The aging penis: What is it trying to tell us?

Aging is the price we all pay for living long. While the alternative
to aging is a less attractive option, what clinically affect us most
during this aging process are the detrimental effects aging has
on the smooth muscle throughout our body. Those of us, who
have been fortunate enough to enter middle age or better yet,
senescence, know how true this is. Consider during this time
period the onset of maladies such as essential hypertension,
GERD, overactive bladder, farsightedness, constipation, bladder
outlet obstruction and the most feared of all aging related
symptoms that can afflict any man, erectile dysfunction. All
of these conditions have essentially one thing in common-the
smooth muscle in that tissue does not function optimally. The
main reason for these aging associated dysfunctions is that the
smooth muscle mass, at least part of it, within each of these
tissues has begun to undergo apoptosis with replenishment by
fibrous tissue.