Firstly, calm down and try not to worry. Sexual response depends very much on confidence. Anxiety acts completely against you.
I get a newsletter from Mark Wilson of Lost Empire Herbs (I have no affiliation with the company). Their website has a lot of helpful information on men’s sexual health. Like any health issue, there are a few moving parts. One needs to consider environment, metabolic causes and psychological roots with erectile problems.
Diabetes and pre-diabetes (aka insulin resistance) are leading causes of erectile dysfunction. If you are an apple shape, chances are pretty good that you have insulin resistance which appears roughly a decade before you develop Type 2 Diabetes. Insulin resistance and Type 2 are reversible through diet (see Dr. Jason Fung’s diabetes code). The western diet low in fat & high in carbohydrates and highly processed foods has caused a global rise in obesity, and Type 2 diabetes. Americans right now are eating 10x as much sugar as they did 100 yrs ago. We are not hummingbirds so that’s a recipe for disaster. Would recommend that you cut back on sugar, and forego processed foods, fast foods, baked goods (that release sugar rapidly), breakfast cereal, pizza, softdrinks and juice/smoothies. Every part of a plant is made with sugar. Animal sources foods (meat, eggs, dairy) are more nutrient dense and nutrients are more readily absorbed from animal sources than plant sources. The root and seeds store the most sugar (think potatoes, sugar beets, wheat, rice, corn…farmers use corn to fatten livestock) while stems & leaves (ie. asparagus or brussel sprouts) have very low levels of sugar. When you juice vegetables, you make the sugar more readily available turning nutritious fruits & veggies into over-processed garbage. If you are overweight, your fat layer cranks out estradiol, the man’s equivalent to female hormones. Another thing to avoid is beer particularly hoppy beer. Hops contain phyto-estrogen that has been used for hundreds of years to ease menopause symptoms. After a night of drinking beer, your colon will continue to produce estradiol (the male equivalent of estrogen) for days afterwards leading to brewer’s wilt (ED) and man breasts. Many body builders load up on carbs. When they stop extreme levels of exercise, often they stick to the same diet with disasterous metabolic results.
A1C only tells you when your body is no longer able to control blood sugar. Fasting insulin and the insulin glucose test are needed to determine if you have insulin resistance. Your base fasting insulin is tested then you drink pure glucose; your blood is retested after different intervals to see how long it takes to return to normal or whether it remains elevated indicating that your body needs to produce much more insulin to control blood sugar. Insulin controls blood sugar and causes your body to store excess glucose in your cells leading to weight gain.
Next, look at your environment. Household chemicals, shampoos and deodorants often contain hormone disruptors that stimulate estradiol production. Use gloves when using household cleaners. One of the worst is underarm deodorant. Schmidts Bergamot is one that does not contain hormone disruptors. Look for a natural shampoo like Shikai. Plastics also contain hormone disruptors so swap out plastic food containers with glass ones. Just learned today that fruits like strawberries that you do not peel are treated with pesticides that disrupt testosterone. Probably best to eat fruit that needs to be peeled.
Behavior is another driver of ED. Addiction to porn/online porn and frequent m**bation can lead to your body needing increasing levels of stimulation and difficulty maintaining stiffness. Dial back on the m**bation. There are vacuum pumps that can help with ED. The vacuum dilates the blood vessels allowing the penis to fill with blood. It’s important with this therapy not to climax and to be gentle. Tiny blood vessels are delicate so you want to be very careful.
Stress is another thing that kills testosterone. Fight and flight is the body’s stress response to face a life and death situation…ie. meeting a tiger in the jungle. Cortisol elevates our mental clarity and energy is diverted from your GI tract to your muscles so you can fight or run away. It’s very easy to trigger fight & flight to everyday situations…rushing to meet a deadline, worrying, having a heated argument with your wife, another driver cuts you off in traffic. When you trigger this response multiple times a day, your stress hormones increase and your testosterone tanks. Chronic stress leads to insomnia depressing the immune system and robbing your body of repairative deep sleep , constipation, acid stomach as the stomach increases acid levels to digest food, headaches, muscle pain, and low immunity. No surprise that the leading sellers in the drug store are pain killers, anti-acids, purgatives, and cold remedies. Notably coffee elevates cortisol so doubling down on coffee or even worse highly caffeinated energy drinks like Red Bull is a really bad idea. We also have a para-sympathetic nervous system. Deep breathing, meditation or a walk in nature within 20 minutes of a stress response, calms the brain lowering cortisol. Dr. David Posen and Dr. Sideroff have written lots of great stuff on stress management, a little thing that makes a huge difference.
Lastly, look at your medications and their side effects.
There is a lot of helpful info on the Lost Empire Herbs website.