Men's health diet therapy and signs of aging, lifestyle details
**IV. Dietary Therapy for Men's Health**
1. Take one pair of dog kidneys, chop them up, roast them until cooked, grind them into a fine powder, take 3g each night with rice wine, twice a day.
2. Place live loaches in clean water and wash them clean after they have expelled all intestinal secretions. Heat oil in a pan, add a few slices of ginger, fry the loaches until golden brown, add about 3 bowls of water, add 50g of shrimp meat, and cook together to make a soup. Take once a day.
3. One turtle and 200g of pork spinal cord. Add appropriate amounts of ginger, scallions, and pepper to the above two ingredients, stew until cooked, and eat the meat and drink the soup. This recipe has the effects of nourishing yin and replenishing marrow, strengthening the kidneys and benefiting essence.
4. Take one pig stomach, wash it clean, put 10g of Cistanche deserticola into the pig stomach, tie it up, boil it in water until cooked, eat the meat and drink the soup, once a day.
5. Take one white pigeon, remove feathers and internal organs, wash it clean, add 24g of wolfberries and 50g of polygonatum, stew or steam them together and eat. Take twice a day.
6. Boil two pigeon eggs, remove the shells, add 75g each of longan pulp and wolfberry, and 10g of schisandra berries, put them in a bowl, add water and steam until cooked, add sugar and eat twice a day.
7. Take 2 sparrow eggs, 15g of shrimp meat, 9g each of dodder seed and wolfberry, put them in a bowl, add water and steam until cooked. Eat twice a day.
8. Take 10g of leek seeds and 50g of japonica rice. Roast the leek seeds over low heat until cooked, then add them to a clay pot with the japonica rice, a little salt, and 500ml of water. Cook until the rice is cooked and the porridge is done. Take twice daily while warm. This formula has the effects of warming the kidneys, strengthening yang, and stopping seminal emission.
9. Take 9g of fresh walnut kernels and 6g of psoralea corylifolia, grind them together into a paste, and take it with light salt water once a day. This formula has the effect of tonifying the kidneys and strengthening essence.
10. Cordyceps sinensis can be stewed with an appropriate amount of rock sugar in a double boiler, or steamed with longan pulp, walnuts, and red dates and then eaten. This has the effect of tonifying the kidneys and replenishing essence.
**Details of Men's Daily Life**
What follows are some details about a man's life, which may seem trivial at first glance. However, just like exquisite jade, their value often lies in the details. Truly outstanding men often excel in the details, don't they? Go home and ask your wife; who knows, she might have fallen for you because of a particular detail-perhaps a slight furrow of the brow, a lazy yawn, or something else entirely! While reading this book, perhaps a single detail will greatly benefit you. Who knows? Take a look!
**I. Signs of Male Aging**
1. As men age, the number of hair follicles on their scalp decreases, resulting in thinning hair and slower hair growth. Many men will experience baldness.
2. The eardrum thickens and the ear canal narrows, making it increasingly difficult to distinguish pitches, especially high-frequency sounds. This condition becomes more pronounced after the age of 60.
3. Heart function: After age 20, the heart's ability to regulate during strenuous exercise decreases, decreasing to 140 beats per minute by age 30. For every additional 10 years thereafter, the heart's maximum number of beats per minute decreases by 10.
4. Lung function: The thoracic skeleton becomes increasingly stiff, and the muscles that control breathing bear an increasingly heavy burden. Between the ages of 55 and 75, the proportion of body fat tissue roughly doubles, and most of the increased fat accumulates in muscle and organ tissues.
5. The frequency of sexual activity and the number of sexual urges will inevitably decrease. According to statistics, people around 25 years old can have an average of 104 sexual activities per year, 52 times at age 50, and about 22 times at age 70.
**II. Factors Affecting Men's Health**
Health is the holistic unity of the body's internal and external environments. Any factor that can influence changes in the body's internal and external environments will have some impact on health. Factors affecting men's health can be categorized by internal and external environments (internal and external causes); by innate factors (congenital endowment and acquired conditioning); and by their nature (mental and biological factors, as well as factors such as trauma and excessive sexual activity).
1. Innate Factors: Parents' endowments largely determine a newborn's strength and even their lifelong health. If the parents are healthy, their child will have abundant endowments and a strong physique; if the parents are weak and sickly or have given birth at an older age, their child will have insufficient endowments, a weak constitution, and be prone to illness, even genetic or congenital diseases. Furthermore, parental fatigue, exhaustion, or sexual activity while ill are all unfavorable innate factors affecting male health.
