How Does Cardiovascular Health Impact Sexual Function?

How Does Your Heart Health Affect Your Sex Life?

Join The Holistic Health Show as we explore the often-unaddressed connection between cardiovascular health and sexual function. 

In this episode, we welcome Dr. Anthony De Pontes, a registered homeopath and functional medicine practitioner with 26 years of experience.

Dr. De Pontes will delve into:

• The surprising ways heart health can impact sexual performance and satisfaction for men.
• How to identify potential signs and symptoms of cardiovascular issues impacting your sexual health.
• Natural and holistic approaches to support both your heart and your intimate life.
• Practical tips and insights for maintaining optimal cardiovascular and sexual health through lifestyle choices and complementary therapies.

Whether you're concerned about your own well-being or simply curious about this crucial connection, this episode is for you!

Don't miss:

• Dr. De Pontes' insights on integrating functional medicine and homeopathy for holistic well-being.
• Practical advice for optimizing both cardiovascular and sexual health naturally.
• A deeper understanding of how different aspects of health are interconnected.

Registered homeopath and Functional medicine practitioner, with 26 years of clinical experience. Using homeopathy and functional medicine as his fundamental treatment approaches he also combines ozone therapy, a range of natural medicines and colonic irrigations to ensure quick long-term results in patient care. He specializes thyroid disease, environmental toxicity, male health, auto immune diseases and female hormonal and psychological health.

Tune in and discover how to empower yourself for a healthy and fulfilling life!

LINKS TO OTHER SPEAKER RELATED INFORMATION
www.drdepontes.com
  / homeopathyforhashimotosandgravesdisease 
  / dr_anthony_depontes  

Guest Speaker: Dr. Anthony De Pontes
Category: Health and Wellness
Publish date: 2024-02-26
Duration: [00:47:15]

Transcript

[00:00:00] Amy: Hello again. Welcome back to the holistic health show. , We have doctor Anthony De Pontes here with us today.

[00:00:22] Amy: He is a naturopath and functional medicine practitioner, and we're gonna cover men's health. So we've done a lot with women's health in the past, women's sexual health, health and wellness, and we're gonna get doctor De Pontes to jump straight in and tell us what is men's health, why is men's health important, and everything in between. Welcome, doctor De Pontes.

[00:00:45] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Great to be here. Thank you, Amy. When I was looking to how we're gonna how we get our approach of this, and and now I'm looking from a from a male perspective, and and guys are very, like, purpose driven. Okay? , 

[00:00:57] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: So today I want to talk about, yes, we'll talk about sexual health, but generally speaking men's health is not just about sexual health. If we're gonna be looking at that, we're gonna be looking at cardiovascular disease and why that is so important.

[00:01:10] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Do you know there's about 620000000 men on the planet that have got cardiovascular disease, which actually will affect the sexual function. 

[00:01:18] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: So that's a very important thing to look at. 

[00:01:20] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: I'm not just gonna be talking about, woah. We've got sexual dysfunction and do this and do that. I want to talk to men, and and men might become a bit [00:01:30] impatient. So I want to talk about remaining healthy because if your body is healthy, if your body is functional, you're not going to have so many dysfunctions in respect to whether it be cardiovascular disease or sexual dysfunction. Right?

[00:01:45] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: So keeping your body at optimum. If I can almost give an example, it's the end of the year now, I'm exhausted, I'm overworked irritable, my hormonal function maybe is not what it should be, I'm not getting good sleep and that's what it is, so I'm not functioning. And that's the physiological reason behind it. So if I can backtrack on that and I can say to you, what if I can put you into a situation where you are back at the beginning of the year, you've been well rested, now you're not gonna have those issues. Right?

[00:02:17] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: So let's start off by saying we're talking about their cardiovascular health. Why is that so important? Because we're talking about the cardiovascular system, the heart, the blood vessels and the movement of the blood around the body. So blood is the life force of the body. Now traditionally in cardiovascular disease, there's gonna be a problem with getting that blood around the body, whether that be increased cholesterol, which means the blood doesn't go fast enough around the body or doesn't reach the areas that it should reach.

[00:02:47] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Okay? Or you have maybe a myocardial infarction where there's not enough blood and you have a heart attack. The the typical thing with a chronic disease today is and you will find, [00:03:00] you know, from 40, 50 year old men, if they're not keeping themselves in optimum health, if they're not exercising, if they're not eating well, if they're not sleeping well, they've got a diagnosis of hypertension, and they are all on hypertensive medication. And it becomes like a norm. And what I find with my patients is they'll come in and you'll ask them what medication.

[00:03:21] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Yes. I'm on that beta blocker or that hypertensive medication. And for them, it's almost like normal. Well, you know, I've reached that age and it's not normal. And that's what I wanna bring home.

[00:03:33] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: That is a big red flag. Your body is not regulating properly if that is happening. The blood flow is not getting around the body. The blood flow is so so important and it, you know, we put a magnifying glass on that if we talk about sexual health. That's when you'll get a man to say, woah.

[00:03:48] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Okay. There is a problem there because his performance is affected. Right? So we want to make sure that your blood flow is flowing at optimum. I wanna approach it from the perspective of 3 components.

[00:04:03] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: We're gonna talk about light. We're gonna talk about electricity or magnetism, and we're gonna talk about oxygen. If you can get these things in your body functioning and at optimum, you're not gonna suffer with cardiovascular disease. You're not gonna suffer with sexual dysfunction. And this is the challenge, I suppose.

