If you love your penis, this video is for you. I'm Dr. Reena Malik, urologist and pelvic surgeon. And today we're going to talk about 10 things you should never do to your penis. Guys, I'm a urologist, and part of my job is to take care of penises. And quite frankly, I care about penal health, and you should, too. In this video, I'm going to share the 10 things that you should be doing for your penal health that you probably didn't know about. And make sure you stick around till number 10 because that one's going to surprise you. Now, before I get into the video, I want to ask you guys a huge favor. If you guys have been following me for some time, have been watching some of my content, make sure that you are subscribed to the channel. And if you are subscribed, make sure you hit the notification bell. I make content all the time on this channel and a lot of times you just can't keep up because there's just so much stuff to do. But I don't want you to miss great education all the time. And I see that only 20% of you watching are actually subscribed. So, please do me a solid favor. Subscribe. Share this channel if you can with your friends because it really means a lot to get this word out and help people around the world get the education they need. Number one is very simple. Don't ignore your penis. Now, a lot of you probably don't realize this, but the way your penis functions is a barometer of your overall health. When you look at men who start having trouble with erections, and you follow these guys for seven years after the start or onset of their problems, 14% of them go on to have a heart attack. And that's because we call erectile dysfunction the canary in the coal mine. But I always say it is a marker of health because when you have good strong erections and good strong desire, it tells you a lot about your body. One, that you have good blood flow. Your hormones are functioning well. Your nervous system is functioning well. That you're psychologically in a good place, right? Things are not stressing you out. And that you're not doing something that you shouldn't. Meaning, you're not taking a substance that might be affecting the health of your penis. That brings me to number two. Don't DIY things for your penis. Now, I have seen it all, and let me tell you, there is no at-ome remedy that's going to help your penis get longer, get thicker, that's safe. There is no really concoction that's going to make it grow overnight, no matter what the ads promise you. I remember seeing an ad about someone pouring apple cider vinegar on their penis and saying it grew their penis like immediately. And I was like, this doesn't even make sense. But I understand there's a desperation around penal health. And so people are very eager to see something help them in whatever issue they might be having, whether it's the size of their penis or they're getting erections. And oftent times a lot of these things are unproven, they're unsafe, and they could cause harm. Let me give you some examples. So one is jelking. Jelking is where men use their own hands and pressure from their own hands to do stretches of their penis which can increase penile length. Now this is a problem because a lot of times when people do this they are causing little tiny fractures of their penis over time and injury to their penis and that can then lead to erectile dysfunction. You can ask any urologist we have all seen young guys who've been jelking to excess and guys you know this right? If I tell a guy to do something that's going to help his body, he's not going to just do it like half ass. He's going to go all the way in. And so, you're going to go too far and you're going to hurt yourself and then you'll have irreversible damage to your penis. So, please don't do it. Another one is guys putting on constriction bands that they make at home. So, I think if you watched my constriction band video, I shared where a guy put a construction nut on his penis and we had to get a jiggly saw from the fire department to get it off in the ER. Guys, I'm not making it up. He was, I think, altered when he put it on. He passed out. And so, by the time he came in, his penis was so swollen. There was no way he was getting it off. Another guy had taken a plastic Coke bottle. He had cut out a ring from the plastic Coke bottle and got it stuck on his penis. It is not worth it. Buy a constriction band. You can get one for like $20 on Amazon. It is much, much safer. They are made to be taken off safely and easily. Number three, keep it clean. I think everyone realizes that they should keep their penis clean. But what happens is when guys have a foreskin, sometimes you forget to pull the foreskin back or clean under there or dry under there and that can lead to things like balonitis where you get infections of the foreskin and it can be very uncomfortable. So make sure you are always taking the time pull back the foreskin clean under there. If you can't pull it back that's a problem, right? Because while penile cancer is exceedingly rare, there are cases where people will develop a cancer on their penis and because they could never pull back their foreskin, they can't see it. So I always tell people make sure you can pull your foreskin back. If you can't, make sure you talk to your urologist, talk to your doctor. Sometimes it can be reversed by using a cream or a small device or you could have a circumcision. But ultimately, you always want to be able to pull it back, clean under there, look, inspect your penis, and put it back. In that same vein, I would avoid aggressive cleaning because I think sometimes people will use these really scented or strong soaps and this can actually cause irritation. The skin on your penis is not meant to be aggressively washed, right? It should be clean. Let soapy water run