Shining a redlight on a man’s genitals for 60 seconds could help solve erectile dysfunction

Shining a red light on the genitals for just 60 seconds can boost a man’s libido.

The treatment involves beaming the light from a special flashlight through the skin of the penis after injecting a compound into the area.

The compound, known as NORD-1, responds to the light by releasing nitric oxide, a gas that helps dilate blood vessels — boosting blood flow to the penis and improving erections.

A new study shows the technique is effective in animals — and the Japanese scientists behind it believe it could work just as well in men who don’t respond to drug treatments. They hope to begin human trials in the coming years.

It is estimated that one in ten men will experience erectile dysfunction at some point. Causes range from diabetes and hormonal problems to stress and depression.

It is estimated that one in ten men will experience erectile dysfunction at some point. Causes range from diabetes and hormonal problems to stress and depression

Medications – such as Viagra, Cialis and Levitra – help some men by widening the small blood vessels in the pelvic area, allowing more blood to reach the penis. But about a third of men who take these pills experience no improvement.

In these cases, the only other options are to inject drugs directly into the penis — which can be painful and difficult to self-administer — or use a pump that manually increases blood flow to the organ.

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Red light therapy could potentially be another option, according to the results of a study recently published in the World Journal of Men’s Health.

Tests involved injecting the compound NORD-1, a synthetic chemical that only releases nitric oxide (through a chemical reaction) when exposed to red light, into the genitals of rats with erectile dysfunction.

Simply injecting nitric oxide itself into the body to widen the blood vessels is not a solution as it can cause unwanted side effects such as low blood pressure.

But this way, nitric oxide is released only when the light shines on the genitals, making it safer. (And unlike other injection treatments for erectile dysfunction, this would be given occasionally, rather than every time a man had sex.)

Researchers at Nagoya City University in Japan tracked changes in rodents after injecting NORD-1 into the penis and flashing a red light for just 60 seconds.

After four weeks, the results showed a significant improvement in the frequency and duration of erections after red light therapy.

Tests also showed that erections improved even after nerve damage, similar to those seen in men undergoing prostate surgery for cancer.

Researchers said this raises hopes that men whose sex lives have been compromised by prostate cancer surgery could revive their libido using red light therapy in the future. Professor Paul Chazot, a scientist at Durham University who is researching red light therapy in dementia (to improve blood flow to the brain), said: ‘The release of nitric oxide may be beneficial in a variety of clinical situations, including erectile dysfunction. So this could be useful. But these findings are in rats and cannot be extrapolated well to humans.’

• Red light can boost fertility in men with poor sperm motility, where sperm don’t swim to the egg properly. Scientists from Bolu Abant Izzet Baysal University in Turkey exposed the sperm of 20 men with low sperm motility to bursts of red light for 30 to 60 minutes. The results showed that sperm motility had increased significantly — the treatment is thought to work by super-charging the mitochondria, the battery packs in all cells, including sperm, to keep them functioning properly.