Dietary Strategies for Managing Premature Ejaculation
Are you struggling to find a dietary solution for yourselves? Are you not sure what food you should or should not eat for managing premature ejaculation? Are you finding it difficult to kick start a healthy diet? Keep on reading this blog post, it shares how dietary strategies and approaches can help manage premature ejaculation.
Welcome to the Holmen’s Health dietitian blog post, I am dietitian Oscar and here we talk about foods, drinks, snacks, desserts, anything that you can think of when it comes to eating. I personally love eating and am passionate about assisting others in finding their most suitable diet pattern while promoting maximum health benefits. Let’s take a closer look at what premature ejaculation is.
Ejaculation is a complex process predominantly controlled by our brain system, called the autonomic nervous system. Many different body parts are involved during ejaculation, including the brain, nerves, hormones, muscles around your reproductive organs, and fluid production. Generally, ejaculation involves two main phases: emission and expulsion.
Emission involves the production of fluid by the male reproductive organs. The fluid then travels through the urethra, controlled by the internal sphincter muscle that closes the bladder neck and prevents ejaculation of semen into the bladder. Neurological and muscle control are responsible during emission. As for expulsion, the fluid travels further along the urethra, coordinated by pelvic floor muscle contraction and nervous reflex mechanisms. The pressure caused by the contraction pushes the fluid further and causes ejaculation, but the exact theory is still yet to be discovered.
According to the International Society for Sexual Medicine’s definition, there are two types of premature ejaculation: lifelong premature ejaculation (LPE) and acquired premature ejaculation (APE). LPE refers to always or nearly always experiencing ejaculation within about 1 minute of vaginal penetration from the first sexual experience. APE refers to a clinically significant and bothersome reduction in latency time, often to about 3 minutes or less.
Despite thousands of studies conducted to study premature ejaculation, the exact reason for causing premature ejaculation is still unknown. However, some biological risk factors have been determined, including abnormal hormonal levels, inflammation, hypogonadism (low level of testosterone for men), etc. Most of the biological risk factors can be tackled with a healthy diet, and hence, managing premature ejaculation.
Food and diet are not only fundamental elements of survival but also promote health. For example, green vegetables, fruits, and oily fishes are effective in countering abnormal hormone levels; olive oil, nuts, and mushrooms are some anti-inflammatory foods; and legumes, honey, and onions can help with hypogonadism. There are thousands of healthy foods you can eat and enjoy while boosting the sexual functions.
Here, I am going to share with you four dietary strategies aimed at specific nutrients that might help with managing premature ejaculation.
Four dietary strategies to manage premature ejaculation
Vitamin D
Vitamin D comes from the food we eat and can also be produced by our bodies through exposure to sunlight. Vitamin D is crucial for maintaining the health of our hormone system, immune system, and nervous system. In 2018, research compared 40 men with lifetime premature ejaculation (LPE) with 40 healthy men and discovered that 20% of the LPE group had significantly lower levels of vitamin D.
Specifically, vitamin D is associated with sex hormones, as proposed by Austria researchers. Their study found that men with sufficient vitamin D levels had a greater amount of sex hormones, including testosterone and androgen, which may influence ejaculation function. Therefore, it might be worth paying more attention to vitamin D levels for managing premature ejaculation.
Now, let’s turn back to diet. The recommended dietary intakes of vitamin D for adults up to 50 years old is 5 μg (micrograms), and the requirements increase with age. Adults aged 51 to 70 years old require 10 μg, and adults over 70 years old require 15 μg. Foods that are high in vitamin D include mushrooms, tuna, salmon, and egg yolk. Some manufactured foods also have extra vitamin D added to them, such as milk, soy beverages, breads, or cereals.
Although diet is one source of obtaining vitamin D, exposure to sunlight is also important for our body to produce vitamin D. Guidelines for sunlight exposure vary depending on location and seasons, but generally, it is recommended to get around 10 to 20 minutes of sunlight in summer and 30 to 90 minutes in winter. However, don’t forget to wear sunscreen, as skin cancer is the last thing you want to deal with. For more specific recommendations, please visit the sunshine map for your location in Australia.
