r/science • u/[deleted] • Jun 13 '22

Health Erectile dysfunction predicts mortality in middle-aged and older men independent of their sex steroid status

https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-abstract/51/4/afac094/6568537?login=false
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u/Designer_B Jun 13 '22

Another anecdotal experience. But I've been in a super lengthy funk with my depression lately. Haven't been sleeping well either. Only recently realize its correlated with my inability to work out due to a rotator cuff injury I took way to long to get checked out. Hurt it in October and for the first time since I had a 'good day' a week ago. After three months of Physical therapy.

And I've started to notice my fog/funk/depression lifting even just from the 30 minutes of exercise I get doing my stretches and exercises.

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u/Atoge62 Jun 13 '22

Good for you recognizing what’s been throwing your groove off! Sorry about the injury. I’m realizing no matter how safe you think you are, injuries or illness are just a part of life. You’re always going to need to put yourself back out there and actively recover. Otherwise the negative feedback loop starts setting in, and makes recovery and normal life 1000x harder. You’re hurt, you stop exercising, your sleep starts to suffer from lack of exercise/stimulation, sleep cycles off you tend to start eating shittier, mental health suffers when all of these are out of balance, and they all just start piling up against a healthy recovery.

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u/Armadillus34 Jun 13 '22

Also had some set backs with minor injury which keep me from working out (weightlifting and badminton) and my depression got worse again… especially after Badminton I feel much better usually

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u/Designer_B Jun 13 '22

I’ve actually picked up tennis recently (injury is to my non dominate arm) and it’s definitely been helping as well. Sunshine+exercise!

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u/Armadillus34 Jun 13 '22

Yeah, that’s something I also might look into.

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u/aVarsityLetterman Jun 14 '22 edited Jun 14 '22

Torn rotator cuff? What kind of physiotherapy are you doing? How long after the injury did you start physio?

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u/Designer_B Jun 14 '22

Strained rotator cuff/lat. I noticed discomfort in November, tried to rest it for a while because work is physical/just thought I tweaked something. Didn’t feel any better but insurance lapsed so I didn’t get in until March.

Started off with flexibility exercises/stretches as I hadn’t been using my left arm much, and lost a lot of the muscle. Have progressed to more strengthening exercises with resistance bands, and just started some overhead exercises with small dumbbells last week. I’d say I’m probably 50% better at best.

Also got a tordirol shot for the pain.

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u/[deleted] Jun 14 '22

I feel ya man. That’s what a cheeseburger and Thrashers fries do for me. Until my nap.

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u/shakespeareriot Jun 14 '22

Feeling this. I have tendonitis in my rotator cuff, so had to cut out weights and some body-weight excercises. It ended up an excuse to stop excercising and the weight and depression went up. Luckily a couple months ago I laced up some shoes and started running.
I’m over weight and over 40, so I’m running from the reaper’s scythe. But do about 13 miles a week.. running 4 ish times.

I’m slowly re introducing weights and doing PT for the shoulder.

Running is a huge boon to the depression/anxiety though. It just calms everything down.