Do My Du Mai
Is there anything as amusing as watching Dr. Paul Turek do a double take?
Picture us, at the Integrative Fertility Symposium in Vancouver, sharing the podium for an East/West panel discussion on Men’s Reproductive Health, and, as often happens, the conversation takes an inevitable turn towards the male erection.
We were discussing the difficulty men might experience when the pressure of trying to conceive inhibits performance, a common problem that affects many couples. So up pipes yours-truly saying “well, there’s a surefire way to know whether this is a functional problem (something physical) or if it’s a psycho-emotional issue (overthinking, stress, worry, low self esteem…). We need to ask, does he have his ‘Morning Glory’?”
Cue Dr. T: “Morning what?!” (much laughter from the audience)
“Ohhh” says he, comprehension dawning, “you mean morning wood.”
Indeed, says I, and turning to the audience, began to explain the mechanism of the morning stiffy in Chinese medicine terms, “… during REM sleep the deep pathway of the Du Mai will close at Du 16…”
Cue comedy-interruption as Dr. T twists in his chair and with raised eyebrows, puzzled tone, face askance, queries “Do my what??”
Do my Du Mai my Dear Dr. T.
Du Mai is translated as the “Governing Vessel,” which must be in full circuit connection for a successful erection. The state of our nervous system has a direct correlation to smooth function of the Du Mai, so if we are running in a state of nervous system over-activation, this will cause disruption in the Du Mai circuitry.
This is such a common issue in our go-go-never-stop 24/7 busy lives. So many of us run on a hyped up energy that becomes what is termed ‘chronic sympathetic’, meaning the stress response is more or less permanently switched on. This plays havoc with our digestive and reproductive hormone balance, disrupting the fine tuning of feedback loops that give us our sexual and reproductive energy. Out of balance hormones = out of steam libido.
Who knew? Acupuncture as a front line treatment for ED.
And we didn’t even have a chance to rev up the Ren Mai, Chivy the Chong Mai or Double-Do the Dai Mai…
Chinese medicine is a vast resource for treatment for sexual and reproductive issues with a rich cache of treatments. So boys, if that morning glory is not making an upstanding and proud presence, find an acupuncturist and ask them if they will Do Your Du Mai.
Jani White runs an Integrative Fertility and Pregnancy practice in the heart of London. She also runs a Men’s Health practice called ‘The Goodwood Clinic’ which combines Andrology, Urology with Chinese medicine. She is a writer and lecturer and is currently publishing a book series, the first of which ‘The Fertile Fizz’ is soon to be available on Amazon.
