is penile implants. This involves the surgical insertion of a silicone rubber rod into the penis to result in a rigid state. The devices are either malleable or inflatable.
Alternatively, vascular reconstruction helps to fix erectile dysfunction by reconstructing any non-functional blood vessels around the penis, thereby increasing the blood flow to the penis to allow for erections.
While there may be complications and side effects from surgery and implants, most men can tolerate them. Furthermore, these surgical methods have a complication rate of under 5%, making them a completely viable option should the treatments mentioned earlier fail.
Treat Erectile Dysfunction with Guidance from Cleveland’s Leading Men’s Clinic
Apomorphine is a viable cure for erectile dysfunction. However, its effectiveness is also dependent on the severity of your erectile dysfunction, with apomorphine being more effective in managing mild to moderate cases.
Just like other medications, apomorphine requires a doctor’s prescription, so consulting a healthcare professional is highly recommended.
Should you be concerned about your erectile dysfunction, the friendly doctors at Precise Men’s Medical Center in Cleveland can be of service. Aside from treating your erectile dysfunction, we also specialize in other conditions, including premature ejaculation and low testosterone.
Schedule a consultation with our ED medical professionals and treat your erectile issues as soon as today.