2. Social Factors: Intense social competition leads to high work stress and heavy mental burdens for men, resulting in a significant increase in mental illnesses, cardiovascular diseases, as well as erectile dysfunction, nocturnal emission, and low sexual function. Because men have more opportunities to work away from home and often engage in more dangerous jobs, they are more likely to become victims of accidents such as traffic accidents. The AIDS epidemic, which is now a global threat, is also a clear example of how social factors are impacting men's health.
3. Emotional Factors: Men often suffer from internal organ damage due to uncontrolled emotions, leading to conditions such as hypertension, coronary heart disease, ulcers, neurosis, migraines, hyperthyroidism, diabetes, and even cancer. Modern medical research has found that when a man's cerebral cortex is functioning normally, the body's nervous and endocrine functions are stable, and the spermatogenesis and sexual function of the testes are normal. However, if a man is in a state of prolonged depression, pessimism, or worry, the cerebral cortex and the body's nervous and endocrine functions will become imbalanced, impairing spermatogenesis and sexual function, and increasing the likelihood of infertility.
4. Climatic Factors: The six pathogenic factors of wind, cold, heat, dampness, dryness, and fire, as well as epidemic pathogens, can all invade the body and cause illness. For example, spring is windy and often causes febrile diseases; summer is hot and often causes fever and heatstroke. In fact, certain geographical environments can lead to certain climate changes. For example, the northwest is windy and cold, while the coastal areas of Jiangnan are hot and humid, which have different effects on health.
5. Dietary Factors: After leaving the mother's body, the fetus relies on food to sustain life. The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic states, "Those who obtain grain prosper, those who lose grain perish," clearly indicating that diet is a crucial guarantee for life and health. The impact of dietary factors on men's health is mainly manifested in the following aspects: ① Irregular eating habits, such as overeating, especially binge eating, are more common among men today; ② Food preferences that affect health, especially excessive smoking and drinking; ③ Foods that are unsuitable for one's constitution. For example, some people do not understand whether the properties of food are beneficial to them and often eat indiscriminately. Those with Yang deficiency often eat cold foods, and those with low sexual function mistakenly eat foods that are detrimental to sexual function.
6. Lifestyle Factors: Irregular sleep patterns, overwork, and excessive leisure all have a significant impact on health. Sleep is crucial for health. A person can survive for seven days without food; however, without sleep day and night, survival is difficult. Many men spend their nights in karaoke bars, dance halls, or bowling, failing to ensure sufficient sleep. Some even enjoy staying up all night or sleeping in late, disrupting the body's circadian rhythm and negatively impacting health. Therefore, for the sake of one's health, it is essential to cultivate healthy lifestyle habits.
7. Sexual Activity Factors: Sexual activity is neither essential nor excessive. Repressed sexual activity can negatively impact physical and mental health, leading to physiological and psychological imbalances and potentially causing illness. Excessive and unrestrained sexual activity inevitably damages kidney essence, depletes energy, and harms the spirit. Modern immunology also suggests that frequent intercourse and repeated, high-level systemic arousal inevitably lead to significant energy consumption, weakened organ function, and reduced regulatory function of the body's immune system. Clinically, men with kidney deficiency due to excessive sexual activity often experience symptoms such as sluggish thinking, dull eyes, lower back and knee weakness, dizziness, tinnitus, forgetfulness, fatigue, impotence, premature ejaculation, seminal emission, and susceptibility to colds. Only moderate sexual activity is beneficial to physical and mental health.
**Part Three: Massage – Health Maintenance or Treatment?**
People are paying more and more attention to their health and enjoying life more, with many choosing to get massages during their rest time to relax muscles, improve circulation, and even take a comfortable nap to relieve fatigue. But why do some people experience body aches and pains after a massage? What are the actual health benefits of massage?
