So much emphasis is placed on the size gain aspect of pumping that another very important benefit is rarely discussed.

The time comes for nearly every guy when foreplay begins, sex is going to be a sure thing, and your dick just will not get hard. Or, you get hard but at the moment when you are ready to penetrate whatever orifice, that hard-on deflates. If this happens once or twice or even a few times, don't panic. Just accept that the time isn't right and don't beat yourself up about it. Look forward to the next occasion.

But if this becomes a regular occurrence, and you notice that you seldom wake up to a hard-on in the night or the morning, don't spin your wheels; see your doctor or a urologist. There are so many acceptable solutions now to erectile dysfunction (ED) that it's foolish to postpone doing something positive about it.

One major cause of ED is vascular in nature. The veins and arteries of the penis can become clogged in the same way that the vascular system of the heart can. Nighttime erections serve the purpose of cleaning out our plumbing and keeping the penile blood system healthy. In fact, the average healthy guy has 4 - 5 nighttime erections during REM sleep, each lasting about a half hour. That's a lot of plumbing maintenance that we're missing if nighttime erections are absent or rare.

There are few men now of any age who do not take prescribed medications for health problems, and many use prescription drugs in recreational ways. But many of these drugs also cause limp dicks. Smoking also causes limp dicks. Alcohol, overused, causes limp dicks. Prostatitis can cause limp dicks; prostate cancer therapies also result in some form of ED, at least for a time. Diabetes often results in erectile dysfunction because of vascular damage. There is a "laundry list" of other reasons why erections stop happening when we want them most.

But- the good news is that regular use of a vacuum pump can, over time, not only mimic the function of normal nighttime erections but also bring about their return.

My case is anecdotal but is a good example: When I was 42, my doc (a good doc) put me on a medication for mild hypertension. My blood pressure returned to normal and for a couple of years everything was fine. I had good sexual erections, and I had a lot of nighttime erections. But gradually things went downhill. I'd get hard for sex, then lose it. Morning "wood" was no longer ordinary for me; it became rare. When I talked with a new doctor about this, his feeling was that the blood pressure medication I was taking had also taken its toll sexually. We changed the medication to one which has less or no sexual fallout (there are many options), but the vascular damage had already been done in my case. The new med only prevented it from becoming worse.

I initially started pumping for several reasons, one was the hope that dependable erections would be easier to get. I had kissed spontaneous erections good-bye. The surprise to me was that after about six weeks (your mileage may vary), I was having night-time erections again with the added bonus of a heck of a lot more erotic dreams. I need far less Viagra than I used to use; I'm also having some random daytime erections (think some filthy thoughts?) again.

There is some hope here, too, for men who are premature ejaculators. Many guys have emailed me that pumping has helped them last longer during sex. It doesn't seem to be that one's dick becomes less sensitive, rather that pumping regularly seems to allow more tolerance to stimulation. And, if you get bigger from pumping, too, will you complain?