L-Arginine For Erectile Dysfunction

Benefits of L-arginine (L-citrulline) - Can It Cure Erectile Dysfunction and Boost Libido?

I have used, and still use, L-arginine (I prefer L-citrulline) to help me get rock solid erections. And for me it works amazingly well!

Although it is helpful for overcoming erectile dysfunction, it doesn’t have much or any impact on libido.

I will tell you more about my experience shortly.

In order for you to get an erection, your penis needs to be filled with blood. And in order for it to be filled with blood to happen, the muscles in your penis need to produce something called nitric oxide.

This nitric oxide flows into your penis which allows the smooth muscles in your penis to relax. And it is when these muscles relax that blood is allowed to flow into and fill your penis with blood. And for the erection to form.

In order to produce nitric oxide, you need L-arginine.

Therefore, by supplementing with L-arginine, you can get erections more easily, faster and also harder and longer lasting erections.

Or put differently, L-Arginine can help you cure erectile dysfunction.

Let’s learn more about L-arginine.

What Is L-Arginine

L-arginine is what is called an amino acid. There are several hundred amino acids, and each one serves different functions in your body.

Amino acids are broken down into two types, semi-essential and essential amino acids.

Essential amino acids have to be obtained through supplements and foods as they can’t be synthesized in your body.

On the other hand, semi-essential amino acids can be synthesized by your body and so don’t have to be provided directly by supplements or foods.

L-arginine is a semi-essential amino acids. Which means your body generates typically a sufficient amount of it.

On the other hand, some people with certain medical or health issues and infants often don’t produce enough amount of L-arginine. Therefore, they need to obtain a sufficient amount of it either through supplements or foods.

You may have heard that there are 22 amino acids (rather than 500). That is because the most well known amino acids are the twenty-two proteinogenic amino acids.

They are called proteinogenic as they act as a precursor to, or building blocks of proteins. L-arginine is one of these proteinogenic amino acids.



Once proteins are digested through supplements or foods, they are broken down into particular amino acids. In turn, these are re-assembled to the proteins which you body highly needed.

These freshly made proteins can be utilized to repair and build muscle, organs, tissue, hair, skin as well as other body parts.

Also, amino acids are a good source of energy the same way as carbohydrates and fats.

What is more, amino acids can transport oxygen and nutrients in the body. This can also synthesize neurotransmitters, allow minerals and vitamins to do their jobs well, generate antibodies for your immune system, control gene expression as well as carry out many other functions.

Some foods abundant in L-arginine include meat, dairy products, grains, seafood, nuts, beans, peas, and seeds.

L-arginine substance plays a vital role in the metabolism, protein synthesis, vasodilation cell division, wound healing, getting rid of waste products from your body, immune function, minimizing insulin resistance as well as helping bone growth.

How Does L-arginine Affect Erectile Functioning

L-arginine improves erectile functioning by helping the production of nitric oxide.

This is because L-arginine is needed by your endothelium (the inner lining of your blood vessels) to make nitric oxide.



You endothelium is covered with cells also known as endothelial cells. These cells have lots of functions, and one of them is to act as gatekeepers for what is permitted to come in and out of the bloodstream.

What is more, in the endothelial cells, you have a set of enzymes called nitric oxide synthase. These enzymes are what produce nitric oxide.

This group of enzymes generate nitric oxide by taking and combining an nitrogen atom from L-arginine with an oxygen atom from molecular oxygen.

Once nitric oxide is made by the endothelium, it’s diffused into the smooth muscles of your penis.

This inflow of nitric oxide allows these muscles, that are usually in a state of contraction, to relax.

When these smooth muscles contract, they clench and squeeze around the blood vessel in your penis, and therefore do not allow any blood to flow into the penis other than for maintenance work.

Once these muscles relax, they release this clench, and hence the blood is permitted to flow into the penis. As blood flows to the penis, the penis starts to become erect.



Nitric oxide is a molecule that has an unpaired electron orbiting its nucleus. That also makes it what is called a free radical.

Which means, it reacts easily with other molecules and usually only lasts for seconds in your body.

