Sugar, chocolate, all kinds of spices, trotters, pigeons, seafood of various kinds, especially shrimp and oysters, strawberries, nuts of all kinds, and others. Enter the Arabic YouTube now and you will find that the matter is more than just information, it is a kind of obsession that is increasing day by day, every Food is almost put on a list of two, it is either sexually tonic or depressing, with thousands of advice from professionals and non-specialists on the matter.
Add to this another revolution related to supplements, in pharmacies or stores selling nutritional supplements you will probably find a package with herbs or a strong person and written sentences such as: “works as an aphrodisiac”, “excites or increases sexual desire and improves sexual performance”, “helps restore sexual activity and strength” and performance”, “improves performance, survivability, and sexual strength” and “builds masculinity and sexual strength” or perhaps in another context, someone advises his friend that package that made him a “lion”, these conversations are very common among men, and the most important question in this context He: Is that true?
Can a dietary supplement actually help enhance sexual potency to an adequate extent?
But let's not blame our Arab society only here. Throughout history, in ancient Chinese, Indian, Egyptian, Roman and Greek cultures, people all over the world have used certain foods and drinks in the hope of obtaining some magical powers that will activate their sexuality.
Let's reach that some restaurants call their meals "Viagra", in comparison to a particular food with the world-famous medicine in this field, "Viagra".
Everyone is looking for the magic meal, the food that will open his feelings to desire again.
Natural Viagra
Well, let's start with the conclusion, there is little evidence to support the effectiveness of most foods believed to be natural aphrodisiacs (1,2), the term "little evidence" means that there may be some research paper indicating the importance of a food in stimulating sexual desire , but one or even several papers is not enough, there must be a significant tendency across a large number of studies showing the existence of this alleged effect.
In cases of sexual desire, according to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (3), no aphrodisiac has been scientifically proven to be effective within its scope of action.
As well as chocolate, which has especially found global interest in this, and there is a reason for this. Some studies say that cocoa can increase blood flow in parts of the body, including the genitals, but when its direct relationship to sexual desire was studied, there was no evidence to support its use. an aphrodisiac (4).
In addition, a research review in The Journal of Sexual Medicine indicated that current objective evidence does not support the use of any aphrodisiac as an effective treatment for male or female sexual dysfunctions, noting that despite this, Men with ED will continue to seek natural sexual steroids despite current disappointing data about their effectiveness (5).
So why do some people think that these meals are effective?
trotters soup
The results of the latest study indicate an important point. Indeed, people are still caught up in these myths despite their error, because there are many reasons that can make some think that some meals stimulate sexual desire, the most famous of which is the placebo effect, which means that When someone tells you that this medicine or food is useful, you - psychologically - feel that it is useful.
The effect of the placebo drug is so great that pharmacological medical studies must work to give two groups of the drug to the subjects, one of whom takes a placebo and the other is a real drug;
So let's compare the two effects.
Add to this that when the desires compete, the sexual desire decreases. If the sexual desire and the desire for hunger are competing, you may feel less sexual desire, but after eating, the arena becomes empty for sexual desire only, and you feel that it has increased.
On the other hand, there is a link that may arise for each person individually, for example, if you ate chocolate before having good sex, when you see chocolate again, you will remember that time.
Sexual power supplements
The same applies to nutritional supplements that bear the sign of “lion”, “tiger”, or crocodile” or other ferocious animals, we are not talking here about medicines designed medically for the purpose of raising the ability to erection such as the active substance “sildenafil” found in drugs such as Viagra, but about People are obsessed with the "natural", the nutritional supplement that represents the extract of a certain herb, and therefore it is not as harmful as some would think.
Once again, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), one of the most important sources in this context, answers you (6), saying that there are many products bearing labels that claim to arouse or increase sexual desire, or to improve sexual performance, such as anise, cantharid, without koala. Estrogen, Fennel, Ginseng, Golden Seal, Gotu Kola, Korean Ginseng, Licorice, Mandrake, Methyltestosterone, Minerals, Nux Fumica, Biga Palo, Sarsabrella, Strychnine, Testosterone, Vitamins, Yohimbine, and others.
The FDA adds that there is a lack of sufficient data to establish public recognition of the safety and effectiveness of any of these ingredients or any other ingredient for over-the-counter use as an aphrodisiac, adding that claims such as: "acts as an aphrodisiac", "excites or increases sexual desire and improves sexual performance." “Helps restore sexual activity, strength and performance,” “Improves performance, survivability, and sexual potency,” “Builds masculinity and sexual potency,” are false, misleading claims, or are not supported by scientific data.
