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Medical Video: How Does Smoking Cause Impotence?
Male sexual arousal is a complex process that involves the work of the brain, hormones, emotions, nerves, muscles, and blood vessels. Erectile dysfunction, aka impotence, can be caused by problems related to these things. Stress and various other mental health issues can also cause or worsen erectile dysfunction.
Reporting from Health Line, it is estimated that around 50 percent of men aged 40-70 years experience symptoms of erectile dysfunction throughout their lives. The risk of impotence will increase with age.
In addition, the medical record also reports that highly educated men have a lower chance of impotence - perhaps because on average they adhere to a healthy lifestyle.
Impotence often has a negative influence on a man's sex life, and can exacerbate pre-existing stress, depression, and inferiority complexes.
What caused it?
1. Physical factors
In general, impotence is caused by something physical. Causes can include:
- Heart disease - a condition that affects the heart and its ability to pump blood can cause impotence. Without adequate blood flow to the penis, a person cannot reach an erection.
- Hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis)
- High cholesterol
- High blood pressure (hypertension)
- Kidney illness
- Venous leak - to build an erection, blood must remain flowing and stored in the penis for some time. If blood flows too fast back to the heart, the erection will be sluggish. Injuries or diseases can cause this
- Diabetes
- Obesity
- Metabolic syndrome - a condition that involves an increase in blood pressure, high insulin levels, body fat in the waist circumference, and high cholesterol
- Peyronie’s disease - growth of the scar tissue in the penis
- Penile injury, or surgical procedure on the penis, pelvis, or surrounding area
- Severe head injury - impotence is reported to occur in 15-25% of cases of severe head trauma sufferers
2. Neurogenic factors
Examples of neurogenic conditions that cause impotence include:
- Parkinson's disease
- Injuries or disorders of the spine
- Stroke - a serious medical condition in which the supply of blood to the brain is disrupted
- Alzheimer's
- Brain or spinal tumor
- Temporal lobe epilepsy
- Prostate gland surgery - nerve damage experienced can cause impotence
3. Hormonal factors
Examples of hormonal conditions that cause impotence include:
- Hypogonadism - a medical condition that affects testosterone levels to very low levels beyond normal levels
- Hypertiroidism - when the thyroid gland produces too much hormone
- Hypothyroidism - when the thyroid gland produces too little hormone
- Cushing's syndrome - a medical condition that affects the production of the hormone cortisol
- Anything that affects the level of sexual arousal (libido) can also cause erectile dysfunction because a lack of libido makes the brain more difficult to trigger erections.
4. Psychological factors
The brain plays a key role in triggering a series of physical responses that lead you to erections, starting with sexual arousal. A number of things can interfere with sexual desire and cause and / or aggravate impotence, such as:
- Depression
- Anxiety - if a man is unable to achieve an erection in the past, he may feel worried that he will not be able to reach an erection once again in the future. Besides that, maybe he feels he can't reach an erection with a particular sex partner. Erectile sufferers associated with anxiety may have a full erection when they masturbate or while sleeping, but may fail to maintain an erection during intercourse with a partner
- Relationship problems due to stress, poor communication, or other problems
5. Lifestyle factors
Examples of factors of daily habits that cause impotence include:
- Smoke
- Consumption of alcohol and drug abuse
- Sleep disturbance
- Treatment for prostate cancer or prostate enlargement
- Use of prescription drugs. There are more than 200 prescription drugs that can cause erectile dysfunction, such as diuretics, antihypertension, fibrates, antipsychotics, antidepressants (Xanax or Valium), codeine, corticosteroids, H2-antagonists (stomach ulcer drugs), anticonvulsants (epilepsy drugs), antihistamines (drugs allergies), anti-androgens (male sex hormone suppressant drugs), cytotoxics (chemotherapy drugs), SSRIs, synthetic hormones, beta blockers, and alpha blockers.
- Long distance cyclists can also experience temporary impotence. This is caused by repeated and constant pressure on the buttocks and the genital area can affect nerve function.
Please note, you are not allowed to stop treatment without the doctor's permission, even if it is known that impotence is a possible side effect.
Sometimes, a combination of a number of problems above can cause impotence. For example, mild physical conditions that slow down your sexual response might cause anxiety about maintaining an erection. This anxiety can cause or worsen erectile dysfunction.
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