Zinc
Another nutrient to keep an eye on is zinc. Zinc is a trace mineral that is crucial for the male reproductive system. Research conducted in Iran has suggested that a deficiency of zinc could lead to low-quality sperm. In these cases, poor sperm quality accounts for up to 50% of infertility cases and affects around 7% of men worldwide.
So, what is special in zinc? While there is currently no evidence to directly link zinc to premature ejaculation, zinc is responsible for sperm health and motility. The fact that deficiency of zinc could affect sperm health suggests that maintaining zinc levels within a healthy range might be one way to promote healthy sperm and ejaculation.
The majority of adult males require 14 milligrams (mg) of zinc per day, and there are many foods that contain a significant amount of zinc. Yes, you are right, oysters are one of them, and oysters probably have the most zinc per gram (~30 mg per 90 g serving). Some other foods that are also rich in zinc include beef (~3.8 mg per 90 g serving), oats (~2.3 mg per 1 cup serving), cheese (~1.5 mg per 45 g serving).
Magnesium
Magnesium is another trace mineral that plays an important role inside our body. It is essential for healthy muscles, nerves, and bone. Moreover, Magnesium is one of the elements in human semen; its level is a potential factor that affects the muscle contraction of ejaculation. A study has recruited 38 patients, of which 19 patients were diagnosed with premature ejaculation and 19 were healthy adults. They found that the average seminal plasma (fluid produced by the reproductive organs) magnesium level of the 19 men with premature ejaculation is almost 20% lower than that of the healthy adults.
One of the theories addressing how magnesium could lead to premature ejaculation is that low magnesium levels could cause uncontrolled contractions of the muscles around the male reproductive system, leading to emission and ejaculation. Therefore, dietary consumption could be one way to address premature ejaculation.
The recommended dietary intake of magnesium is around 400 mg to 420 mg for male adults. Some of the foods that are high in magnesium include pumpkin seeds (156 mg per 30 g serving), almonds (80 mg per 30 g serving), cooked spinach (78 mg per 0.5 cup serving), and soy milk (61 mg per 1 cup serving).
Alcohol
Currently, there are many misconceptions regarding alcohol and sex. It is commonly believed that alcohol increases sexual desire and arousal, but alcohol does not improve sex performance. Even worse, alcohol could damage male sexual function, including contributing to premature ejaculation. One of my recommended dietary strategies would be minimising alcohol consumption, as it could have adverse impacts on sexual health.
Excessive alcohol consumption can not only directly affect sexual health but also harm sexual function indirectly. Long-term excessive alcohol consumption could cause damage to the nervous system, impaired liver function, which might affect hormone production, and lead to sperm abnormalities.
It is recommended to drink no more than 10 standard drinks per week or no more than 4 standard drinks on any one day. Some examples of a standard drink are 100 mL of wine, 285 mL of beer or cider, or 30 mL of spirits. For me personally, I would recommend drinking as little as possible to avoid any potential damage to your body.
The core idea of ‘dietary strategies’
Although there are foods that are more outstanding in terms of improving sexual function, the core idea of dietary strategies is not just focusing on one or two particular foods. All of our body systems intertwine with each other, and you cannot solely boost one of them while ignoring all other parts. You need to have a healthy body first; then you can put extra effort into individual aspects like sexual functions. To achieve a healthy body, a balanced diet including a variety of foods from the five food groups is highly recommended. For more information on the five food groups, you can visit the Eat For Health website.
If you’re wanting support in learning how to improve your diet to support sexual function, learn more about our philosophy and services, please reach out to us! We work with clients virtually throughout Australia.
This blog post on dietary strategies for managing premature ejaculation was published May 2024.
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- Abd El aal, A. M., GamalEl Din, S. F., Rashed, L. A., Tawfik, A. E. R. B., & ElSheemy, M. S. (2018). Serum vitamin D level may be a novel potential risk factor for premature ejaculation: a comparative study. International Urology and Nephrology, 50(11), 1975–1980. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11255-018-1975-x
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