Even some substances that scientists have found "could have a role", such as ginseng, do not have enough evidence of their function.
Finally, as in the case of aphrodisiac foods, based on the currently available evidence, no over-the-counter medicinal product (dietary supplement) containing ingredients for aphrodisiac use can generally be recognized as a safe and effective medicinal product.
In all the studies that talk in this area you will find statements like: “There is little evidence from the scientific literature to recommend the use of natural aphrodisiacs to enhance sexual desire or performance” (7).
Even some substances that scientists have found "could have a role", such as ginkgo, ginseng, maca and Tribulus, do not have sufficient evidence of their function (8).
Realized damage
What is worse is that these products are not safe at all. Take, for example, the Spanish fly, which is a very famous name in the world of sexual supplements, especially in the Arab world. It can cause kidney damage and bleeding in the digestive system, and worse, it is not authorized. By using them for any medical purpose by the US Food and Drug Administration, the worst is that the vast majority of their products on the market are adulterated (9,10).
On the other hand, some products, such as yohimbine (extracted from the bark of the yohimbe tree in West Africa), have been linked to severe health risks, such as heart attacks, according to Britain's National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (11).
Not many know that dietary supplements - in general - are not subject to the supervision of the Food and Drug Administration, and the word "dietary supplement" on the package not only means a hint of functionality, but also that it is not legally treated like a drug, but rather is treated as belonging to the food domain, Which is not subject to pharmaceutical quality control policies.
On the other hand, sexual supplements are not entirely natural.
In a 2018 study that analyzed about 800 popular nutritional supplements, most of which were for improving sexual performance, losing weight and building muscle, the results (12) said that 80% of those supplements contain at least one pharmaceutical ingredient, and 20% of them contain more than two pharmaceutical ingredients. And about 33 dietary supplements from that group contained 3 or more pharmaceutical ingredients.
By pharmaceutical ingredients, we mean substances used for therapeutic purposes, such as erectile dysfunction drugs, weight loss drugs, antidepressants, or analgesics.
There is a famous case for this, which is the very famous Tiger King product in the Arab world. In 2014, the US Food and Drug Administration issued a statement saying: “The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advises consumers not to purchase or use Tiger King, a product that is It is promoted and sold for sex enhancement on various websites and in some retail stores. The FDA laboratory analysis confirmed that Tiger King contains sildenafil, the active ingredient in FDA-prescribed Viagra, which is used to treat erectile dysfunction”(13). ).
This condition spreads a lot, someone promises you a natural product for sexual enhancement, and then you find that you are in front of a disguised Viagra!
Rather, one of the tricks that some people do is mix honey - for example - with crushed Viagra, and then sell it as a natural sexual tonic product, equivalent to hundreds of dollars in our local currencies. The problem here is that Viagra is usually deposited at the bottom of the package, and then there Dangers of taking a large dose of the active ingredient sildenafil, in the last spoonfuls you get from this pack.
In the end, we don't yet know a food or nutritional supplement that is sure to affect sexual desire, but we do know one thing that everyone avoids from the urgent solutions craze, and that is that a healthy diet, for example the Mediterranean diet, helps It helps support nerve function, blood flow, and hormones, thus improving overall sexual life.
But of course no one is promoting that simple piece of information, everyone is in captivity of lions, leopards, tigers and crocodiles that help you perform sexual tasks with the power of Superman.
We are not talking here only about an Arab situation that is evident in people’s dialogues and television advertisements alike in the Arab world, but a global revolution that has been deliberately fueled in one way or another. On everything, from politics to sex!
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Sources:
1- Mayo Clinic Healthy Lifestyle Sexual Health
2- Aphrodisiacs: Fact or Fiction?
3- CFR – Code of Federal Regulations Title 21
4- Natural Aphrodisiacs—A Review of Selected Sexual Enhancers
5- Natural Aphrodisiacs
6- CFR – Code of Federal Regulations Title 21
7- Natural Aphrodisiacs
8- Natural Aphrodisiacs—A Review of Selected Sexual Enhancers
9- Aphrodisiacs — do they really make you randy?
10- Mayo Clinic Healthy Lifestyle Sexual Health
11- Yohimbe
12- The hidden dangers of dietary supplements
13- Public Notification: Tiger King Contains Hidden Drug Ingredient