[00:04:23] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: But, you know, this is how we are meant to function. We have kind of alienated ourselves [00:04:30] maybe due to our social norms of how we're supposed to be because we are chasing a a stressful environment. We have separated ourselves from actually who we are. So if I talk a bit more about that, let's start with light. Okay.

[00:04:47] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Light, sunlight, it has an effect on our body. It has an effect on the HPA axis, which is the hormonal axis, and it causes our body to regulate the melatonin and the cortisol. And when that happens, our body's able to wake up and go to sleep, become well rested, and function at optimum. But not today. We are exposed to the blue light from our our screens.

[00:05:15] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: That blue light toxicity causes circadian mismatches. We don't sleep properly. We don't regenerate. We don't go through the process of autophagy where we our hormonal systems can regenerate. We've got too much cortisol.

[00:05:28] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: We're not sleeping. We're restless. There's too much inflammation. Our body cannot regulate there. 

[00:05:34] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: So that's something that you need to ensure that you're getting enough light and it's I think the the number is about 85 percent. People are inside all the time. Well, you say of course I am. I'm here in my office or I'm inside. Or maybe your environment is such that it is too cold to be outside or whatever it is. 

[00:05:55] Amy: Because you know,

[00:05:56] Amy: it's winter in the Northern Hemisphere at the moment. And where I'm from, [00:06:00] particularly, the days are short. And, you know, even in Northern Canada, they're even shorter or they're they're you know, they have darkness for weeks or months on end.

[00:06:11] Amy: And so it's not always as easy as making sure you get out for lunch and taking a 20 minute , or an hour lunch break if you can squeeze it in. 

[00:06:19] Amy: Sometimes it's the light isn't there. You know? I can remember living in Canada, and you'd get up in the morning. It's dark.

[00:06:25] Amy: You drive to work or school. It's still dark. You're in a classroom or an office. It's daylight. You leave the office.

[00:06:31] Amy: It's dark.

[00:06:32] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: . And when you're in that classroom and it's daylight, you've got the the glass between you and the sunlight. Right?

[00:06:39] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: So that is preventing the sunlight rays coming directly onto your onto your body, into your eyes. So there's another barrier, so to speak. So I'm not saying that it's the easiest thing. You get things like photobiomodulation, which is like red light therapy, which can start to to stimulate that and help you to rebalance. But something as simple as getting out in nature for 10 minutes in the morning, first light, that helps to reregulate your cortisol.

[00:07:09] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Alright? Now remember, cortisol has got to do with stress, got to do with inflammation. When you are so stressed like that, you're not gonna perform at optimum. The inside of the arterials of your arteries, arterials are going to be inflamed.

[00:07:24] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: The blood flow is not gonna go through there. It's gonna cause the blood to clump, getting to a [00:07:30] propensity to maybe have a myocardial infarction or angina when you maybe put stress and pressure on that when you're doing exercise. You know, oh, I've got a pain here. Let me let me stop. That that type of thing, that can be really scary.

[00:07:41] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: So a simple thing like getting in that light. 

[00:07:44] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: So we talk about the light. Then we're gonna talk about the electromagnetism, the electricity in your body. If you have a look at how your body is made, each cell is designed at optimum to measure minus 50 millivolts. That's electricity in your cell. That electricity in your cell gets there by pH gradients and mineral gradients, maybe the sodium potassium pump. 

[00:08:08] 

[00:08:08] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: At that minus 50 millivolts, it's an optimum cell. It's energetic. It can bring minerals in, out. It can dump the toxins, bring in the nutrients, and it's good. And your cell does what it needs to do.

[00:08:19] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Now with disease or let's say the blood flow is not as optimum, that cell millivolts might go down. When it goes down to negative 20, you are in a situation where your body is not able to metabolize everything, and you can have a tendency to get cancer. Oh, you don't want that. So can you see how important it is to exercise, to get the metabolism going, to get the body to be able to detoxify the the poisons and to get in the nutrients? 

[00:08:51] Amy: can you just talk about that a little more? I'm familiar, some of the words that you've mentioned, the sodium potassium pump, the electromagnetism within the body, [00:09:00] and there being this optimal, as you said, it was negative 15 millivolts. But how do you, I guess, assess that? And then how do you regulate that within the body?

[00:09:10] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: So it it's got to do with scales. If we take an electrical meter, we we can measure that on the skin. That is regulated by pH. So if you are too acidic, I'm sure you've heard the thing of, oh, I'm too acidic toxic or malfunctioning or my my body's ability to strengthen itself is reduced or I'm fatigued when you are too acidic.

[00:09:35] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Alright? Or I might have inflammation. I might have eczema. You know, a chronic type of illness, you're gonna have that reduced cellular vitality. Let me use the word cellular vitality.

[00:09:47] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Maybe that makes it easier. Okay? Can I say the amount of electricity in your body? Alright. So when you if you're using batteries for some appliance, when the battery starts to go low, the appliance go slow.

[00:10:00] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: That's when the body's cellular vitality is reduced. So we wanna keep that up by keeping your body as alkaline as possible. If you look at the blood, the optimum values for blood pH is a 7.35 to 7.45. It's a very narrow range. And when that range goes down towards the acidic portion, that's when your functionality is reduced.

[00:10:23] Amy: And is this why you see a lot of people really promoting the alkaline diets or alkaline waters?

[00:10:29] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: The [00:10:30] alkaline diet. Yes. Alkaline water is is a it's a misnomer. You're not going to get any your body is not gonna turn alkaline from taking alkaline water.

[00:10:38] Amy: Okay. 

[00:10:39] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Okay.