Thus, nitric oxide is usually not free-flowing in the body; however, it reacts with other types of molecules to make more stable products like nitrate (that can later be synthesized to nitric oxide).

Other Effects Of L-Arginine

In addition to the ability to treat erectile dysfunction, this amino acid is also utilized for blood and heart vessel conditions. This includes chest pain, congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, stroke as well as blood clots.

Many people also use L-arginine to prevent the common cold, reduce heal time of injuries, improve athletic performance, boost the immune system, increase bone strength, stimulate the release of growth hormone, as well as preventing inflammation.

Research also shows that L-arginine can enhance sperm motility and sperm production. Some research shows that supplementing with L-citrulline might be more efficient than supplementing with L-arginine.



This is because L-arginine often gets eradicated in different body reactions before it can be a building block of nitric oxide.

However, L-citrulline escapes some of these reactions and therefore usually stays intact until it reaches your kidneys.

Once L-citrulline reaches your kidneys, it reacts with other substances to form L-arginine, and can therefore be a better direct donor of L-arginine.

Therefore, it might be a more reliable supplement for the production of nitric oxide than direct supplementation of L-arginine.

Research studies on persons as well as on animals have shown that L-arginine can increase the frequency of erections, make erections longer lasting as well as making them firmer.

My Personal Experience in Taking L-arginine

The first time I took L-arginine, I took 1.5 grams in capsule form. I took it every morning before going to the office.

I remember one morning, after taking L-arginine, I was on the bus. And I had a hard erection just out of nowhere. I didn’t even think about sex, it came completely unexpectedly.

This was highly unusual for me.

At this time I struggled bigtime with ED, and and I would simply never get spontaneous erections. And this time on the bus, it also didn’t just come and go. It lasted for several minutes.

I also had a few similar episodes with getting spontaneous erections while I was taking L-arginine.

However, taking 1.5 grams of this supplement in the morning didn’t help me solve my erectile dysfunction problem.

I also tried taking L-arginine before sexual intercourse. At times I noticed some improvements in terms of stronger and longer lasting erections. However, it wasn’t consistent. Hence, taking 1.5 grams of this supplement alone wasn’t able to aid me with my ED issue.

So I upped the ante.

In other words, I increased the dosage to seven grams. Or a half-topped table spoon of L-arginine in powder form.



I mixed this powder with cold water and drank it. I did this about 1 hour before sexual intercourse.

For me, the taste of this was neutral. It tasted just like water.

And for me, taking seven grams of L-arginine had a much more profound effect than ingesting only 1.5 grams. Increasing the dosage provided me with noticeable results.

Even if this did not always lead to solid and hard erections, it usually it made my erections fuller, stronger, as well as longer lasting.

Also, I experimented with L-citrulline instead of L-arginine, and for me, this improved the results even further. Meaning easier to get, fuller, stronger and harder erections.

I have now switched permanently and alway use L-citrulline instead of L-arginine.

Also, the L-citrulline does not have a neutral taste, but rather has citrus taste.

Although L-citrulline (or L-arginine) has helped me getting harder and longer-lasting erections, I haven’t noticed any increase in sexual desire or libido.



That is probably because L-citrulline (or L-arginine) only helps with blood flow. It does not increase testosterone or dopamine levels.

Also, L-citrulline (or L-arginine) does not improve the pleasurable sensations from sexual intercourse. This is probably also because it does not contain L-citrulline (or L-arginine). It simply helps me get better erections.

Today however, I do not take L-citrulline by itself.

Rather, when I take supplements, I take a combination of 4 different ones. However, L-citrulline is always part of this combination.

The combination I take normally always include a base of pine bark, ZMA and L-citrulline.

In addition to this base of three supplement, I also take one herbal supplement such as Tongkat Ali or Tribulus Terrestris.

For me, taking supplements in combinations has given me even better results. Meaning I have gotten erections super easily, my erections are strong, hard and full, and also the sensations I get from sex are much stronger than when I don’t take supplements.

If you want to learn more about the supplements for erectile dysfunction I have used, please go here.