through. Make sure there's no sneagma buildup and keep it clean. But don't be aggressive. Don't wash it aggressively. Don't rub it aggressively because you will cause irritation of the skin and maybe even lacerations. Number four, don't ignore pain or other warning signs. If you guys see a problem with your penis, please talk to your doctor. Do not ignore it. Sometimes it could mean you have a sexually transmitted infection. Sometimes it could mean that you have a urinary tract infection. Sometimes if you see blood in the urine, that could be a sign of a kidney stone, bladder stone, or worse, cancer. Could be cancer in the bladder. Could be cancer of your penis if you see an ulcer there or an ulceration. So guys, don't ignore it. I know it's really hard to go see a doctor and show them your genitals and be vulnerable and tell them what happened and feel like you're getting judged because maybe you had unprotected sex. And I understand that completely, but it is not at the cost of your health. If you feel judged, please find another doctor. But ultimately, we want to make you safe and healthy. And I will tell you the saddest stories in my history of taking care of patients is one where guys ignored ulcers on their penis and had a penile cancer. Penal cancer is very aggressive. It is exceedingly rare. I've probably seen I don't know handful of cases in my entire career because it's so rare. But when it happens, it's really scary. It's really traumatic and guys ignore it because it's so scary. They don't want to have anything done to their penis. But let me tell you, you take care of it early, you will have much less done to your penis than if you wait too long. Number five, stay in control and be safe. There is nothing hotter than safe sex. If you're having sex with someone, you're not worried about getting an STD. You're not worried about getting pregnant. You can be fully uninhibited. You can be fully vulnerable, which allows you to have great sex. So, always prioritize safety. There are so many ways to be safe with sex. There's so many different types of condoms. You got to experiment to find which one is right for you. the thinnest one, the the one that feels the best. Have your partner involved in the process, but always please be safe. Now, in terms of being safe, the other thing I want to say is stay in control. Now, why stay in control? Because things can happen like penal fractures. So, if you are having very vigorous sex and your penis is erect and it bends because maybe you hit the pubic bone, you don't hit the vagina by accident, you pull out and you hit the pubic bone, you will then potentially fracture your penis. And this is a surgical emergency. When this happens, you got to go to the ER and we have to take you to the operating room because we need to repair that tear. When this happens, you tear the outer lining of the erectile tissue or the tunica albugenia. And this needs to be repaired. If you don't repair it and you wait it out at home, over time about half of people who do this will get erectile dysfunction. And so it is much better to go to the ER and get this repaired, surgically repaired, so you can maintain erections rather than dealing with issues with erectile dysfunction later down the line. And you will know when you have a fracture. This is usually when this happens. You'll hear a popping sound. You'll feel significant pain and your penis will get very swollen, something like an eggplant penis. It's really important for you to maintain control. Ideally, hold on to your partner's hips so you can sort of control how fast things are going and the angle at which they're going at so you don't have an accident that leads to a penile fracture and you can maintain the strength of your erections. And the other thing that helps is lubricant. I cannot tell you enough times how important it is to be well lubricated. And guys, lube is fun. It makes things slippery. It makes things more enjoyable. You don't have to feel like there's something wrong with your partner if there's not enough lubrication. This is a normal part of aging. Women tend to lose lubrication as they go through pmenopause and menopause. And sometimes younger women have less lubrication because of medications or genetics or a variety of different things. It does not mean they are not aroused. Number six, don't make it hot. Now, what do I mean by don't make it hot? I mean that you want to keep your testicles in a relatively cool environment. So, the reason that testicles hang outside the male body, whereas women's ovaries are inside, is because they need a very perfect temperature in order to produce sperm. If you expose your testicles to a lot of wet heat, this can lead to changes in your body's ability to produce sperm, which can then lead to infertility, and it can potentially affect your testosterone. So, what I would say is avoid having a lot of exposure to things like jacuzzi's, steam rooms, things like that. Try to limit your exposure to them. Also, when you are sitting or using a laptop, try to make sure you have something in between your your genitals and the laptop. Ideally, keep your phone in your back pocket, not in your front pocket, because all of these things emit heat and they can affect your testicular health. Number seven, be nice to it. So, what do I mean by be nice to it? Well, what I mean is when you masturbate, try not to be very aggressive with your penis. Things like death grip that I've talked about before. Essentially, when you masturbate very aggressively with a very strong grip, when you do things like that, that is not something that can be replicated by a vagina or a mouth or another anal orifice. It's not going to work. Right? So you will then find that your body becomes habituated to that kind of intensity, that kind of pressure that you can't replicate with another person. And then you might notice that you're starting to have trouble getting aroused or maintaining your erection because it's just so different. So what I mean be nice to it is I mean try to masturbate in ways that are similar to the way you would be aroused with a partner and use lubricant and enjoy pleasure. Don't make it a a shameful like hiding in the corner as fast as you can type of experience. Number eight, don't smoke and take care of your health. Guys, smoking will kill your erections. 