[00:10:41] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: So the alkaline diet, the vegetables, beautiful. Go with it. Right. That's why when you talk about the the fasting or the the the nutritional eating patterns, that's why you.

[00:10:52] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: get the benefit. That's why when we talk about a diet to increase the electricity or your cellular vitality, that's what we're talking about. Now we've spoken about the electricity, we've spoken about the light, and now we're gonna talk about oxygen. Right? Oxygen is optimum. If we have a look at the the body's metabolism, it's called the Krebs cycle.

[00:11:12] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: And in the Krebs cycle, it'll take a molecule of sugar and break that down and release energy. Actually, it releases, I think, 38 packets of ATP, and that's the energy that your body is going to be able to how do I say? Your body's gonna be able to release energy. Wow. I'm energetic.

[00:11:28] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: I've got energy for love, mate. I've got energy for doing my work, what whatever it is because of this release. So you want to make sure that that is also up. So light, electricity or magnetism, and oxygenation. And these are the 3 things if you can look to work on it every day, whether it be doing a bit of exercise, as we spoke about eating well, right, getting your exposure to the sun, you're not gonna have a propensity to suffer with the cardiovascular disease, to suffer with [00:12:00] the sexual dysfunction.

[00:12:01] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: So, you know, people might say, well that's a lot to digest and a lot you know, but not more than I can chew. How am I going to do that every day? I'll agree with you. Just start slowly changing those patterns, changing those habits. 

[00:12:15] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: It's not an immediate thing that's gonna happen. You're gonna slowly start to change your metabolism just like when you're gonna get fit. If you are unfit now and you're gonna get fit, it might take you 6 weeks. That's perfectly okay. But in today's world, we're an instant gratification society.

[00:12:30] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: I want it, and I want it now. And that's the problem. If you're looking at do I call it natural health or optimum health, it doesn't just happen straight out the box. You gotta work on it a bit because remember, we've had gonna be months or years of poor habits, excess stress, poor diets. So with the increased cortisol, the inflammation, the weakening of the adrenal glands, whatever the the metabolic function is or the the physiological aspect is, we've gotta reverse that.

[00:13:00] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Maybe we've got nutrient deficiencies. You've gotta take proper nutrients in, and that's with the food that you're taking. 

[00:13:06] Amy: And it's like you said with the the bad habits. I mean, that's even the first kinda hurdle, isn't it? It's changing those habits. And, again, as you mentioned, it doesn't have to be everything cold turkey or an overnight, but it's it's adapting this step by step lifestyle change, this step by step approach to that lifestyle change. And that it's not necessarily gonna be linear.

[00:13:28] Amy: And I think it's really [00:13:30] important that everyone understands that that you can get up 1 day gung ho and ready to make all those steps. And the next day, you might I mean, life might happen. You may not have the energy. You might all of a sudden just not have the motivation. And it so it's not gonna be a linear journey, but, you know, what is it that 1 percent every day?

[00:13:47] Amy: Just a little bit every day.

[00:13:50] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Absolutely. And when we talk, obviously, nonlinear, it's not always just a physiological, okay.

[00:13:56] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: I'm gonna do it. Okay. I've got a list. I'm gonna do all of these things now. Because, remember, here, we're talking probably people the way they're seeing it.

[00:14:04] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: They're talking about my physical body, you know. I've got to get more exercise. I'm gonna get more food. That is true. But you're not just a physical being.

[00:14:11] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: You've got an emotional body, and the emotions are very much linked to function. You know, if I can use the example let me use the the example in the female body. Alright. If we're talking sexual function in the female body, it's not just a physical act. For women, it's very much an emotional experience.

[00:14:29] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: They need to be loved. They need to feel secure and safe. And with it comes emotional attachments. So if you bypass that, you're not gonna get any good effect from the woman. So that's maybe not so apparent in a man, but there are still emotional factors.

[00:14:48] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: You know, with a man. If if I take the the I call it a stereotype. Okay. I'm the man. I'm strong.

[00:14:55] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: I'm the protector. I'm the provider. I'm the testosterone. That's also [00:15:00] got emotional aspects to it.

[00:15:02] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: So now if I'm coming from a point of view where maybe I've had a bit of ill health or I'm not an optimum, I've got certain emotional functioning or or malfunctioning or emotional patterns that are not actually so supportive. So when I'm changing these things, when I'm increasing the oxygen, the light, the electricity, those patterns are gonna start to change as well. And that's why it's nonlinear. You go, you know, 2 steps forward, 1 step back.

[00:15:29] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: It might take you 6 months. It might take you a year. But in that time, you're gonna be more of a superman than you were before. And it's not gonna be something that you have to in regular sexual health prescriptions, you're gonna have to take that medication for the rest of your life if you want to have that function because they're not dealing with the issues of the blocked arteries or the the blood that is too thick or that is not moving at optimum through the arterials and getting blocked or the calcification in the blood vessel of the cholesterol blockages. So by using the light, the magnetism, and the oxygen, you are actually you're actually making your body younger.

[00:16:08] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Now if we talk a little bit more about the electricity and the magnetism, we spoke about the pH. another thing is we spoke about the negative 50 millivolts. How does the body regulate that at optimum? We are supposed to be living on planet Earth. Alright?

[00:16:28] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: So you talk to most people maybe [00:16:30] that are listening to this podcast right now. Let them look down. They're probably wearing shoes, and those shoes probably have rubber soles. So they are, in effect, insulated from the earth. I don't know if you ever known or you heard of the concept of grounding or earthing.

