Nicotine can ruin your love life

by JENNY HOPE, Daily Mail

Smoking has made 120,000 young men impotent, shocking research

has revealed.

The British Medical Association wants warnings put on cigarette packs to

alert a new generation of smokers to a problem that may not be reversible

even if they quit.

But Dr Bill O'Neill, tobacco adviser to the BMA, said: 'The trouble is that men in their teens and early 20s cannot grasp the

danger when it's not likely to happen for 20 or 30 years.

'The difference with impotence is that it can strike smokers earlier.

The prospect that they could also wreck their sex lives might just make

them stop and think.'

Impotence affects an estimated two million men between

the ages of 21 and 75 in the UK, with older men more at risk.

But up to 120,000 of these men aged between 30 and 49 are impotent as a

direct result of smoking, according to a report from the BMA and campaign

group Action on Smoking and Health.

Smoking affects erection in a number of ways. Long-term damage is

caused by a build up of fatty deposits blocking arteries and restricting

blood flow.

But every time a cigarette is lit, nicotine circulates in the blood,

constricting blood vessels and restricting the rush of blood essential to

triggering an erection.

The bad news doesn't stop there - nicotine also interferes with a valve

mechanism that stops blood flowing out of the penis and without this, an

erection cannot be sustained.

The nicotine effects only occur when a person is or has recently

been smoking, and are therefore easy to prevent by avoiding tobacco. Damage

to the arteries can be permanent, said Dr O'Neill.

Smoking can also impair a man's chances of having children by affecting his sperm.


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