1. Massage is not suitable for everyone. Massage involves using manual techniques to "push acupoints and follow meridians" on specific parts of the body, causing the body to release, tonify, and balance internally. This promotes the unblocking of meridians, harmonizes the body's vital energy and blood, and improves the body's natural disease resistance, achieving the goal of strengthening the body's resistance and eliminating pathogenic factors to treat diseases. Therefore, massage is an indispensable treatment method in traditional Chinese medicine clinical practice. Massage is a physical therapy, especially effective in relieving and rehabilitating muscle and ligament injuries, joint diseases, and neuropathic pain, such as cervical spondylosis, frozen shoulder, lumbar muscle strain, lumbar disc herniation, sciatica, and arthritis. Massage can promote blood circulation, remove blood stasis, realign muscles and tendons, lubricate joints, relax muscles and tendons, and relieve spasms and pain. In addition, massage can regulate qi and blood, balance yin and yang, dispel cold and warm the meridians, and can also have good therapeutic effects on gastrointestinal diseases, constipation, gastroptosis, dysmenorrhea, and indigestion in children.
However, not everyone is suitable for massage therapy and other manual therapy methods. Treatment requires addressing the specific symptoms, and health maintenance must also be tailored to the individual; otherwise, unexpected complications may occur. Those with broken skin, those experiencing a severe flare-up of internal organ disease, patients with bone tuberculosis, tumor patients, and certain heart disease patients are not suitable for massage therapy and health maintenance. Furthermore, those with fractures, areas of bleeding or internal bleeding, women during menstruation, and patients with severe hypertension are also unsuitable for massage.
2. Health-preserving massage ≠ medical massage. Prolonged work or study, improper posture, or the use of unsuitable personal items can sometimes cause discomfort. Health-preserving massage primarily involves massaging meridians and acupoints, or stimulating joints, fascia, and muscles, mainly to relieve fatigue and achieve complete relaxation both mentally and physically. Health-preserving massage helps to unblock the body's meridians, promote blood circulation, regulate internal organs, and balance Yin and Yang, achieving disease prevention and health maintenance effects. However, the massage services offered in hospital massage departments differ from those provided in health-preserving massage parlors. Massage therapy, also known as medical massage or trauma massage, is a physical therapy method in Traditional Chinese Medicine, aimed at treating illness. Health-preserving massage, on the other hand, uses manual massage techniques to maintain health and well-being, focusing primarily on disease prevention and treatment, with treatment of injuries as a secondary function. Health-preserving massage therapists can be trained and practice, while medical massage therapists are licensed physicians. Therefore, when you experience pain or discomfort, health-preserving massage may not be the appropriate treatment. It is best to consult a doctor for examination and diagnosis before choosing a treatment plan.
**Fourth** Smoking like this only compoundes the harm.
Everyone knows that smoking is harmful to health, but if the time, environment, and occasion of smoking are not properly controlled, the harm will be compounded, which is probably something that many addicts do not expect.
1. Misconception 1: Chatting with friends while drinking and smoking
Many people enjoy smoking while drinking, believing that good wine and cigarettes are essential for a good atmosphere when friends gather, and that neither can be dispensed with. After drinking too much, lighting a cigarette and savoring it seems to bring much pleasure. However, you may not know that enjoying alcohol and cigarettes together is more harmful than drinking or smoking alone. This is because ethanol dissolves in the tar of cigarettes, promoting the transfer of carcinogens into cell membranes. Data shows that 70% of oral cancers are related to the combined effects of smoking and drinking. Most seriously, when alcohol and cigarettes enter the body simultaneously, the liver's metabolic function is focused on clearing ethanol, leaving other substances to linger in the body for hours or even days, greatly increasing the harm tobacco causes. Therefore, smoking while drinking is essentially playing with your health and life.
2. Misconception Two: Smoking in the toilet, taking two things at once.
This is a long-standing folk saying, and precisely because it's so popular, its harmful effects are even more widespread. Many people believe that smoking can alleviate the stench in toilets. In fact, toilets have a higher concentration of ammonia and a relatively lower oxygen content than other places. Tobacco, under low-oxygen conditions, produces more sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide. These, along with other toxic gases and pathogenic bacteria in the toilet, are inhaled in large quantities, posing a significant health risk. For patients with coronary heart disease or chronic bronchitis, smoking in the toilet can trigger angina, myocardial infarction, or an acute attack of bronchitis.
