Men Are Not Always Thinking About Sex. Study Says: There Are At Least 4 "Good" Reasons They Don't - Stress Is #1! Plus: A Proven De-Stress Protocol to Restore Your Libido

If either of these individuals remind you of yourself, you should reduce his stress levels.

Recent research suggest: The good old saying that "Men always think about sex!" is essentially untrue (The "!" indicates that I used the feminist version of this common "wisdom").

If we put faith in the results of a recent European study from the Department of Clinical Psychology at the Instituto Universitário in Lisbon, Portugal, the Department of Psychology at the University of Tromsø in Tromsø, Norway, and the Sexology Unit at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia, stress is the common denominator that distracts men from their original duty to do what has to be done for the survival of the human race ;-)

Homo coitum quaerens aut evitarens?

It may sound surprising, but unlike sexual function, the sexual desire of the male members of the human race has not been examined as extensively as the one of their female counterparts. When you think about the initially quoted "wisdom", it is actually not that surprising.  Men are are after all believed to be always looking for the next "catch".

The problem cannot be that prevalent, can it? Yes it can! According to recent data from the The National Health and Social Life Survey (NHSLS), the average American's prevalence of “lacking desire for sex” ranged from 14% (for those 18–29 years old) to 17% (for those 50–59 years old). In spite of the fact that the exact figures are debatable, the currently available literature supports the notion that 15-20% of the US men 'don't think about sex at all'. If we take a look at international data the figures don't look better: Depending on the geographic region 13% to 28% of the ~14,000 men aged 40–80 years from 29 countries in the Global Study of Sexual Attitudes and Behaviours said that their sexual desire had been low for at least 2 months Laumann. 2005).

After focusing more or less exclusively on functional aspects of male sexuality for decades, research does now start to draw and embrace a more versatile image of male and general human sexuality. According to studies by Hyde and Janssen, the black-and-white gender differences which is also at the heard of the saying "men think about sex all day" is in fact non-existent. On the contrary, gender theorists have recently suggested that greater diversity exists within gender than between gender (Hyde. 2005+2007; Janssen. 2008).

Sexual disinterest is stressful!

Faced with the surprisingly high rates of sexual disinterest in men, scientists like Mccarthy et al. have already identified several major relationship problems as potential culprits. In view of what you've learned already, it should be obvious that these problems are not necessarily related to the 'classic' mismatch in sexual interests between a hyperactive male and an (under-)active female partner. On the contrary, the data in Figure 1 makes it plain obvious that for men in their thirties, it would not be unlikely that they are disinterested and their wives or girlfriends dissatisfied.

It goes without saying that problems like these and the mismatch between the perceived and the expected level of sexual desire are stressing - very stressing, according to the data Ana Carvalheira's, Bente Træen's and Aleksandar Štulhofer gathered in inteviews with heterosexual men from Portugal, Croatia, and Norway (Carcalheira. 2013):

Figure 1:Lack of desire and professional stress, two sides of the same coin? Data based on Carcalheira (2013)

In the worst case scenario a man will get caught in a vicious circle of professional stress ⇆ lack of sexual desire ⇆ private stress that is hard to break. Against that background it's only logical that the essence of the recommendations in the bottom line of this article is to get rid of the stress that's keeping you from thinking about sex.

"Stress ⇆ Sexual Disinterest" - it's that easy!

A 2013 study by Talbott et al. suggests that Tongkat Ali, a traditional testosterone and libido booster works mainly be reducing stress levels (learn more)

If you don't believe in the deeper truth of this 'equation', I suggest you go back to an article I wrote earlier this year (see Beyond Testosterone: 200mg/day of Tongkat Ali (Eurycoma Longifolia) for Stress Management & Improved Mood!?" | read more). It deals with a traditional "testosterone booster" and its effects on stressed individuals... you will see: Stress is not only a libido-, it's also a testosterone -killer (no surprise, right?).

It is thus not really surprising that the data from the Carcalheira study tells us that men who feel distressed about their own lack of libido were 2.5x more likely to suffer from anxiety right before sex  and/or have trouble maintaining an erection.

To be stressed or not to be stressed - that's the question!

