Walking and other types of physical activity may help prevent prostate cancer, too.
Want to perform better in the bedroom? Take a walk. Physical activity is one of the most powerful things you can do to prevent erectile dysfunction and lower your risk of prostate cancer.
Walking helps keep things working below the belt in a couple of ways. First, exercise can help prevent erectile dysfunction. Even if you're middle-aged and you've always been a couch potato, starting an exercise program can help prevent erectile dysfunction in your golden years. Already have issues with erectile dysfunction? Walking can help you lose weight, and research has found that if you're overweight or obese, losing 10% of your body weight can help improve sexual function.
Regular workouts help ensure you prevent something even scarier: prostate cancer. "Compared with men who are sedentary, guys who regularly exercise at a moderate level (brisk walking counts) are more likely to have biopsies that indicate no cancer," say Mehmet C. Oz, MD, and Michael F. Roizen, MD. "Even men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer are less likely to have an aggressive form if they're exercising."
Oz and Roizen say that exercise may lower levels of hormones that spur growth of prostate tumors, as well as turn off genes that make a protein that fosters prostate cancer growth.
There you have it: two more very compelling reasons to take a few extra steps every day.
Medically reviewed in July 2018.
