Tobacco, impotence and firing blanks

Sunday, November 08, 2009 2:03 AM

All Woman

By DONNA HUSSEY-WHYTE All Woman writer

Monday, May 18, 2009

ACCORDING to medical practitioner, Dr Orlando Thomas, tobacco smoking has definitely been linked to impotence in Jamaican men, and if used heavily, eventually causes men to 'fire blanks'.

"This is definitely true, because it contains nicotine which causes hardening of the arteries and results in less blood flow to the penis," the doctor said.

This view is backed by studies which found that tobacco smoking has been individually associated with plaque build-up in the arteries, called atherosclerosis. This plaque obstructs the blood flow through the vessels, causing a host of circulatory problems throughout the body, resulting in erectile dysfunction (impotence). Long-term use of tobacco will eventually cause the blood flow to become non-existent, resulting in impotence.

Dr Thomas said while younger men may continue to smoke and boast that they are able to 'rise to the occasion', this is only for a time.

"They are not firing blanks yet - but 10 to 15 years down the line, that is when the damage will start to manifest itself. If you smoke long enough and hard enough - say 10 cigarettes per day, then you will definitely feel the effects."
As a result, impotence due to smoking is more common among older men.

While unable to give statistics on the number of Jamaican men suffering from impotence, Dr Thomas noted that based on personal observation, approximately 25 per cent of Jamaican smokers will suffer from the condition, with an even higher rate among men with diabetes and hypertension.

"While tobacco smoking is linked to impotence, marijuana is linked to infertility," Dr Thomas said. He noted that this study was conducted in the US and was unable to say just how much it applied to Jamaican men.

Another study conducted in 2003 by researchers at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, also found that smoking can in fact cause impotence and damage to the sperm thereby decreasing fertility.

John Spangler, an overseas medical doctor, reported to the American Society of Hypertension, that men with high blood pressure who smoked were 26 times more likely to be impotent.

Spangler said smoking has both acute and chronic effects on erectile physiology. In both human and animal studies, smoking inhibits the ability to achieve a full erection.

In the study conducted, researchers examined data on 4,764 Chinese men, average age 47. It focused on their smoking history and quality of sexual relations.

The research found that men who smoked more than 20 cigarettes daily had a 60 per cent higher risk of erectile dysfunction, compared to men who never smoked. It found that 15 per cent of the past and present smokers had experienced erectile dysfunction.

Another finding was that men who currently, and formerly smoked, were about 30 per cent more likely to suffer from impotence, while among men who had never smoked, 12 per cent had erection problems.

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