Smoking: It Affects Your Sexual Health, Too

Erectile dysfunction is a condition that affects 15 to 30 million men in this country alone. According to the World Health Organization, worldwide it is thought that as many as 322 million men will be affected by erectile dysfunction by 2025. Although it is a condition that is more commonly associated with an aging population, a variety of health concerns can also have an impact on male sexual health, particularly problems associated with heart disease and diabetes. Besides unhealthy eating, smoking has a great impact on the incidence of erectile dysfunction. Although smoking's negative health effects are well known, understanding how smoking affects male sexual health can make for drastic improvements in an individual's life.

The biggest problem with smoking lies in its affect on vascular health. Smoking is the leading contributor to heart disease because of the build up of plaque on the walls of the vascular system, or atherosclerosis. This buildup of plaque is what creates the conditions for heart attacks to occur. By decreasing blood flow, the entire vascular system is affected. Since the ability to maintain an erection is dependent on good blood flow stemming from the lungs, any negative impact on the vascular system will negatively effect the blood flow to the penis. Smoking can even permanently damage the blood vessels of the penis.

Smoking also negatively impacts the lungs by impairing the lungs ability to deliver oxygen molecules to the blood stream. Smoking deposits tar which makes the sacs in the lungs work less effectively. Cigarette smoke also contains a chemical called hydrogen cyanide that destroys the delicate hairs inside the lungs that are designed to filter out toxins. Thus, this chemical makes the lungs much more susceptible to the toxins found in cigarette smoke and making them more prone to damage.

The biggest sexual impact from this exposure to carcinogens and toxins found in cigarette smoke is on sperm. Smoking in men has been found to have an impact on the number of viable sperm available in the testes. Also, it has also been found in men who smoke that they have a higher percentage of deformed sperm, and that much of the viable sperm available contains genetic damage as a result of smoking. The greatest threat here to a man's sexual health as a result of smoking lies in impotence.

Interestingly, while smoking has been tied to a number of health problems like cancer and heart disease which can have an effect on the incidence of erectile dysfunction in men of a certain age, smoking alone has been shown to have a direct and measurable impact on erectile dysfunction in the absence of heart disease no matter the age. These affects have been shown in smokers in their 20's and 30's, and these are not ages that are typically associated with the impact of erectile dysfunction.

Prostate cancer should be mentioned here as an impact that smoking can have. Although prostate cancer may not be related to an incidence of erectile dysfunction, smoking has been related to more aggressive prostate cancer tumors, and these fast spreading tumors can cause impotence and even death.

The bottom line is that smoking is an overall zero when it comes to health benefits. In terms of its effects on erectile dysfunction, it has been shown to have an impact on everyone of the diseases that are associated with erectile dysfunction, and even in the absence of those age related diseases, smoking alone can cause erectile dysfunction. Remember that the next time you want to light up.

Michelle Winters blogs for Edrugstore.Md where you can read more about What causes erectile dysfunction.