Vibration Therapy works to increase blood flow to the penis and limbs, loosening fascial adhesions and restoring alignment. This stimulates neural pathways associated with erection, potentially improving sexual function in men living with Peyronie’s disease or spinal cord injury (SCI) related issues.
Vibration Therapy works through mechanotransduction, which converts mechanical signals into bodily cellular reactions. Vibration Therapy can also break down fibrotic plaque, encourage angiogenesis and support tissue repair.
Increased Circulation
Erectile dysfunction treatment requires the integration of neural and humoral mechanisms at multiple levels of the nervous system, including sacral parasympathetic (pelvic) nerves with somatic erection-related (pudendal) neurons regulated by autonomic nervous system via its descending vasomotor control center in the brain stem.
Erections require cavernous bodies to become inflated or “tumescent”, through vasomotor and sympathetic pathways, hormone release and innervation from vascular smooth muscle and the genitourinary nerves as well as innervation from vascular smooth muscle of penis receiving innervation from genitourinary nerves and the thoracic aortic arch via nerves known as the Sphincter of Oddi/Oddi and Sphincter of Truncus respectively – vibration therapy promotes improved blood flow/circulation to promote an erection.
Vibration Therapy is a noninvasive, drug-free solution for Peyronie’s disease that may help improve erections. It works through mechanotransduction – the transformation of mechanical signals such as vibration and shockwaves into bodily cellular reactions for pain relief, collagen regulation, and tissue repair.
Vibrations help break down fibrotic plaque associated with Peyronie’s disease by stimulating angiogenesis – or, the formation of new blood vessels. This increases erectile function while providing long-term healing benefits.
Not only can vibration therapy increase circulation, it can also help decrease penis pain due to how vibration out-competes pain signals in the body – particularly useful during Peyronie’s disease episodes when an erection is likely.
Urologists often utilize low-intensity extracorporeal shock wave treatment, or LESTW, for treating erectile dysfunction. LESTW is a form of vibration therapy used for treating kidney stones and sports injuries as well as improving blood flow within the penis and growing new blood vessels to restore an erection. While not FDA approved yet for treating erectile dysfunction specifically, studies have demonstrated its benefits. LESTW can also be combined with collagenase injections or penile traction to treat this disorder more comprehensively.
Stimulation of Angiogenesis
Vibration therapy stimulates angiogenesis, or the growth of new blood vessels. This brings oxygen and nutrients directly to the affected area, helping break down scar tissue that contributes to Peyronie’s disease as well as reduce inflammation, loosen adhesions and align your penis for improved results – all qualities which may contribute to preventing or treating ED.
Vibration therapy as an all-body treatment can increase circulation, providing benefits in treating various conditions like carpal tunnel syndrome and peripheral neuropathy. Furthermore, vibration therapy has been found to relieve pain while encouraging healing in various other cases such as erectile dysfunction (ED) and Peyronie’s disease.
Researchers conducted a recent study assessing the efficacy of vibrator-assisted start-stop exercises to treat ED in men with spinal cord injury (SCI). Participants were randomly assigned one of two treatment groups or a waiting list control group: vibrator-assisted start-stop exercise alone was provided, while for psychobehavioral interventions consisting of psychoeducation and training of interoceptive awareness were additionally used in one treatment group; both improved more than their respective waiting list control group counterparts on key outcome measures over 3- and 6-month follow ups.
Penile vibratory stimulation has also been found to significantly decrease segmental spasticity for men with SCI, while also improving muscle synergies and erectile function. It works by stimulating blood flow to the penis – leading to natural erections or orgasm. Furthermore, this therapy improves sexual intercourse quality while decreasing sexual distress associated with PE.
Vibration therapy can be an effective noninvasive treatment option for PE when combined with noninvasive interventions such as shockwave therapy or PRP injections. As with any treatment option, however, it’s essential that the pros and cons are discussed with a healthcare provider prior to beginning. This is particularly true if there are preexisting conditions or injuries which might be negatively affected by whole body vibration, for instance it could cause numbness or tingling sensations in certain people who receive whole-body vibration treatment.