[00:16:46] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Basically, what that says is you are touching the earth, the ground with your bare feet, and what that means is the excess charge in your body is going down and it is neutralized by the earth. 

[00:16:59] Amy: We actually have just just to let everyone know another episode. It's published early when we when we first launched the Holistic Health Show, and it is it discusses grounding and how to begin grounding and just the basics grounding for beginners kinda thing.

[00:17:14] Amy: It's a really short episode, so definitely go check that out as well. And it's so true. As you were saying that I I don't have any shoes on. I'm a big fan of being 

[00:17:23] Amy: barefoot, and Australian culture is love 

[00:17:29] Amy: for you 

[00:17:33] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Yes. 

[00:17:34] Amy: to continue. I just wanted to put that out there for people listening to have a I'd love for you to continue.

[00:17:36] Amy: I just wanted to put that out there for people listening to have a have a deeper dive into 

[00:17:42] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: So, you know, there's ways that you can go about it, you know, sometimes social norms you you are your own boss, Amy. You're in the shoes on, that's fine.

[00:17:51] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: . But if you've got a job where you are maybe more in the spotlight and you have to have a certain persona, you can't not ground yourself. So [00:18:00] maybe what you'd like to do is for in the morning when you're getting ready, you want to maybe spend about 5, 10 minutes with your feet on the ground to help to regulate that, Or you can wear shoes that do not have rubber soles. So that you can still be grounded to the earth.

[00:18:15] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Another thing that you can do is you can get a grounding mat when you sleep so that you are grounded as well. So all of these things are going to increase the magnetism and increase electricity. It's amazing how you'll sleep better, and when you sleep better, your hormonal balance will be better. You'll have more energy the next day. These are all small little things.

[00:18:34] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Yes. It takes time to put into place, but once it's in place, it's in place. Right? And for all intents and purposes, it's not very expensive to do. Maybe there's a little bit of an outlay to get a mat.

[00:18:45] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: It's free to go outside. It's free to stand on the ground. These type of things. But it's a mindset change that you have to do.

[00:18:53] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: I feel so many of our societies are such a I'm I'm in a rush. I'm in a rush. I can't do that. I'm wasting time. Take some time for yourself.

[00:19:01] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: And get it get the momentum going with this. And now we haven't even broached the subject or spoken directly on sexual health, but I've set you up for success. Start doing these things. Okay?

[00:19:16] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Start ensuring that your sleep is good. Start ensuring that your diet is much better with the the optimum food, less alcohol less processed food, less sugar, okay, because we're wanting to increase the electricity in your body. And again, [00:19:30] it's not gonna happen all at once because I've gotta get my head right to change my diet or to reduce my soft drinks, whatever it is that you're gonna do. If you're gonna go and see a dietitian to do that, start slowly but with the focus in mind that, hey, I'm gonna get healthy. I'm gonna get my risk factors for cardiovascular disease or sexual dysfunction, they're going out the window.

[00:19:53] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: And I say this to everybody because it's your birthright to be healthy, but we are trapped in the society where it's push push rush rush quick quick, fast foods, everything like that which does not support our physiology. 

[00:20:06] Amy: I'd love to ask a question and then have you either correct me or perhaps guide me a little differently.

[00:20:12] Amy: I'm hearing so we're talking about the cardiovascular health, which, of course, is incredibly important, and then we're talking about this link between men's sexual health and cardiovascular. My initial thinking here is that it's the blood flow, and so the blood flow not supporting an erect penis. Is there a much more to that? Is that just just grasping a really basic understanding here, or can you kinda maybe explain more that direct link?

[00:20:43] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Okay. So let's say the perfect world I'm not stressed out, okay, but I've got certain issues and my blood flow isn't too good. Alright? And so my sexual function, my erections are very poor. 

[00:20:57] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Normally, especially in today's world, we've [00:21:00] got the issue of reduced blood flow because of the inflammation, because of the excess cholesterol. Okay? Because of the calcification. We've also got the component of stress. We've also got the the dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system.

[00:21:14] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: I'm always going going push push push, sleeping too little. I'm in a sympathetic state. My body's cortisol is up. Alright? So now I'm stressed out.

[00:21:23] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: My body is ready. It's in the fight or flight mechanism. And now I've got to perform sexually. Well, if you look at sexual function, it's increasing the likelihood for the species to go on, perpetuation of the species. That's not supposed to be a stressful event.

[00:21:40] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: I'm relaxed, I'm having fun, it's not a sympathetic state. You're in a parasympathetic state when that should be happening. So now there's a there's a dichotomy that you can't do both, Alright? And that's why you're gonna have the the problem.

[00:21:55] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Even if your blood flow is fine, you're not gonna be performing as as you should or maybe your erection won't be so hard or the climax won't be so good or you'll have a premature ejaculation because of the autonomic dysfunction, because you're too stressed out. So these are the 2 major issues that you want to address. But if you've sorted out your light, your electrical and magnetic issues, and your oxygenation, by almost default, you can have managed your stress so much better. You're gonna be sleeping so much better. Then you're not gonna have so much of a problem.

[00:22:29] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Now [00:22:30] in reality, I think you've gotta combine the 2 because like we said, I can't do all of those things right now, and men are very impatient. It's also it's gonna hit the ego. Hey I'm not functioning. I didn't satisfy her as much as I wanted and they feel really bad or inferior, 

[00:22:47] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: so then, normally, they would go and look for the the instant gratification, whether it'd be the Viagra or the Cialis to get that. Alright. So I'm 

[00:22:56] Amy: their own side effects, I'm sure.

