Viagra (sildenafil citrate) is a beautiful drug when it comes to engineering erections. You pop a pill, and if the pill was a sufficient dosage, then, about an hour later, an erection is quite certain.

You can’t do this with tongkat ali. You’ll have to take it for some time, and then, there will be an overall improvement to your sex life: better libido, and because of increased excitability, better erections, and better orgasms.

If I take a sufficient dosage of Viagra (let’s say: 100 mg), then I can have sex with a woman I don’t really find attractive (probably even with a prostitute). I can have sex with her, because I have an erection (which doesn’t mean that I necessarily would enjoy it). Actually, on a sufficient dosage of Viagra, I can have an erection without a woman around, and without having sexual thoughts, just by rubbing my member for a minute or two.

So, if the task is some mere plumbing (increased penile inflow, reduced penile outflow), then Viagra is the appropriate tool. But there is more to good sex than is provided by a good erection. First of all, I want to feel desire. I clearly regard appropriate sexual desire as more valuable than easy erections.

As a matter of fact, one can have great sex even with a weak erection. However, one has to learn this. Most men, especially when they aren’t yet in their 50’s or 60’s, sort-of panic when they are with a sex partner, and an erection doesn’t automatically happen (as it used to). But while a proper erection is necessary for standard penetrative sex, an erection is not a prerequisite for a satisfying orgasm. For an orgasm, not even much of an ejaculation is essential.

Orgasms are an affair of sexual wiring. Not of sexual plumbing.

Physiologically, they are marked by a sudden dominance of the sympathetic nervous system, while during arousal (and the erective state), the parasympathetic nerves system ruled.

Sympathetic nerve impulses, whether in context with an orgasm or caused by other events (alertness, nervousness, fear, panicking, or simply stress), are always anti-arousal and anti-erectile. This is why men who are afraid of not generating an automatic erection when with a woman, enter a vicious circle: they are worried of not achieving a proper erection, which puts the sympathetic nervous system in command, and because the sympathetic nervous system is in command, they will be even less likely to have an erection. Then they panic, and now they couldn’t achieve an erection even when on 200 mg of Viagra.

Of course, if they take the Viagra about an hour before being called to sexual duty, they will likely start out with a sufficient erection, which gives them self-confidence (which supports the parasympathetic nervous system), which will put them in a situation where they will be capable of maintaining their erection.

Doesn’t that sound great? Unfortunately, no.

The reason for this assessment (which will surely sound strange to a great many readers): if you over-emphasize the parasympathetic nervous system, then your sympathetic nervous system will be depressed, or at least handicapped. And this means: your orgasmic capacity will be diminished.

I started out on the sexual enhancement trail with yohimbine. That is an alpha adrenergic receptor blocker, especially in the pelvic area. Alpha adrenergic receptors are a major gateway for sympathetic tone in the abdomen (sympathetic tone can be caused either directly by sympathetic nerve impulses, or by adrenaline (epinephrine), released from the adrenal medullas upon sympathetic stimulation). If you block pelvic alpha adrenergic receptors, you minimize any effect the sympathetic nervous system (directly or via the release of adrenaline) can exert in this part of the body.

So, you get increased digestive activity (yohimbine is a powerful laxative), and easy erections.

But weak orgasms.

I remember once having ingested some 40 milligrams of yohimbine. Wow, I walked around for hours with an iron rod in my pants. And wow, was I horny when I met with one of my girlfriends!

But the orgasm was a non-event.

Viagra is not quite as bad. It’s also not quite as good for engineering erections. But Viagra, too, clearly takes away from orgasmic intensity. I understand that many men with a sexual lifestyle combat this effect of Viagra with tongkat ali. I do. Or, meanwhile, I often just go without the Viagra.

(Please be aware that I have written dozens of articles on sexual enhancement over the past 10 years. Because my opinion on certain agents of sexual enhancement has developed as I have been experimenting along, there are discrepancies between older and newer articles. Obviously, articles with a more current date will represent more current research and opinion. Therefore, please always read the datelines.)