Just as the cliche would have it, the highly reserved Norwegians were 3x more likely than the red-blooded self-proclaimed Latin lovers from Portugal to suffer from a lack of sexual desire. With a 50% higher risk of losing interest in the other sex, the participants from Croatia end up somewhere in between the 'Latin lovers' and the 'prudish Vikings'.

Table 1: Sociodemographic characteristics, individual variables, and relationship-related characteristics as correlates of a distressing lack of sexual interest among healthy heterosexual men who are not using antidepressants (Carcalheira. 2013)

Aside from their origin there were other sociodemographic characteristics, individual variables, and relationship-related characteristics which were found to be associated with the an increased risk of suffering from a lack of sexual desire. As the data in Table 1 goes to show you, having children, even young ones, was, contrary to what you may have expected, not among these characteristics. In contrast to the self-confidence on erectile function, of course.

What's I personally find quite telling is the high rate of a distressing lack of sexual desire in long-term (5years +) relationships and as a consequence of an indifferent attitude towards the attractiveness of the sexual partner. Interestingly, finding your wife or girlfriend "neither attractive, nor unattractive" is an even greater turn down than thinking of her as a "very unattractive" (see Table 1).

"And that's all stress?"

No, that's not all stress... In the previous paragraph we have already learned about a libido killer that cannot be traced back to stress: The lack of 'adventure', 'novelty' or whatever you may call it - a phenomenon which is probably also the reason that people start looking at their partner as "neither attractive nor unattractive" is another important contributor to sexual disinterested in men. One out of 22 if you will - 22 items on the scientists list of potential causes of a reduced sexual interest:

Table 2: Self-assessed causes of a reduced sexual interest during the past 6 months among heterosexual Portuguese, Croatian, and Norwegian men in percent (Carvalheira. 2013)

I know, not all of them appear logical. Why would masturbating too often be associated with a reduced interest in sex? ⇦ That does not sound right - right? Something similar can be said for the Croatian porn fans (22.5%). In the end, though, it does not change the overall picture: It is stress that's gnawing at our sexual desire, guys.

The Dimou protocol: Diaphragmatic breathing is performed by taking deep diaphragmatic inspirations followed by slow prolonged expirations.  In the second phase of PMR relaxation, patients were guided through successive contractions and relaxations of different large muscle groups in a down-top orientation. The process was complemented by guided imagery involving mental exercises, designed to allow the mind to influence the health and well-being of the body (GI is used with standard medical treatment in people with cancer and other diseases, such as fibromyalgia, as it can help to reduce stress, depression and manage pain). In each step, the patients were encouraged to focus on the difference between tension and relaxation, thus gradually sharpening the perception of the relaxation response.

What So what can be done? By now the question "what can be done" should - at least on the surface level - already have a rhetorical character. It's obvious that you have to de-stress. The only question is: How do you do that? Luckily (for us), P.A. Dimou et al. have just successfully tested an anti-stress program that consisted of progressive muscular relaxation (PMR), diaphragmatic breathing and guided imagery and was topped off with a handful of tips to achieve better time management. The program was designed to optimize sexual health in young men and it worked! It worked like a charm: Over the course of the 8-week stress management program practicing the PMR + diaphragmatic breathing + guided imagery regime twice a day effectively reduced the number of men who were totally or somehow dissatisfied with their sex life decreased from 9 to 4 (-55%; cf. Dimou. 2013). Aside from the intended benefits in sexual satisfaction, the young 60 young men in the active arm of the Dimou study also lost weight (-3% BMI), felt less overall less stressed (-23%; social stress subscale -11%) and achieved +6% higher scores in the general health evaluation.