[00:22:58] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: to Absolutely.

[00:22:59] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Absolutely. So I'm trying to have a a buffer or in between where you can reduce your stress.

[00:23:07] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Remember, you gotta exercise as well. Why? Because that's pumping the blood around the body, bringing the oxygenation, etc. So you can use both at the same time so that you can save your your ego, if I can put it that way. You will see that this approach works quite quickly if you can start to do it on a regular basis.

[00:23:27] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: And the thing is, you also start to realize certain things, not just physiologically from the man's perspective, but emotionally.

[00:23:35] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: That's the beauty of it. We can go and talk a little bit more maybe about testosterone deficiency. 

[00:23:42] Amy: Love to. If I could ask a question just before we leave the light electromagnetism and oxygen. You were talking about the Krebs cycle and the oxygenation in the body, and my mind was brought to oxygen therapy, which you see a lot of now. So is that a helpful [00:24:00] tool either in the short term or the long term, or is there something else that you rec or or am I not on the right track even? 

[00:24:06] Amy: can

[00:24:06] Amy: you kind 

[00:24:07] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Yes. You are you're you're on the right track. . So oxygen therapy is brilliant, but it's gonna cost money.

[00:24:14] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: You can go and do breathing every day. Deep breathing to to bring more oxygen in. You can go and do EWOT, which is exercise with oxygen therapy. It's gonna bring it in a lot more. So you can take all of these aspects and improve on them with whether it be supplements or apparatuses.

[00:24:36] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Okay. You know, we spoke about photobiomodulation, which is the red light therapy. You don't have to buy 1 of those lights, But you can't just go outside. You can start today, and the the results will be quite well and quite good almost immediately. The the major trigger is that you have to be consistent and you have to do it.

[00:24:55] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: You have to commit to this and start changing things. So we can do the photobiomodulation. We can do the the eWOT or the the oxygen therapy. And there's many different aspects to that. Alright?

[00:25:10] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: But if I'm gonna reach the majority of people, I'm just gonna get them through the basics and they can still benefit from that. 

[00:25:17] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: So you want to try and be outside when you do it. It's not essential, but you want to get that natural Fresh air.

[00:25:24] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: and you're gonna take some deep breaths.

[00:25:26] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: So if you see me now, I don't know if you can see my shoulders here. [00:25:30] I'm breathing pretty shallow. You can't see anything. But if I'm gonna be breathing deeply, it's up. Can you see I'm I'm raising my shoulders to get the air to be pulled into the lungs and it's a a forceful thing.

[00:25:42] Amy: Making that space as well.

[00:25:44] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: that space. Yes. Okay. You're wanting to get the oxygen to be pushed into those arteries in the lungs.

[00:25:51] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: So that's a change that you're gonna be doing, but now I said, do it every day. Even if you're doing 10 10 breaths a day in the morning to start off with, it's gonna make the change. 

[00:26:02] Amy: Yeah. Again, it's building that habit, isn't it?

[00:26:05] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: And that's why it can take a couple of months for you to do because you've got a hundred things on your list, and you've got to start believing. You've got to start seeing that, hey. This is gonna take priority.

[00:26:16] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: It doesn't take forever. It's not like a gym workout where you gotta do it for an hour, but you gotta just start putting those micro changes in. And the problem is maybe people are thinking like, no, this can't really work, so they don't put the the effort into it. Okay?

[00:26:30] Amy: you know, and I always say, just give it a shot. It's not you're not gonna be worse off for it.

[00:26:34] Amy: So if if what you're doing now is not helping you live a healthy life or the life you want, then just try it. 

[00:26:42] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: And so and and basically, what this does is it's causing homeostasis in the body.

[00:26:46] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: It's causing balance in the body. So you might be on few other drugs for your your problem. Do this anyway. It's gonna help you maybe to come off those drugs or reduce the dosages. 

[00:26:58] Amy: Anyone who has applied some of these [00:27:00] techniques and has taken themselves well, not taken themselves off. They've been supported in coming off of these medications, some, you know, maybe not all because often you'll find people who are taking 1 for another and another and another, and it's a domino effect.

[00:27:14] Amy: But it's very satisfying when you've made this lifestyle change that initially probably seemed difficult and challenging. And then, you know, you're not on that medication anymore, and you're healthy. And that's an incredibly satisfying result.

[00:27:29] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Hundred percent there. Yes. And I say maybe especially so for a for a man, especially if you're looking at those sexual drugs, the sexual 

[00:27:39] Amy: It's the power you have back.

[00:27:42] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Exactly. And that affects the ego tremendously. 

[00:27:46] Amy: Yeah.

[00:27:46] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: So, hey, I don't need that. I can do it myself. I am powerful again or whatever they're gonna be thinking.

[00:27:52] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: So psychologically, that's also part of the the aspect that you have to look at. And if you look at call it sexual anticipation anxiety, am I gonna be able to satisfy my wife tonight? Or, you know, is she gonna laugh at me? Well, I wonder what she's actually thinking there because you know, she she says, no. No.

[00:28:10] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: It's fine. But does she really think it's fine? And they can actually work themselves up into quite a a quandary and quite a a stress and pressure there because is it true? Because what am I looking at when we talk about this, you know, I'm the man. I'm the provider.

[00:28:24] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: I'm the protector. . That's a lot of the time how they would compare [00:28:30] themselves to maybe another man . Hey.

[00:28:32] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: I'm I can satisfy my wife. These type of things. These aren't often spoken about, but they're real, they're real things. 