3. Myth Three: A cigarette in the morning will give you energy for the whole day.
This is the self-perception of some heavy smokers. The first thing they do upon waking is light a cigarette, justifying it as a "morning smoke to refresh them." They feel uneasy if they don't smoke in the morning, as if they've missed something. Often, they're already puffing away before even getting out of bed. Yes, waking up and smoking a cigarette "compensates" for the nicotine levels that have dropped overnight, which can indeed be invigorating for these heavy smokers. However, after a night of stagnant air in the room, the smoke mixed with cigarette smoke is re-inhaled into the lungs. Furthermore, smoking on an empty stomach irritates the bronchi, causing them to secrete fluid, which can eventually lead to chronic bronchitis. There's a folk saying: "Smoking in the morning, early to the afterlife," which, while exaggerated, does illustrate the harmfulness and seriousness of smoking in the morning.
4. Myth #4: A cigarette after a meal is better than being a god.
This is a highly harmful misconception for smokers. After a meal, blood circulation increases, and nicotine is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream, putting the person in an excited state, making them feel lightheaded, much like the "heavenly" feeling described by smokers. In reality, smoking one cigarette after a meal is more harmful than smoking ten at other times. This is because the body's heat levels increase significantly after a meal, and smoking at this time inhibits the basal secretion of protein and bicarbonate, hindering food digestion and affecting nutrient absorption. It also directly damages the stomach and duodenum, causing gastrointestinal dysfunction, increased bile secretion, and symptoms such as abdominal pain. Moreover, while the body is actively digesting and absorbing food, its ability to absorb cigarette smoke is also enhanced, increasing the amount of harmful substances inhaled. Therefore, it can be said that smoking after meals is extremely harmful.
Therefore, smokers must pay attention to the occasion and time when they smoke, and of course, for their own health, it is best to quit smoking.
**Part Five: Men's Skin Care Secrets**
When it comes to skin care and maintenance, many people think it's a woman's responsibility. However, men's sebaceous and sweat glands are actually larger than women's, their skin is more acidic, and they secrete more sebum and sweat. Men are also more likely to engage in heavy physical labor in harsh environments, doing dirty and strenuous work, making their skin more susceptible to pollution, darkening, and roughness. Therefore, men should also pay more attention to scientific and reasonable skin care and maintenance.
1. Learn the correct way to shave. The best time to shave is in the morning, as your face and skin are more relaxed then. Choose a good quality razor, soap, and warm water. First, wash your face with warm water to allow your pores to open and your beard to soften before shaving. Start from the sideburns, cheeks, neck, around the lips, and chin. After shaving, wash your face with warm water, then rinse with cool water to help the pores close and recover. Afterward, apply a moisturizing lotion or cream to soothe the skin and reduce irritation. Also, avoid plucking your beard with your hands or tweezers to prevent bacterial infections that can cause folliculitis, boils, and enlarged pores.
2. Regular skin massage: First, apply some massage cream to your face. Then, use your fingers to massage in circular motions from bottom to top, following the texture of your facial skin. Do this every morning and evening when washing your face, for about 10 minutes each time. After massaging, rinse with water and pat dry. Massage helps to remove dead skin cells from the surface, promotes facial blood circulation, increases skin nutrition through the secretion of sebaceous glands and sweat, and enhances the vitality of deep skin cells, resulting in radiant and elastic skin.
**3.** **Pay Attention to Sun and Freeze Protection** Men who frequently work or engage in outdoor activities need sun protection in summer and freeze protection in winter. Some experts believe that skin sun protection should begin in spring. Although spring is not scorching hot, it is dry and windy, with many sunny days and little cloud cover, resulting in very strong ultraviolet radiation. It's advisable to prepare sunscreen oils or creams to prevent sunburn. Therefore, sunscreen products can be used as early as April. In the depths of winter, apply some oils or freezer creams when going out to prevent frostbite or chapped skin on the face; apply moisturizing cream before bed, and if lips are chapped, apply a colorless lip balm to nourish the skin and keep it moisturized and shiny. It is best to choose skincare products specifically formulated for men.
4. Try not to smoke. To have a clean and radiant complexion, men must quit smoking. Cigarettes contain many harmful substances, such as nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide, all of which can damage health and cause dull, lackluster skin. Addiction to smoking can lead to a dull, dry complexion, wrinkles, premature aging, yellowed and blackened teeth, and weakened vision and hearing; in severe cases, it can even lead to cancer.
**Six** Men's breasts also need care.
Breast development in normal men is very low, so it is often overlooked. In fact, as an organ located on the surface of the body, men should also pay attention to breast health.
