 What are some pill-free ways to improve your sex life? Exercise? Quit smoking, don't drink too much, don't weigh too much, and eat a healthy diet. But what does that mean? Heart-healthy lifestyle changes are sex-healthy lifestyle changes, as has been demonstrated in studies from around the world, including in women. Blood function in women is also significantly affected by coronary artery disease, atherosclerotic narrowing of blood flow through our arteries, including the arteries that supply our pelvis. So high cholesterol may mean lower arousal, orgasm, lubrication, and satisfaction, and the same with high blood pressure. So putting women on a more plant-based diet may help with sexual functioning. Researchers found that improvements in female sexual function index scores were related to an increased intake of fruit, vegetables, nuts and beans, and a shift from animal to plant sources of fat, and the same with men. A significant improvement in international index of erectile function scores. In fact, the largest study on diet and erectile dysfunction found that each additional daily serving of fruits or vegetables may reduce the risk by 10%. But why? It may be due to the anti-inflammatory effects. Two years on a healthier diet resulted in a significant reduction in systemic inflammation, as indicated by reduced levels of C-reactive protein. Fiber itself may play an anti-inflammatory role. Those who eat the most fiber tend to have significantly lower levels of inflammation in their bodies. The opposite was found for saturated fat associated with an increased likelihood of elevated C-reactive protein levels. This is how we're used to seeing changes in inflammatory markers over weeks, months, or years. But people don't realize that the level of inflammation in our bodies can change after a single meal. For example, there's a pro-inflammatory signaling molecule in our bodies called interleukin-18, thought to play a role in destabilizing atherosclerotic plaques. As such, the level of interleukin-18 in the blood is a strong predictor of cardiovascular death. What would happen if you fed people one of three different types of meals? Sausage and egg butter oil sandwiches or cheeseless pizza with a white flour crust or the same cheeseless pizza, but with a whole wheat crust? Within hours of eating the sausage sandwich, interleukin-18 levels shot up about 20%, in effect not seen eating the plant-based pizza. And those eating the whole food plant-based pizza had about a 20% drop in IL-18 levels within hours, reinforcing dietary recommendation to eat a diet high in fiber and starches and low in saturated fat to prevent chronic diseases. But the billions are in pills, not plants, which is why the pharmacology of the female orgasm has studied ever since 1972 when a researcher at Tulane University implanted tubes deep within the brain of a woman so he could inject drugs directly into her brain and was able to induce repetitive orgasms. A man who had electrodes placed into similar parts of his brain was given a device for a few hours that allowed him to press the button himself to stimulate the electrode. He pressed the button up to 1500 times.