About this episode

Dr. Jim Chialtas interviews Dr. Jordan Barber about erectile dysfunction, exploring its causes and treatments through the lens of Chinese medicine and conventional approaches.

In this 167th episode, I’m joined by Dr. Jordan Barber, Doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine with over 20 years in clinical practice. He is the co-author of "Thinking in Chinese Medicine: A Patient's Guide to Acupuncture" (2026) and "Realigning Medicine: Building an Authentic, Fulfilling, and Thriving Healthcare Practice" (2025). Our focus today is on an important but often sidelined issue:erectile dysfunction. I hear about ED frequently from patients, usually as an aside to another medical concern — why is that? We’ll define ED and its varying levels, separate myths from facts, and explore distinctions between performance anxiety, behavioral causes like problematic pornography use, and physical drivers. We’ll discuss whether ED always comes down to circulation, how Chinese Medicine frames theproblem (circulation, hormones, mood, metabolic disease, etc.), and what conventional medicine offers — including how PDE5 inhibitors (Viagra/Cialis) work by upregulating eNOS to improve blood flow, and where concerns about iNOSfit in. We’ll also cover practical strategies: diet, lifestyle, TCMapproaches, and when a condition may be advanced enough that different…

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the A Functional Approach with Dr. Jim Chialtas podcast page.