Does L-arginine help impotence?

Drugs that donate NO molecules can cause an erection in impotent men. We have already mentioned nitroprusside and amyl nitrate. Unfortunately, powerful vasodilating drugs like these, which donate NO molecules, often have serious drawbacks. For example, to bring on an erection using papaverine, phentol-amine, or prostaglandin E1, the drug must be injected into the base of the penis just before sex--hardly an appealing part foreplay. Another drug, glyceryl nitrate (a.k.a. nitroglycerine) can produce an erection when applied topically to the penis, but it has been known to give the man's sexual partner a headache! Not surprisingly, men who have tried these methods usually give them up pretty quickly.

According to Dr. Inigo Saenez de Tejada, chief of the urology laboratory at Boston University School of Medicine, the amount of NO produced in the penis is directly related to the magnitude of the erection. A lack of sufficient NO may be the reason men who smoke or have hypertension, atherosclerosis (clogged arteries), or diabetes become impotent so often. In fact, these are the major causes of physiologically based impotence. Blocked or damaged arteries are too narrow to permit sufficient blood-borne L-arginine and oxygen to reach the penis [Freundlich, 1993]. It is possible, at least in some men, that raising the concentration of L-arginine in the blood by ingesting supplements may help fill the nitrogen void. This possibility has not yet been studied systematically, however.

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