From the time I was very young, I was accustomed to hearing my mother put out one of her usual pieces of pithy wisdom: "Exercise is good for you." She was of course (and obviously) right, as anyone can confirm simply by talking to their doctor. Indeed, billions are spent every year on gym memberships and exercise equipment. Not so much for us; back then, in my Allamakee County days as now, the chores involved in keeping up a rural household provided plenty of exercise.

Now, however, we discover there may be another benefit to exercise — especially for men. (No need to disable your pop-up blocker.)

Researchers from the Baylor College of Medicine, Boston Scientific, and Miller Scientific in the US analyzed 11 previous studies covering 1,147 participants in total. The trials these participants took part in were randomized and involved control groups, considered the gold standard in terms of reliability.

Exercise sessions involving aerobic activities such as walking or cycling, undertaken for at least half an hour three times a week, were shown to improve erectile function in all men with ED. The association was found across a range of body weights, and didn't appear to vary with health conditions or medication use of the participants.

"Exercise is low risk and affordable, making it an ideal first-line treatment option for erectile difficulties, especially for patients unwilling or unable to use medications," says physiologist Larry Miller from Miller Scientific.

I'm sure these researchers are upstanding people, and from what little is described, it looks like they did some forthright work in determining the effects of exercise on... function. And exercise is easier than one might think to work into one's daily schedule; if there is a park nearby, take a little time before breakfast for a brisk walk through the morning wood. As a bone-us, regular exercise can gift you with greater stamina (also useful in... relationships), better heart health, greater lung capacity, and so on.

Best of all, regular exercise clears the mind. In a world plagued with disturbing issues ranging from electoral dysfunction to flaccid economic indicators, a brisk walk every morning produces endorphins that will keep your outlook on the up and up. Granted, in the winter, such an outing can be bone-chilling, but that just requires dressing properly.

Our ancestors, of course, knew this very well, even if some of our ancient relatives may have wanted to keep the men at home and, presumably, well-rested. And today, not even the most energetic among us men are apparently not averse to a little lift every now and then.

Here's the kicker that won't set well with ED medicine purveyors and manufacturers:

What's particularly interesting here is that aerobic exercise was shown to have similar positive effects to drugs like Viagra (aka sildenafil) and Cialis (aka tadalafil), and therefore could be used instead of these drugs or alongside them.

That's not going to make the Pfizer people happy.

In other related news, I seem to recall reading recently that a group of researchers gave Viagra under controlled conditions to a group of politicians, but discovered that the political types just got taller.

This seems appropriate.