Stimulation of Neural Pathways
Spinal Cord Injurys (SCIs) can significantly impair erectile function. This may be caused by lost neural pathways controlling muscle synergies as well as impaired sensory input from the penis and prepuce. Vibration therapy may help treat individuals living with SCIs by increasing blood flow to stimulate nervous systems, increasing blood flow to improve erectile function, stimulating blood vessels, or improving effectiveness of phosphodiesterase inhibitor treatments for treating this complication.
MV is an established treatment for reducing spasticity and improving functional recovery after SCI, including improved sexual function in men. Although its exact mechanisms remain unknown, it’s thought that MV supports both bottom-up mechanisms such as the reset of sensorimotor hyperexcitability as well as top-down mechanisms like the restoration of descending volleys from sensorimotor cortex to spinal centers.
Reactivation of these pathways occurs as the result of an intricate interplay between neuromodulation and anatomical connections in the GPi, computational models of DBS on this area, and clinically optimized stimulation parameters have shown that clinically optimized stimulation drives axonal activation along multiple pathway projections to the stimulated nucleus (20). Modeled pathways include dorsal-GPe-GPi projections as well as putamen-GPi pathways (20). Stimulation of any one or more stimulating electrode(s) causes activation along specific paths that pass through this electric field generated by stimulating electrode(s).
An MRI study demonstrated that magnetic vibrotherapy reduces spasticity and enhances coordination in lower trunk muscles to promote erection among those living with SCI, via reduced synergy between spinal segments and reduced abnormal spiking patterns (20).
This research indicates that penile vibration can help improve erectile dysfunction by restoring normal somatosensory and motor synergies through both bottom-up and top-down mechanisms. Furthermore, vibration therapy can stimulate dorsal penile nerve and strengthen neural pathways from penis and prepuce to brain. PSEP latencies and amplitudes, similar to those used for eBCR tests (31), provide measurements of this change which could ultimately result in improved erectile function among those living with SCI (32). Research indicates that restructuring these pathways improve erectile function overall for patients living with SCI (33).
Relaxation
Vibration therapy for erectile dysfunction plays a significant role in relaxing the body. Vibrations from core and peripheral structures loosen fascial adhesions that create tension and distortion and allow blood flow to return, relieving tension. Relaxation is both physical and emotional – you can achieve it through meditation, breathing exercises, autogenics or progressive muscle relaxation techniques which take some practice but can prove invaluable for various conditions such as erectile dysfunction.
Studies have demonstrated that vibratory stimulation of the penis can increase blood flow to promote more firm and sustained erections as well as intensify orgasms. Furthermore, vibratory stimulation has also been used successfully in helping overcome premature ejaculations caused by spinal cord injuries in men.
Vibration therapy can assist in treating erectile dysfunction by stimulating angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels. Mechanotransduction transforms mechanical signals from outside into biological and cellular reactions within the body.
Mechanotransduction may seem complex, but its basic principles are straightforward. Vibrations from external sources can be transformed into bodily cellular signals using mechanotransduction; these signals then have multiple applications including pain relief, collagen regulation and tissue repair – for instance when treating Peyronie’s disease it might include decreasing its severity while encouraging tissue regrowth.
Vibration therapy not only has positive impacts on erectile function, but can also promote relaxation – leading to increased sexual desire and better relationship quality. Not all vibration therapy machines are created equal. Some machines utilize acoustic sound waves which vibrate the core and peripheral structures of the body for added pleasure – however, these may not be as effective in terms of improving sexual desire and relationship quality than ones employing mechanical shockwaves.
One machine using mechanical shockwaves to effectively improve pelvic floor muscle spasticity in those living with SCI is the extracorporeal shockwave system (ESWL), which has been shown to significantly reduce pelvic floor muscle spasticity while simultaneously stimulating angiogenesis and restoring erectile function – evidenced through reduced bulbocavernosus reflex amplitude, VAS scores, as well as improvements to both eBCR and PSEP scores.
