Does this sound like another one of those over-the-top annoying slogans for worn out stop smoking campaigns? It might very well seem so, but it doesn’t make this statement any less true. In fact, roughly 30% of cases of erectile dysfunction can directly be linked to smoking, and everything we know about the effects of tobacco on the body tells the same story – if you continue wasting money on cigarettes, you’ll end up needing Viagra to keep your sex life up and running (pun intended).
What’s on this page?
It’s all about the blood vessels
A vast majority of cases of ED can be traced to unhealthy arteries within the penis which, in one way or another, reduce the blood flow below the threshold needed for gaining and maintaining an erection. This can be caused by numerous factors, including physical injury, high cholesterol and other medical conditions that affect cardiovascular system.
However, among many other harmful effects on the body, smoking is well known to do exactly that – damage the lining of the blood vessels, thus affecting the way they function. What this means is that smoking directly contributes to the most common cause of erectile dysfunction. And what’s more, every cigarette you smoke creates further damage, increasing the chances to get affected by ED. The mechanism behind this is exactly the same as in the onset of smoker’s leg. It is helpful to keep that image in mind next time you have an urge to light up a cig.
(Not-so) encouraging research
It is common knowledge that erectile dysfunction problems become more probable as the years go by, with older men being the largest group affected. This is due to numerous factors, including the effects of different medical conditions and issues that can arise as we age, but also do to long-lasting bad habits.
However, if you think that you’re safe due to your young age, you are very wrong. Impotence can affect any man of adult age and while older men get affect more often due to a combination of aforementioned factors, ED is not that uncommon among younger men. The research published in the American Journal of Epidemiology highlights the direct link between smoking and impotence, especially emphasizing that in younger men, smoking is the leading cause of impotence problems.
On a more positive note, the same study states that if you quit young, you have good chances of mitigating the harmful effects of nicotine on your sexual prowess. 1
What do the statistics say?
For young men, between 15 and 20% of recorded cases of ED can be explained by psychological factors (so-called psychological or emotional impotence), for others, the causes are physiological in nature. Out of those remaining 80%, roughly half can be linked to tobacco exposure – which leaves us with the staggering 40% of young men struggling with ED who caused their condition by this harmful habit.
I can just quit – why would I need Viagra?
If you still don’t experience any issues and are still younger than 30, then you are probably right. You still have time to simply quit smoking and not worry about that habit potentially affecting your erectile function. However, if problems are already manifesting or you have a long smoking career behind you, things might not be as easy as they seem.
Prolonged exposure to tobacco, especially when combined with other potential medical problems and conditions can make damage to arteries a long-term issue that can’t go away as easily on itself. For a significant percentage, this issue is temporary – provided you gave up your bad habit and are practising a healthier lifestyle now – but even then, it means waiting for the changes you made to take effect. And waiting isn’t always the preferred option, especially when it comes to sex life. So, the easiest and fastest solution for getting your sex life back on track can be ED pills.
Why Viagra?
As mentioned, for a majority of cases, impotence is caused by stiffness or damage of the blood vessels, which in turn make blood flow in the penis insufficient to cause and maintain an erection. Viagra addresses this problem by relying on its sole active ingredient – sildenafil. Sildenafil acts through a complex series of chemical reactions in order to relax smooth muscle tissue and allow for unimpeded blood flow within the penis.
“The little blue pill” works its magic through a complex series of chemical reactions in order to relax smooth muscle tissue surrounding the blood vessels, thus allowing unimpeded blood flow within the penis. Viagra shares this mechanism of action with other medicines belonging to the same class called PDE-5 inhibitors. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
What are PDE-5 inhibitors and why should I care?
Maybe there’s no need to care about them if everything is in order, but even then, there are some good reasons to be interested both in phosphodiesterase type 5 enzymes, commonly known as PDE-5, and cyclic guanosine monophosphate (or cGMP for short).
Believe it or not, these two chemical compounds are at the biochemical root of erectile mechanism in men. The compound called cGMP is tasked with complex series of interactions that result in gaining an erection, while PDE-5 enzymes do the opposite – they degrade cGMP molecules, thus ending the erection after ejaculation and preventing injury to the penis.
PDE-5 inhibitors, as the name implies, achieve their effects by simply preventing PDE 5 enzymes from degrading cGMP molecules, thus contributing to a strong and long-lasting erection.
How can Viagra help with smoking-induced ED?
Due to its mechanism of action, medicines like Viagra are very versatile. The mechanism of action described above, naturally, produces significant results in those men who have heightened levels of PDE 5 enzymes in their organism which leads to blood withdrawing prematurely from the penis.
But at the same time, by indirectly affecting the smooth muscle tissue, relaxing it and increasing the blood flow, Viagra can also mitigate the problems caused by smoking. Even if blood vessels are damaged due to prolonged exposure to tobacco, sildenafil, Viagra’s active ingredient can still help them expand. It might not give the blood vessels elasticity and diameter they had prior to smoking-induced problems, but it can still do just enough to make a satisfying intercourse a real possibility.
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