Plug in and switch on for results

In some darker corners on the spectrum of sexual behavior comes the world of BDSM where, depending on the participants' particular hard-wired responses, the notions of dominance and submission are used to stimulate sexual response. Obviously, the detail of the roles can be very different, but
the essence remains the same - to encourage a sexual response by playing with bondage and the infliction of pain both physical and emotional. There are some who engage in what, in other circumstances, might be considered torture. The law remains deeply ambiguous about whether such behavior should be criminal. Those in the BDSM movement argue this is a victimless activity, the fact of consent making the pain lawful. In government, the view is that people should not be allowed to consent to serious pain. A sadist is always a sadist is always a criminal, goes the mantra. So, the way the laws are applied differs from state to state and depends on whether the victims are seriously injured.

All of which brings us to research undertaken in the Ramban Medical Center in Haifa, Israel. The head of research, Dr. Vardi, collected together a group of some twenty brave volunteers, all of whom were suffering from erectile dysfunction. Twice a week over a three year period, the team then administered electric shocks to various parts of each participant's penis and genitals. The results are out. Fifteen of the twenty have shown significant improvement. The research is justified in the following way. Many men who take the standard pills find their erections perfectly satisfactory. But, when they stop taking the pills, the erections also disappear. There is therefore a need to find a long-term cure. The hypothesis under test is that electricity stimulates blood vessels and improves their ability to dilate and contract. Hence, the reported improvement in erections reported by these participants.
Now before you all dash out and ask the local chapter of the BDSM for electric shocks to your penis, let's pause. Electricity has been used as a torture for more than one hundred years. Further, there is absolutely no scientific evidence for the proposition that the application of electricity puts new life into the smooth muscle walls in blood vessels. At the very least, the BDSM community itself and everyone playing with vibrating devices would have noticed the beneficial results. Except in the BDSM community where role-playing torture scenes routinely does encourage erections, there is no anecdotal evidence of a link between electricity and erections.

While we never want to criticise serious scientific researchers, this particular clinical trial seems strangely perverse, and will require ethical and robust follow-up to see whether the results can be replicated in a statistically significant number of participants. This would be one case in which the majority of men might prefer to be in the placebo-control group where only a pretend shock is administered. For those of you who prefer safe sex to mean the absence of cattle prods and other electrical devices, there does remain the problem of erectile dysfunction. Fortunately, as Dr. Vardi confirmed, you can always buy viagra which produces an erection in almost all men the first time and every subsequent time it is used. Viagra is better and cheaper than a dominatrix.
by Astro