During puberty, approximately 40% to 70% of boys experience varying degrees of breast development, often manifesting as nodules in the breast accompanied by localized pain and tenderness. Most of these nodules resolve spontaneously within 1 to 2 years, so there's no need to feel anxious. Simply seek medical attention promptly upon noticing any changes in the breasts and seek treatment actively. Don't feel embarrassed; relax and you will soon regain your "manly" appearance. During treatment, avoid frequent touching or stimulation of the breasts, as excessive stimulation is not conducive to the regression of breast hyperplasia. Furthermore, since boys in puberty are often in school, parents sometimes buy them supplements to help them prepare for exams and improve their grades. However, supplements containing hormones may cause abnormal breast development in boys, so caution should be exercised when consuming any supplements.
Middle-aged and elderly men are prone to abnormal breast development due to endocrine hormone imbalances caused by various reasons. Furthermore, breast development in elderly men can potentially progress to breast cancer. Therefore, elderly men should pay attention to physical exercise, prevent liver disease, endocrine system disorders, and other illnesses, be cautious when taking various medications, and regularly monitor changes in their breasts. If any abnormalities are found, they should seek medical attention promptly.
**7. Get rid of your beer belly**
Men often gain weight starting in the abdomen. Initially, these subtle changes are only noticeable to the individual, but later they become a common feature of adult men-a beer belly. Some call it "getting fat," while others believe it's a sign of "a carefree attitude and a healthy body," but medical experts consider it a bad thing. Professor Hong Zhaoguang, a medical expert, once said, "The longer the belt, the shorter the lifespan," a truly sobering statement for men with "beer bellies." To determine abdominal obesity, measure your waist and hip circumference while standing, using the widest part of your hips as the reference point. Divide your waist circumference by your hip circumference. If the resulting waist-to-hip ratio exceeds the upper limit of 0.85-0.9, it can be considered abdominal obesity. It is understood that obesity is becoming increasingly serious in my country, especially in some economically developed regions, and is severely impacting people's health. In Guangzhou, for example, the prevalence of obesity among adults exceeds 10%, and among teenagers it reaches 5%-7%.
Several reasons contribute to a beer belly: ① Prolonged sitting at a desk, stressful work, and lack of exercise. ② Some believe that "a carefree mind leads to a plump body," and that weight gain is a sign of a carefree life. From a psychological perspective, this view has some merit, which explains why many men gain weight rapidly after marriage. ③ Depression can lead to seeking comfort in food or alcohol; weight and stress can create a vicious cycle: people under stress are prone to overeating and indigestion, resulting in weight gain, which in turn exacerbates psychological stress.
While men don't idealize a "skinny" figure, gaining weight isn't a good thing either; you certainly don't want to only be able to see your belt buckle in the mirror. We know that obese people are more prone to chronic diseases such as hypertension, coronary heart disease, and diabetes. Medical statistics show that obese people are 5 times more likely to suffer from coronary heart disease, 8 times more likely to suffer from hypertension, and 7 times more likely to suffer from diabetes than people of normal weight. The average lifespan of obese people is also significantly shorter than that of people of normal weight. Recently, it has been found that abdominal obesity is more dangerous than hip obesity, increasing the risk of heart disease. A study from Washington University in St. Louis shows that people with hip obesity and abdominal obesity have different cholesterol levels. Those with hip obesity and a small waist circumference have higher levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), which is considered beneficial and can prevent heart disease; while those with a large belly and small hips have lower levels of this type of cholesterol, thus increasing their risk of heart disease.
How can you get rid of a "beer belly"? Here are a few effective methods:
1. Effective exercise: Restricting your diet to shrink your abdomen not only fails to strengthen your abdominal muscles but can also harm your health. Instead, engaging in more physical activities, such as running, hiking, cycling, swimming, and playing ball games, can reduce abdominal fat.
2. Do more abdominal exercises.
(1) Sit cross-legged, hold a heavy object behind your head, raise it above your head, exhale and contract your abdomen, relax your upper arms, put your hands back behind your head, inhale and relax your abdominal muscles, repeat 8 to 12 times.
(2) Lie flat on the mat with your ankles close together, fix your feet, stretch your arms straight above your head, sit up forcefully, touch your toes with your hands, and then slowly lean your upper body back. Repeat 10 times.