I can go without the Viagra when I am with a girlfriend that has a good sexual technique. Without Viagra (but on tongkat ali), erections may not be as instantaneous as they are on Viagra, or on a combination of Viagra and tongkat ali. They may require some "manipulation" or "handling" of my member. But I can enjoy sex (and a great erection !) for a longer time when on tongkat ali (in this way, men with a premature ejaculation problem will probably benefit from tongkat ali, too), and I have the most powerful orgasms of my whole life.

After all of this, you may be surprised to learn that I judge tongkat ali to be superior to Viagra not primarily because of the different efficacies.

Primarily, I consider tongkat ali superior to Viagra because tongkat ali is a natural substance, and Viagra, or sildenafil citrate by generic name, is a xenobiotic.

The difference between natural substances and xenobiotics is that natural substances have been part of the human environment for hundreds, thousands, and even millions of years. If we just go back far enough, all life forms on earth are related to each other. Testosterone is a masculinizing hormone not just in humans, but in all mammals. And the nervous systems of humans and chickens, and of humans and fish, are organized in basically the same way (based on ion channels, which open for impulse conduction).

While some substances in the natural world are poisons to some life forms, all life forms are specifically adapted to a very large number of chemical substances that are part of their environment.

Xenobiotics are manmade chemicals that are not part of the natural environment of any life form. While xenobiotics may have an ameliorating effect on some conditions or diseases, it can safely be assumed that almost always, they will somehow negatively affect homeostasis. The negative effects may only show after years of use, and they may appear in an unexpected context. But they are real, and with enough research, they can be traced.

A very common side effect of xenobiotics is that they are carcinogenous. Or that they interfere with sexual function. Only recently, it has been discovered that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen (which has been used by millions for many, many years) significantly increase the risk of heart attacks. And dopaminergics such as bromocriptine and cabergoline can, when taken for years, cause pleural thickening, thus making pulmonary respiration a painful exercise. Who would want this?

I have to laugh when so-called life extensionists or "experts" of anti-aging medicine advocate a regimen of a whole assortment of xenobiotic pharmaceutical products. Xenobiotic pharmaceutical products are indicated in the treatment of certain medical conditions for which they can bring clear relief. They are not suited for a long-term strategy to improve overall health. Which is why most xenobiotic pharmaceuticals rightly are prescription drugs. They are useful only in a relatively narrow sense, and while I grant that educated non-physicians can make an informed choice on their use, a great many other people should better only use them on the advice of a MD because their unrealistic expectations will likely not be met by the drug.

The latest trend in pharmaceutical advertising (e.g. on the Internet) is that the drug companies target the consumer directly by suggesting that patients request certain medications from their doctors. The net effect of such advertising is that many misguided consumers will bypass their physicians to purchase these drugs. Outside of North America and Western Europe, prescription laws are seldom enforced, so US and European citizens on holiday often use stock up when traveling abroad. Furthermore, even US citizens can buy whatever medications they want from overseas sources such as Masters Marketing in the UK, or from online Mexican pharmacies.

Prolonged use of xenobiotics is the wrong strategy for a long-term improvement of one’s health. Proper strategies are based on the avoidance of influences that impair one’s health, on proper nutrition, and on the use of herbal supplement (which are a form of nutrition, e.g. the consumption of green tea for problems of alertness, or brazil nuts to guard against a variety of cancers, or tongkat ali for sexual function).

Sildenafil citrate is a manmade xenobiotic. It doesn’t occur in the natural world. And while sildenafil citrate definitely works in causing erections, it is not a medication that would be indicated for day-to-day use to improve one’s overall health. Which is why the Viagra package insert (which had to be approved by the FDA) clearly states that the drug is not for everyday use.

If the aim is a long-term overall improvement of sexual health and sexual capacity, then our best option still is tongkat ali. It has been used in Southeast Asia for thousands of years, and it has been part of the human Southeast Asian habitat for millions of years, so in one way or another, our ancestors have always been exposed to it, and adaptation has occurred. While the effects of tongkat ali may not be as dramatic as the effects of Viagra on a single-use basis, tongkat ali is superior to Viagra because it is suited for a long-term strategy to improve sexual health.