Coffee and erectile dysfunction, a "short" history
I don't make up these headlines. The "big" news this week was a new study revealing that coffee may be a beneficial to men suffering from erectile dysfunction (ED). Don't believe me?...Read: Coffee May Perk Up More Than Men's Brains: It Could Stave Off Erectile Dysfunction (Forbes)In "short" (I'll stop with the quotes now), a new study published in the PLOS ONE journal surveyed 3,700 men regarding their diet and physical activity. When they ran correlations, they found that men were 39-42% less likely to suffer from ED if they consumed a certain amount of coffee each day, corresponding to 2-3 cups.To explain the finding, the study's authors propose that caffeine is known to relax arteries and increase blood flow, which both contribute to reducing ED. Check out the Forbes article above for more detailed information. In fact, enjoy the article over a coffee :).
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I gave this blog post a general title instead of only focusing on this latest news, because it isn't the first time I've heard coffee related to erectile dysfunction.
By the 17th Century in London, England, coffeehouses had exploded. There were more than 2,000 of them in the city, occupying more space than any other trade. Different from the tavern, this was a place for energetic and often intellectual chatter, where people could sit for hours listening and contributing to all manner of conversation. In fact, Lloyd's of London started as a coffeehouse owned by Edward Lloyd that catered to seafarers and merchants. Underwriters met there to offer insurance, and Lloyd's of London was born.Women were excluded from this sub-culture, whereas they were welcome in taverns. In 1674 in an effort to battle the coffeehouses that excluded them, The Womens Petition Against Coffee complained that this sinister "coffee" beverage was responsible for causing erectile dysfunction in their husbands. The Petition accused men of using coffeehouses to sober up after a day of drinking at the taverns, and returning home impotent.In 1675, King Charles II decreed that coffeehouses would be systematically shut down. Within a week and what seemed like the monarchy possibly being overthrown, the edict was overturned and coffeehouses lived on. The Womens Petition lost its voice, and caffeine wasn't again widely related to erectile function or dysfunction again.