[00:28:40] Amy: Yeah. It's a bit of it's a bit of a spiral, and I mean, I can completely understand how you would get there and particularly if you're not voicing these concerns. You know, it's perhaps shame or embarrassment or guilt, you know, whatever it is, but when you're not voicing these concerns, you're not being heard, and you're not, , hearing that your feelings are valid.

[00:29:01] Amy: You're and you're not hearing the wife then say or the partner then say, well, no. I don't feel that way, or why don't we come up with a solution? Because that's kind of where women go with conversations is is finding a solution. So it's it's a bit of a spiral when you're getting there in that in that state.

[00:29:19] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Another thing I wanna bring up that seems to I don't know if it's the same in your country.

[00:29:24] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: I don't know if you'll even know about it, but pornography is huge. I don't know if it's because of since the advent of the Internet, it's so much more accessible, but pornography is something that actually numbs the body off. It's gonna raise your cortisol levels. So maybe initially you'll get a thrill from it, but it's going to numb off your emotional body.

[00:29:48] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: It's gonna take you more and more and more to get off on on that. Okay. As opposed to a can I call it a a fulfilling sexual relationship with your significant other? [00:30:00] And people don't realize it. They look for that instant gratification.

[00:30:03] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Okay. Oh, she's not here now or I need it now and they look to to that function of pornography. It's the worst thing that can happen. It's so addictive and it's quite difficult to get out of.

[00:30:16] Amy: And you were even talking about , the ego. And, surely, watching pornography is gonna impact the ego. You know, if especially if you're and maybe maybe there's no difference in age. I was gonna say if you're young and you're new to sex and you don't know what it's all about, and then you're watching pornography and sometimes it's very outrageous and not necessarily realistic to what an everyday sexual relationship looks like. And so that in itself is feels feels to me like a huge hit on the ego.

[00:30:49] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Yeah. If you look at it from this perspective, you've got a skewed perception and that is at the fundamental part of the or the beginning of your sexual maturity. It's so difficult to change that as opposed to you've got fundamental understanding, and then you, you know, you might experiment and things like that, but you know what the what the lay of the land is.

[00:31:14] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: But the reason people go for the pornography is, like, the more the the more intensity, the the thrills. They need more and more thrills, and that often happens because they are not supported or they're not feeling fulfilled emotionally. 

[00:31:29] Amy: And it [00:31:30] it's another layer. Right? So you've got, touch and and emotion, and then all of a sudden, you've got visuals.

[00:31:37] Amy: You know? It it's like this other whole sense that you're adding to the sexual experience,

[00:31:44] Amy: Which certainly could well I can see why it would say and, you know, you do hear often that it can be very addictive. And because it it takes the norm out of it, and it's it's adding this layer where, okay. Now I need to add this, and now I need to add that. So 

[00:31:58] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: So

[00:31:59] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: it actually changes a lot of the neurochemicals in the brain and not to a positive outcome. Although initially, you might think it is, but we you know, with well, I suppose with any addiction, when you get caught with that addiction, then then you're like, oh, okay. Now I've got to try and get out of 

[00:32:15] And then find, happiness and pleasure without it, which I'm sure is another journey.

[00:32:21] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: I'm going to the the spiritual connotations of that, which is maybe another podcast that we talk about, but, yes, it's surgery. 

[00:32:29] Amy: Well, let's bring you back to testosterone. Thank you for answering my questions and going down that road with me, 

[00:32:36] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: testosterone, this is, like, very common now.

[00:32:38] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: You talk to almost every man and they'll they'll know everything about it. Yeah. I've heard of it and, you know, testosterone, going down and well, I'm getting to that age. I need a bit of a boost.

[00:32:49] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: And it's quite common in medicine now. You know, if you look at the the female, you've got hormone replacement therapy. Well, I'm getting towards menopause. Now let me just boost myself up there. 

[00:32:58] Amy: It's interesting that, you know [00:33:00] and perhaps this is just the natural conversation, but I wrote earlier is there hormone therapy for men?

[00:33:06] Amy: Because you hear about it a lot, and we've talked about it on the show for women.

[00:33:09] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Yeah. So let's let's clarify that now. Let's go back, I don't know, 50 years. They didn't really have that and people got by. But remember when we're talking at the beginning, it's like things have got more.

[00:33:26] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: It's extra. It's not normal. What was 50 years ago is not normal today. . People want more extra today.

[00:33:34] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: So well, have you heard that saying that 50 is is ago 70 is the new 50. So, you know, 50 years ago when you were 70 you were like kind of old or over the hill. Now it's it's not like that anymore. So it's a similar type of thing. You you need more now, so we get the testosterone deficiencies.

[00:33:56] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: But also today, there are more factors that are leading to us men having and I say this in word of commerce is testosterone. Maybe we don't necessarily have less testosterone now, but the factors are causing the relative deficiency. So let me try and clarify or explain that. If we look at a a female, what are the hormones that make up a female? Yes.

[00:34:20] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: You've got a small bit of testosterone, but it's mostly the interplay between estrogen and progesterone. And if we have a look at a woman, what takes a woman from a prepubescent [00:34:30] little girl to mature female, it's puberty and the estrogen comes in. And estrogen starts to get that female body. The fat in the right places, the curves in the right place, and then she has the periods,

[00:34:44] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: so we can say estrogen causes growth, growth of that endometrium of the uterus, and the deposition of fat. Now what is that similar to? If we look at estrogen today in our world, we look at xenoestrogens, which are artificial or external estrogen such as so many women have taken a contraceptive pill, they get into our water supply. Me as a man, I drink that water, I'm exposed to estrogen.