PMR and guided imagery does not sound like you? Well, I guess simply limiting your mobile phone, email, Facebook and SMS use, making room for the occasional time out with a cup of tea during the working hours, a rigorous 7h+ sleeping regimen and letting go of the 'more is more principle' will work wonders even in the absence of 'meditative' interventions....ah, and don't forget: Don't stress about de-stressing that would ruin all your efforts to find inner peace ;-)

Reference:

• Carvalheira A, Træen B, Štulhofer A. Correlates of Men’s Sexual Interest: A Cross-Cultural Study. J Sex Med. 2013 [accepted manuscript]
• Dimou PA, Bacopoulou F, Darviri C, Chrousos GP. Stress management and sexual health of young adults: a pilot randomised controlled trial. Andrologia2013,xx, 1–10 [accepted manuscript]
• Hyde JS. The gender similarities hypothesis. Am Psychol 2005;60:581–92.
• Hyde JS. New directions in the study of gender similarities and differences. Curr Dir Psychol Sci 2007;16:259–63.
• Janssen E, McBride K, Yarber W, Hill B, Butler S. Factors that influence sexual arousal in men: A focus group study. Arch Sex Behav 2008;37:252–65.
• Laumann EO, Nicolosi A, Glasser DB, Paik A, Gingell C, Moreira E, Wang T; GSSAB Investigators’ Group. Sexual problems among women and men aged 40–80 y: Prevalence and correlates identified in the Global Study of Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors. Int J Impot Res 2005;17:39–57
• Mccarthy B, McDonald D. Sex therapy failures: A crucial, yet ignored, issue. J Sex Marital Ther 2009;35:320–9.

L-Ornithine an Anti-Stress Agent: Lower Cortisol, Higher DHEA, Better Sleep W/ Only 400mg of Ornithine Pre-Bed. Plus: Mini-Review of Add. Benefits - Burns, Gut Health, etc.

Stressed? Maybe ornithine can help. Or is this study just a hoax!?

Sounds like marketing shenanigan, right? "Lower Cortisol, Higher DHEA, Better Sleep W/ Only 400mg of Ornithine Pre-Bed." Ok, if it was marketing it would probably say "with only 5g of ornithine." I mean, 400mg that's not enough to generate significant revenues - is it?

But before we get to the marketing side of things, let's first look at the science, researchers from the Research Laboratories for Health Science & Food Technologies present in a recent paper in the Nutrition Journal, an open-access journal which charges scientists a certain fee for processing their papers.

You can learn more about sleep and the circadian rhythm at the SuppVersity

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In their 8 week study, Mika Miyake et al. provided fifty-two apparently healthy Japanese adults who had previously felt slightly stressed and fatigue with either L-ornithine (400 mg/day) or placebo capsules.

The participants were advised to take one (400mg) capsule everyday before going to bed for eight weeks. At the end of the study period, all participants arrived at the laboratory fasted for blood sampling and a handful of other tests.

Figure 1: Effect of L-ornithine supplementation on serum stress markers.Means of the change from 0 weeks of each stress marker level (A, DHEA-S; B, cortisol; C, cortisol/DHEA-S) to 2, 4, and 8 weeks: mean ± SE. White circles (○) indicate the placebo and black circles (●) indicate L-ornithine. (Miyake. 2014)

The blood was analyzed for serum cortisol and DHEAS levels. In addition, the perceived mood and quality of sleep were measured by the Profile of Mood States (POMS) tests, the Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS), and Ogri-Shirakawa-Azumi sleep inventory MA version (OSA-MA).

Figure 2: Effect of L-ornithine supplementation on OSA.Means of the change from 0 weeks of each OSA score (A, sleepiness on rising; B, initiation and maintenance of sleep; C, frequent dreaming; D, refreshing; E, sleep length) to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 weeks: mean ± SE. White circles (○) indicate the placebo and black circles (●) indicate L-ornithine

Significant changes were observed for serum cortisol levels and the cortisol/DHEA-S ratio. Both were significantly decreased in the L-ornithine group in comparison with the placebo group. The POMS and OSA-MA tests (not shown in Figure 1) revealed that similar beneficial effects occurred for anger (sign. reduced) and perceived sleep quality, which were both improved in the L-ornithine group compared to the placebo group.

Is there anything else ornithine is good for? Sugino et al. report that l-ornithine supplementation (2-6g/day) attenuates physical fatigue in healthy volunteers by modulating lipid and amino acid metabolism (2008). It enhances wound healing in mice and man (Shi. 2002; Coudray-Lucas. 2000). It improves muscle protein synthesis after surgery (Wernerman. 1987). Just like arginine, it holds the potential to improve gut health (Cynober. 1994; de Oca. 1997; Raul. 1995). But it is, unlike arginine, is no insulin secretagogue (=won't trigger an insulin release; Bucci. 1992) - Bottom line: Lots of potential, but nothing that would make it a "must have" supplement.

