Smoking cigarettes could cause lung cancer and increases the risk of cardiovascular and other diseases, but there is even more bad news for men who smoke regularly. Men are more likely to have an increased risk of experiencing sexual impotence or ED (Erectile Dysfunction), and the more they smoke cigarettes, the greater the risk, according to a study of researchers in Tulane University.

Even if sexual impotence, the consistent inability to maintain or achieve an erection sufficient for satisfactory sexual performance, is not a life-threatening condition, it still compromises the well being and quality of life. The study that covers this have results that suggested smoking prevention as an important approach in reducing the risk of sexual impotence. The team of researchers from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine led by Jiang He, MD, PhD, examined the connection and association between cigarette smoking and sexual impotence in a one year study in China involving almost eight thousand men. They used questionnaires to be able to evaluate and assess the status of cigarette smoking and sexual impotence. The lead researcher, He, a professor and chair of epidemiology with his team of researchers who examined the relation between cigarette smoking and sexual impotence in men, said that the association between cigarette smoking and sexual impotence was found in earlier studies. However, most of those studies were only conducted in patients dealing with hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. This specific study differs from the previous since this is the first to find such association with healthy men.

Those men who were surveyed by the team of researchers were aged 35 to 74 and does not have vascular disease. This study also found out that there was a significant statistical connection between the number of cigarettes that the men smoked and the likelihood they would experience sexual impotence. According to the study, as a whole, it is an estimated 22.7 percent of sexual impotence cases among Chinese men might be attributable to cigarette smoking. Although this study was conducted in China, it would still be applicable to the US, says He.

There are more than 18 million American men (nearly one in every five) who are experiencing sexual impotence, according to another study from Bloomberg School of Public Health. There have been analysis done in the country that shows the same association between cigarette smoking and sexual impotence, but those were conducted in patients suffering from either diabetes, hypertension, or cardiovascular diseases. This particular study shows that even healthy men, the association is very strong. Both smoking and erectile dysfunction have often been associated individually with plaque build-up in the arteries, called atherosclerosis. The plaque obstructs blood flow through vessels, causing a host of circulatory problems throughout the body, such as erectile dysfunction.

Bringing further caution about the dangers of starting to smoke cigarettes, researchers found that even when cigarette smokers quit, their risk of developing sexual impotence did not decrease. The risk is about statistically the same for former cigarette smokers as for current cigarette smokers. This research study has a really strong message for young men. This might get their attention if they know that smoking cigarettes is associated with sexual impotence even in a healthy population. Young men should not even think about starting to smoke, for this would not bring any good for their health.