[00:35:11] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: The herbicides and pesticides are all known as xenoestrogens. They have an estrogenic effect on the body. I eat the food, it's got the herbicide or pesticide in it, so I'm exposed to estrogen. The the water that is in the plastic bottle that I drink has got an estrogenic effect. So now I'm a man with testosterone that is swimming around in a sea of estrogen.

[00:35:35] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Well, I say don't worry about that, my liver will take control and it'll detoxify. But what happens when your liver is not functioning at all to them? Now, if you would be able to take a regular picture of, say a bunch of men, say, 50 years ago, and a bunch of regular men today, you'll see our men today are obese, They are balding, and they can't get it up. 

[00:35:58] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Sexual function is [00:36:00] done. They are balding, which is hormonal dysregulation. Okay. Just like when you see female pattern baldness. Now we're having the men are also getting that.

[00:36:08] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: And and the obesity. What did we talk about when I said, what is the function of estrogen? We're looking at the the increase in fat. So I'm a man with testosterone but I've got estrogen in my body now. Well, I've got too much weight on me.

[00:36:20] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: I'm fat. Oh, I'm going to do I can't get myself defined so that you can see my muscles covered with a layer of fat. We are exposed to too much estrogen.

[00:36:29] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: That's a problem. And our livers are not able to adequately detoxify that. But you listen to the mainstream media, just go to gym more. It's not just about that. You need to get your liver in optimum function. Otherwise, you're just gonna be going round and round. 

[00:36:45] Amy: And is that the solution to too much estrogen?

[00:36:48] Amy: I mean, aside from the ideal of, you know, removing it from the environment, it's the liver that you have to focus 

[00:36:54] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: It's it's the liver. The the part that I forgot to add in here is the cortisol. Okay? When you got too much cortisol, you're gonna have issues with estrogen and testosterone.

[00:37:06] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: It's going to reduce that. So you've got to also regulate your testosterone your cortisol properly. Okay. There's something called aromatization, where testosterone is converted to estrogen.

[00:37:20] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: If my liver enzymes aren't, what they should be doing, I've got the issue circulating and stimulating those receptors. So there's there's a lot to look into, [00:37:30] and that's why so often we talk about detoxification. 

[00:37:33] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Making sure that you are using a a water filter if you if you link to municipal water. Small little things, 

[00:37:40] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: But very important. And that's why it's quite fine to say, hey. Listen. I'm gonna take 6 months to get this plan in place. So I I hope what I'm bringing here to you is you can see it's almost like a lifestyle thing that you're gonna change, and you can see all the little boxes that we're ticking. I've gotta do this. I've gotta do that. I've gotta do that.

[00:37:57] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: And then I'll be successful. Because you you're taking away the physiological blocks to you expressing your testosterone in the right way. And what I might suggest is whoever's listening to this podcast, get in contact with their their doctor or whoever their practitioner is, and maybe work together with them.

[00:38:16] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: . They they can hear you, and they can guide you, or you can say, listen. I'm having a terrible month. Nothing's happened. I haven't lost any fat or you know, my function in bed is shocking.

[00:38:25] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: There might be certain other things that you can talk about. And maybe let's talk about this testosterone deficiency and what we can do about it. Now traditionally, they were gonna give you testosterone, most of the time that is a synthetic testosterone, which puts extra stress and pressure on the liver. We don't want that.

[00:38:42] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: We want to have our liver functioning at optimum.? That's why you get side effects from some testosterone preparations. The the other option is a bioidentical testosterone, which is very similar to your body's testosterone. You don't have those side effects, you'll make sure that your [00:39:00] liver is working properly. 

[00:39:01] Amy: It always amazes me that there's synthetic hormones. 

[00:39:05] Amy: It why why isn't everything bioidentical?

[00:39:09] Amy: Is it is it that it's more costly? Is it simply just another product that people wanna sell?

[00:39:15] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: It's quite easy. I'll give you 2 reasons.

[00:39:18] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: The pharmaceutical grade, they make a lot of money off that. Okay. And maybe to be a bit fair, there might be certain specific functions that you want with this androgen that you wouldn't get with a bioidentical. 

[00:39:32] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Then they would say, well, only take it for a week or 2 weeks or a month and then stop it.

[00:39:36] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: So that can be a reasoning why. 

[00:39:39] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Maybe they want to do training that type of thing. But for the person that's going to see their general practitioner, that's what they're gonna get there.

[00:39:47] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: They're really not gonna get a bioidentical. You might have to go to your functional medicine doctor, similar type thing, if you wanted to get a bioidentical. So that's that there now. Often, I get patients who are either on the synthetic hormone or the bioidentical, and they say, oh, my life has changed since I've been on that.

[00:40:09] And by using a homeopathic preparation, it's gonna reduce the amount that you need. It's gonna reduce the toxicity or the potential toxicity by reducing the pharmacodynamics of how your body detoxifies that that hormone. And often we can get them off that. They can just be taking a a [00:40:30] herbal formula and a homeopathic, and they can still be getting that good sexual function. Now let's just clarify this. What is a good sexual function? Now most of the time you find with men, it's never enough. They They want more and more. The erection must be harder. They must be able to last longer beyond what is physiologically normal. That's when you start to use that testosterone in degrees that maybe you shouldn't.

[00:40:56] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: So it's a fine balance.