100% smoking will cause erectile dysfunction. So, don't smoke. People who smoke get bladder cancer. I see it all the time. It is one of the worst cancers because there's so much looking in the bladder with cameras. And sometimes when we do have to do surgery, these are really big surgeries that will change your life dramatically. Overall, your lifestyle matters so much. Now, this is not sexy. It's not quick. It's not easy. But it is so important for your penal health to have a good lifestyle. Remember what I mentioned in number one that in seven years 14% of guys with erectile dysfunction will get a heart attack. That's because erectile dysfunction is a measure of blood flow. It's a measure of so many things. It's a biioarker of your health. And so if you remain healthy, your erections will remain healthy. So that means eat a healthy diet, avoid smoking or any other drugs to excess. Try to minimize alcohol intake. Exercise regularly. Aerobic exercise and resistance training are so important. Aerobic exercise is great for blood flow. And resistance training is great for testosterone. So all of those things are so important and I can't stress them enough. If you don't know how to start, take it one baby step at a time. Do something that is so simple that you can't ignore it. I love this book, Atomic Habits. I'll link it in the description. You can apply that model to anything and it will help you make changes in your life that are positive. And lastly, try to minimize stress that goes into lifestyle, right? We don't talk about it enough, but when you are chronically stressed, a little stress is great. We need stress in our lives. But if you are chronically stressed, this has a huge toll on your overall health, including your sex drive, including your ability to maintain erections. So if you find that you are someone who is chronically stressed, you need to do some investigation on how you can reduce that stress and what you can do within your control to improve your quality of life. And number nine, be nice to yourself. And this is because when I find that men have trouble with their penis, they are really hard on themselves. They are so stressed out about being with their partner, about how their penis looks, about how it performs that they have so much stress and anxiety around the active intimacy of being with their partner. And that just amplifies, right? You feel like, for example, I tell people, you get a problem in the bedroom, you can't get an erection one time, the next time you try to have sex, you're thinking about that the whole time, and that stress is going to make it even harder for you to get an erection. So then you won't get an erection. And then that stress amplifies and it becomes this vicious cycle. So be kind to yourself. Everyone has fluctuations in the function of their penis. There will be times where it just won't work. And that's okay. Once in a while doesn't mean your life is over. It will come back. But do not be mean to yourself and treat yourself badly and cycle in this horrible state of stress. Guys don't talk about this. They don't share their stress with anyone which makes it even worse. And that brings us to number 10. Use it or lose it. Is there any truth to the famous adage, use it or lose it? Well, sort of. So, one is sometimes people stop using it because they're not getting erections anymore, right? And so, they're not getting erections with their partner. So, they just really stop because they're embarrassed or they're stressed or their partner is also not wanting to have sex. But the issue is if they're not having erections and they're also not having erections at nighttime, that's when it becomes a problem. Normally during the night you have three to five erections. And when you have those erections, that's your body's way of protecting your penis, making sure it gets good oxygenated blood flow. And when it stops getting them, then you start noticing that maybe your penis is getting a little shorter, maybe the tissue feels a little different because maybe it's getting some scar tissue. And so, yeah, if you don't continue to have erections at nighttime, this could be a sign that you might actually have some shrinkage of your penis. The other thing is if you have low sex drive, and oftentimes that can be related to stress. Sometimes that can relate to hormones, a variety of different things. But if you start noticing that your sex drive goes down or or you avoid sex for some period of time, your body will then sort of realize it doesn't need it anymore. And so your drive will continue to decrease because you've no longer really allowed yourself to feel that urge. While that might not be a problem for some people, that might be a problem if you're in a relationship and your partner wants to have sex. I think there are so many benefits to having sex and having intimacy with a partner. No matter your age, no matter what you do, it is really, really important. You need to make the effort. Your partner needs to make the effort. Not everyone wants to have sex all the time, but there is so much value in intimacy. And if you guys missed my video on how sex could actually save your life, make sure you check that one out. And as always, we're going to take care of yourself because you are worth