(3) Hold the door frame with both hands to suspend your body in the air, then forcefully contract your abdomen and straighten your legs to raise them so that your legs and torso form a 90° angle. Hold for a moment and then slowly lower them back to the starting position. Repeat 5 to 10 times.
(4) Stand naturally, gently press your abdomen with your left hand and place your right hand behind your head. Slowly inhale and contract your abdomen while pressing your abdomen inward with your left hand. Hold your breath for a while and then exhale, so that your abdominal muscles gradually relax and arch forward. Repeat 10 times.
3. Abdominal massage for weight loss
(1) Lie supine on the bed, unbutton your clothes and loosen your belt, wearing only a thin garment. Have a family member sit on the left side of the bed facing the obese person. First, use a wave-like pushing and pressing method to move from the upper abdomen to the lower abdomen 3-4 times. Then, use three fingers stacked on top of each other to press on the upper, middle, and lower parts of the abdomen, pressing each part 2-3 times. The pressure should be such that you can feel a pulse under your hands and the patient does not feel pain. This method is simple, effective, comfortable, and fast-acting as a way to eliminate abdominal fat and strengthen the body. It is also suitable for many diseases of the digestive, nervous, and urinary/reproductive systems. However, it is not advisable to perform this method after meals or when you are particularly hungry. For chronic diseases, rest for a few days after one month of massage before resuming the massage.
(2) Put your fingers together and stretch them forward. Place your left palm on the back of your right fingers and your right palm flat against your abdomen. Push forward with force, then press back with your left palm. Push and pull back slowly from top to bottom, like waves in water.
4. Lower Abdominal Fat Acupressure Method: The abdomen is the main area for fat accumulation, and men tend to accumulate fat above the navel. When applying acupressure to the lower abdomen, bend your palms fully and press vertically for 15 seconds. When applying acupressure to the sides of the abdomen, bend your palms fully and place them on the left and right sides of the abdomen, then press slowly and horizontally for 15 seconds.
**8. The Science of Urination**
Squatting while urinating can accelerate the removal of harmful substances from the intestines. While men often urinate standing up, studies have found that squatting while urinating triggers a series of muscle movements and related reflexes, accelerating the removal of intestinal waste, shortening the time feces remain in the intestines, and reducing the reabsorption of carcinogens such as hydrogen sulfide, indole, and skatole, thus lowering the risk of cancer. Surveys show that men who squat while urinating have a 40% lower cancer rate than those who stand. There's no fixed rule for how often to urinate; the common practice is to go to the toilet when you feel a full bladder. However, there's a new recommendation: if you don't want to develop bladder cancer, it's suggested to urinate once an hour, regardless of whether you feel the urge. Experts at the National Institute of Poisoning in the United States explain this by saying that urine contains a carcinogenic chemical that can damage the bladder's muscle fibers, destroy its cells, and promote cancerous changes; the likelihood of bladder cancer is directly proportional to the time urine stays in the bladder. Incomplete urination can easily lead to urinary tract infections, becoming a major cause of illness. How can you completely empty your bladder of residual urine? Experts offer several tips: ① After urinating, gently squeeze the perineum between the scrotum and anus with your fingers. This not only helps expel residual urine but is also beneficial for those with prostatitis. ② Frequently perform Kegel exercises to strengthen the muscles of the perineum and urethra, which can promote the expulsion of residual urine more quickly.
**Nine:** Do not eat bull penis casually.
Ox penis paste is made from the external genitalia of male bulls and is believed to have a warming and tonifying effect on kidney yang. For those experiencing frequent or excessive nocturnal emissions, frequent masturbation, or excessive sexual activity after marriage, accompanied by symptoms of kidney yang deficiency such as dizziness, lower back pain, weakness, memory loss, and loose stools, ox penis paste can be used as a tonic to warm and tonify kidney yang and alleviate symptoms. However, some individuals may experience impotence, premature ejaculation, or frequent nocturnal emissions, but also exhibit symptoms of excessive internal heat such as dry mouth, dry throat, constipation, strong libido, and frequent sexual urges. In such cases, ox penis paste should not be taken. Incorrect consumption may worsen nocturnal emissions and even cause side effects such as irritability and nosebleeds. In short, young men without symptoms of kidney yang deficiency or aversion to cold should not take ox penis paste. It is best to consult a traditional Chinese medicine doctor before choosing any of these tonics.