[00:40:58] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: So if you are say, younger, let's say you're in your forties and you're struggling with erectile dysfunction or premature ejaculation, actually, there shouldn't be any issues. You should be able to come off everything and be fine. The reason why that is happening most of the time is because you are overly stressed. Remember, we spoke about that autonomic regulation. So if you can get yourself de stressed, if we can if there is an issue in the circulatory system where you've got blockages, if you can get that sorted out, you should be fine.

[00:41:28] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: You're not you're footy. You're not 80. Alright? Should be working fine. But the challenge is people at that age, they are trying to establish themselves.

[00:41:37] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: They're working too hard. They're sleeping too little. You gotta get the balance. 

[00:41:41] Amy: When you are 80 or 90, can 1 expect to still have a healthy sexual life?

[00:41:46] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: As a man, yes, you can.

[00:41:48] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: So now you must you must clarify that you're not gonna be as virile. You're still gonna be able to have the erection. You're still gonna have a desire. Yes. It'll be less.

[00:41:59] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: But you [00:42:00] can still perform. 

[00:42:01] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Sometimes, you know, and again like I said, the man always wants more and more and more. So you can see, you can get that biological hormone, and you can have benefit. You'll just make sure that your liver is functioning at optimum. 

[00:42:15] Amy: We discussed that men don't necessarily wanna have these conversations. And to the men who are listening, absolutely start having the conversations.

[00:42:22] Amy: Whether you start with your partner or with your GP or your functional medicine practitioner, you absolutely don't have to live in, hurt or shame or feeling guilty. And as a woman, we feel we feel this too. Aren't we we don't like to talk about certain things, and everyone, every individual on the Earth has things they don't wanna talk about, but it's just so important, , to to live your life to the fullest. And it does take oftentimes having hard conversations. So as doctor DuPont has mentioned, just have them.

[00:42:53] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: . You can start slowly. Okay. Woah. That's too much for me.

[00:42:56] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: That's bringing too much up for me. I'm gonna just take a bit of a break and then get back to it. 

[00:43:00] Amy: Cardiovascular health has such an impact on sexual health. So if you're 1 of these people who's worried about your sexual function, you don't wanna talk about it, start talking about your cardiovascular health. That's something that you're probably a lot more comfortable talking about.

[00:43:15] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: That's it. And, you know, let me talk about optimal, Often, you will go to the doctor and say, no. Everything's fine. 

[00:43:22] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Maybe the cholesterol's a bit high. Listen. That is not optimal. Right? If you want to know about optimal, don't go to your regular [00:43:30] doctor.

[00:43:30] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: You need to look maybe at a functional medicine doctor or if there are certain other people that can address that for you, and you want to you want to plot away at that. You want to make sure that you are moving, that you're getting that oxygenation, that you are revived, that your stress is controlled, that you are feeling vibrant. That that's when you'll know, hey. I'm there. I get up every morning and I'm good to go. That type of thing. It can take a while to to get there. Okay? And interestingly enough, a lot of that can be from an emotional struggle and emotional suppression.

[00:44:04] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: So you need to feel comfortable with the person that you are drinking to. 

[00:44:08] Amy: Yeah. And don't be discouraged.

[00:44:10] Amy: So often, even in my own experience having lived in many different countries, I've had to switch doctors quite often. And you don't always get what you want or what you need from the first GP you come across. And, again, it's not always a GP who's gonna give you what you need. If they're not open to kind of exploring or if they're, you know, kinda pushing, oh, well, here's here's your Band Aid pill you know, seek a functional medicine practitioner 

[00:44:32] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: 

[00:44:32] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: I'd like you to bring 1 concept forward if I can. But talking about the homeopathic remedy. Alright? 

[00:44:39] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: 

[00:44:39] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: So we talk about the homeopathic remedy in respect to your psychological nervousness or your anticipation of not being able to perform. 

[00:44:50] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: And from what I've just said, well, you know, you gotta get the the blood flow going and you gotta get the the stress down. These are I mean, I think we're really so they're absolutely [00:45:00] amazing for this that work on the the psyche, on the emotions. So I always feel really intimidated by a b c. 

[00:45:10] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: A wonderful hernopathic remedy for that is Lycopodium. It's good for erectile dysfunction. It's good for the the lack of self confidence and it works through the liver. Wonderful results, especially in higher potencies, just as a as a 1 example. So you don't always have to go and talk everything up.

[00:45:31] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: The remedy actually starts to transform that for 

[00:45:35] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: amy, it's something that isn't, like, so mainstream. You get these packets of people who are, totally sold out to homeopathy and you know, they go everywhere for it, and that's their first stop. But the majority of people are they'll look at it from afar off and they might try it for a first aid problem. So nothing really serious, but the full power of homeopathy is in chronic disease.

[00:46:00] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: Might have to have treatment for, like, 6 months. Sometimes, very often, you start seeing results after the first month. So it is really powerful.

[00:46:09] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: It has its place, especially if you're looking to overcome the use of drugs and to what we call in homeopathy restore the vital force, restore the vitality that you once had. 

[00:46:20] Amy: Thank you so much for joining me today and talking about men's health. It is so important to get that conversation started.

[00:46:27] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: I'm really passionate about it.

[00:46:28] Dr. Anthony De Pontes: It's great. I mean, and  it and it works. 

[00:46:31] Amy: Yeah. Absolutely. And, again, I'll share all of your links and resources down in the show notes or in the description of the podcast episode.

[00:46:40] Amy: And if you have any questions, you can shoot them through to me or doctor De Pontes, or you can comment on the videos. And as always, we'd love to hear your feedback. If there's any topic that you'd like to hear on the show, please let me know, .