Quite impressive results, considering the fact that we are talking about a minimal amount of an amino acids fitness enthusiasts know mainly as an ineffective growth hormone booster (Lambert. 1993). What did you say? "Bias"? Well, the product used in the study is produced by the Kyowa Hakko Bio Company a company that is an affiliate of Kirin Company Limited, to which the authors belong, but that does not mean that the results are inaccurate.

Nevertheless, I would advise you to keep it in mind before you buy a 5kg bag of ornithine as an anti-stress treatment for the next 10 years - maybe 25g for an 8-week test-run are a better idea. Not necessarily because of a potential bisa, but rather in view of the small number of study participants  and the fact that we don't know exactly the mechanism that triggers the increase in DHEA, decrease in cortisol and overall anti-stress effect.

Even in animal models, where similar effects on the HPTA have been observed (Kurata. 2012), it is not clear, whether all this may in fact be a result of the  influence L-ornithine has on the urea cycle (converts ammonia to urea in the liver), as some scientists apparently believe. Overall, we are thus dealing with an interesting finding, but one that needs independent confirmation from a larger trials, and one I would have significantly more faith in if I know exactly how it came about (mechanistically) | Comment on Facebook!

References:

• Bucci, L. R., et al. "Ornithine supplementation and insulin release in bodybuilders." International journal of sport nutrition 2.3 (1992): 287-291. 
• Coudray-Lucas, Colette, et al. "Ornithine [alpha]-ketoglutarate improves wound healing in severe burn patients: A prospective randomized double-blind trial versus isonitrogenous controls." Critical care medicine 28.6 (2000): 1772-1776.
• Cynober, L. "Can arginine and ornithine support gut functions?." Gut 35.1 Suppl (1994): S42-S45.
• de Oca, Javier, et al. "Effect Of Oral Supplementation Of Ornithine-[Alpha]-Ketoglutarate On The Intestinal Barrier After Orthotopic Small Bowel Transplantation." Transplantation 63.5 (1997): 636-639.
• Kurata, Koji, et al. "Orally administered l-ornithine reduces restraint stress-induced activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in mice." Neuroscience letters 506.2 (2012): 287-291.
• Lambert, M. I., et al. "Failure of commercial oral amino acid supplements to increase serum growth hormone concentrations in male body-builders." International Journal of Sport Nutrition 3.3 (1993): 298-305.
• Miyake, Mika, et al. "Randomised controlled trial of the effects of L-ornithine on stress markers and sleep quality in healthy workers." Nutrition Journal 13.1 (2014): 53.
• Raul, Francis, et al. "Functional and metabolic changes in intestinal mucosa of rats after enteral administration of ornithine α-ketoglutarate salt." Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition 19.2 (1995): 145-150.
• Shi, Han Ping, et al. "Effect of supplemental ornithine on wound healing." Journal of Surgical Research 106.2 (2002): 299-302.
• Sugino, Tomohiro, et al. "L-ornithine supplementation attenuates physical fatigue in healthy volunteers by modulating lipid and amino acid metabolism." Nutrition research 28.11 (2008): 738-743.
• Wernerman, J., et al. "Ornithine-alpha-ketoglutarate improves skeletal muscle protein synthesis as assessed by ribosome analysis and nitrogen use after surgery." Annals of surgery 206.5 (1987): 674.

A Relaxing, Cortisol Reducing, Testosterone Manipulating Cup of Roiboos Tea, Anyone? Plus: From Herpes, Over Liver-Toxicity to Cancer - Things Rooibos Can Do For You!

"Decallerate" your life - drink tea!?

I am starting to think that I may have totally underestimated Roiboos tea... I mean, tea without my beloved caffeine? That cannot be good for anything, can it? Well, it looks like it can!

After a couple of database searches, I did eventually have to realize that the most recent study by Schloms et al. is only the tip of an ice-, or rather "paper-berg" discussing various beneficial health effects of Aspalathus linearis infusions (aka Rooibos [/ˈrɔɪbɒs/], "the red bush" tea) that range from anti-viral to anti-cancer and pro-liver to pro-lung effects.

From South Africa to the Netherlands

In view of the fact that even I, as a German am more or less lucky to know what Rooibos is and you (mostly US and UK citizens) are only slowly catching up with my countrymen and our Western neighbors, the Dutch, as far as Rooibos imports and consumption is concerned, I just want to clarify that we are talking about a "popular tisane or herbal tea made from the stems and leaves of the fynbos plant, Aspalathus linearis, which is unique to the Western Cape region of South Africa" (Schloms. 2013).

What else can Rooibos do for you? Decreased incidence of herpex simplex + beneficial effects on other skin diseases (1.5l tea, orally; Shindo. 1991); liver protectant (Bosek. 2003); no inhibition of iron absorption (Hesseling. 1979; Breet. 2005; no ADHD?). Anti-cancer effects (Marnewick. 2005 ⇋ fermented = more effective; Sissing. 2008); antidiarrhoeal activity (Gilani. 2006); bronchodilator and antispasmodic (Khan. 2006); increased CYP3A activity (metabolizes caffeine, for example; Matsuda. 2007); anti-estrogenic effects in breast cancer ➙ reduced growth (Verhoog. 2007b; note: low estrogenic activity of its ow ➙ SERM)... there is more (mostly on anti-oxidant activities), but I think this should suffice.

Rooibos is sold as fermented and unfermented tea. While the latter has a higher anti-oxidant capacity, the former containing unique byproducts of the oxidation process. Contrary to the common perception these molecules are neither metabolic waste nor dangerous toxins, but can have a distinct set of beneficial metabolic effects of their own (Joubert. 2008).

The good thing: Unfermented Rooibos tea increases the testosterone to cortisol ratio

For the study at hand, Schloms et al. used unfermented Rooibos from the South African
Rooibos Council.  We can thus exclude any processing specific effects and simply assume that the results the scientists from the Stellenbosch University in South-Africa observed, when they administered the chloroform-methanol extract from the fresh tea leaves (1g of Rooibos leaves yielded 0.158 g extract) to their "subjects" - male Wistar rats.

The dosage the rodents received by oral gavage, was chosen to contain the rodent equivalent of the amount of soluble solids from one infusion with 15 g Rooibos leaves (six cups of fermented Rooibos per day). This means: If we discard inter-species differences, every serious Rooibos drinker should see changes in his (cortico-)steroid levels which resemble those you see in Figure 1:

Figure 1: Deoxycortisol (precursor), corticosterone (active), 11-dehydrocorticosterone (inactive corticosteroid) and testosterone levels after 10 days on rodent equivalent of six cups of Rooibos tea that was prepared with 15g of unfermented leaves; all values expressed relative to inter-group averages (Schloms. 2013)

Nice!? I'd agree, but I would also ask the one important question: How does this work? The answer is not exactly easy, but basically the arrows in Figure 1 give away parts of the answer, already. To understand what's going on, here we do yet still have to take a closer look at the actual production of cortisol in the andrenal gland and its subsequent metabolism:

"In the adrenal, the biosynthesis of glucocorticoids, min eralocorticoids, and adrenal androgens from the com mon precursor, cholesterol, is catalyzed by the cytochrome P450 (P450) enzymes and 3 -hydroxysteroid dehydrogenases (3 HSD), with cytochrome P450 11 -hydroxylase (CYP11B1) catalyzing the production of corticosterone (CORT) and cortisol from their respective precursors, deoxycorticosterone (DOC) and deoxycortisol." (Schloms. 2013)

Ok, of the hormones mentioned in this explanation you have both, cortisol and deoxycorticosterone in Figure 1. As you can see,...

• 

  Illustration 1: Interconversion of cortisol and cortisone as well as CORT and 11-DHC by 11 HSD-type-1 and type-2

  the consumption of the Rooibos tea lead to a significant reduction of DOC;
• the inactive CORT metabolite 11- dehydrocorticosterone (11-DHC), on the other hand did not change much;
• the latter would yet have been the case if the reduction in cortiosterone was a result of an increased metabolism of this rodent-specific corticosteroid

... which means that whatever the tea does, must block the production, not increase the deactivation of corticosteroids, and as a SuppVersity reader you probably already know how that works!? Right!

Rooibos tea is a 11 HSD1 inhibitor

In plain English you would probably say: Some of the active ingredients in Rooibos tea have the marvelous ability to block the enzyme that's responsible for the conversion of in-active to active corticosteroids.

Figure 2: In the corresponding 6-week (6 cups of tea per day) human study, none of the measured sex- nor corticosteroids changed significantly (Schloms. 2013)

The bad thing: This doesn't really work in human beings! For all the 7-keto lovers out there, this may sound awesome. It would after all mean that you could stop buying the overpriced DHEA-metabolite and start drinking some cheap Rooibos tea, unfortunately, Schloms et al. hid the results of a human study they conducted so cleverly in the abstract of their latest paper, that you one will easily overread that the 6-week intervention in which  24 women and 16 men between the ages of 30 and 60 years, with at least two or more risk factors for coronary heart disease (e.g. hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, or an increased BMI) consumed six cups of fermented Rooibos per day (15 g Rooibos leaves/subject) sucked, i.e. did not produce the desired results.

While there were significant decreases in the cortisone : cortisol (active : inactive corticosteroid) levels in both, men and women, there were no significant changes in cortisol, alone, testosterone, or the testosterone : cortisol ratio. With to the large inter-subject variations for testosterone, there is yet a chance that it worked for some, but not all male study participants.

 
References:

• Bosek, P., and M. Nakano. "Hepatoprotective effect of rooibos tea (Aspalathus linearis) on CCl4-induced liver damage in rats." Physiol. Res 52 (2003): 461-466.
• Breet, P., Kruger, H. S., Jerling, J. C., & Oosthuizen, W. (2005). Actions of black tea and Rooibos on iron status of primary school children. Nutrition Research, 25(11), 983-994.
• Gilani, Anwarul Hassan, et al. "Antispasmodic Effects of Rooibos Tea (Aspalathus linearis) is Mediated Predominantly through K+‐Channel Activation." Basic & clinical pharmacology & toxicology 99.5 (2006): 365-373.
• Hesseling, P. B., J. F. Klopper, and P. D. R. Van Heerden. "The effect of rooibos tea on iron absorption." (1979).
• Joubert, E., et al. "South African herbal teas: Aspalathus linearis, Cyclopia spp. and Athrixia phylicoides—A review." Journal of Ethnopharmacology 119.3 (2008): 376-412.
• Khan, Arif-ullah. "Selective bronchodilatory effect of Rooibos tea (Aspalathus linearis) and its flavonoid, chrysoeriol." European journal of nutrition 45.8 (2006): 463-469.
• Marnewick, Jeanine, et al. "Inhibition of tumour promotion in mouse skin by extracts of rooibos (< i> Aspalathus linearis</i>) and honeybush (< i> Cyclopia intermedia</i>), unique South African herbal teas." Cancer Letters 224.2 (2005): 193-202.
• Matsuda, Kazuhiro, et al. "Effects of continuous ingestion of herbal teas on intestinal CYP3A in the rat." Journal of pharmacological sciences 103.2 (2007): 214-221.
• Schloms, Lindie, et al. "Rooibos influences glucocorticoid levels and steroid ratios in vivo and in vitro: A natural approach in the management of stress and metabolic disorders?." Molecular nutrition & food research (2013).
• Shindo, Y., and K. Kato. "Effect of rooibos tea on some dermatological diseases." Proceedings of the international symposium on tea science. 1991.
• Sissing."Investigations into the cancer modulating properties of Aspalathus linearis (rooibos), Cyclopia intermedia (honeybush) and Sutherlandia frutescens (cancer bush) in oesophageal carcinogenesis." M.Sc. (Physiology) Thesis. University of the Western Cape, Bellville, South Africa (2008).
• Verhoog, N. J. D., E. Joubert, and Ann Louw. "Screening of four Cyclopia (honeybush) species for putative phyto-oestrogenic activity by oestrogen receptor binding assays." (2007).