EP204: Smoking cessation is the way to resurrect your erection | PUTTING DR G ON THE SPOT
Consultant urologist Dr George Lee Eng Geap, or a.k.a Dr G, tells a reader that his doctor might be right that his smoking habit may cause him problems with erectile dysfunction.
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Transcript
00:00 Happy New Year!
00:02 In the new year, many of us are actually setting goals
00:06 in order to actually be more healthy
00:09 and also stop smoking, stop being stressed
00:12 and this week, we're going to monitor
00:15 about the actual correlations of erectile dysfunction
00:20 with smoking and then how smoking cessation
00:24 can actually improve on your erectile function.
00:28 [Intro Music]
00:33 First of all, what exactly is the correlations
00:37 between erection or erectile dysfunction and smoking?
00:41 In fact, smoking itself actually damages two things.
00:45 Number one is the actual vasculature of the sexual organ.
00:51 Number two, it also damages the nerve.
00:54 So the neurovascular bundle itself is being damaged
00:59 because of the tar and also nicotine.
01:03 And exactly how is that done?
01:05 We believe that it's because of nitric oxide pathway.
01:10 In fact, nitric oxide is a neurotransmitter
01:15 that required in order to cause vasodilation.
01:18 And the nicotine and also various components from cigarettes
01:23 will stop this vasodilation from happening quite easily.
01:28 Therefore, men who smoke will experience problem
01:32 of erectile dysfunction at some age.
01:35 There are various factors that actually make it more severe.
01:40 For example, the dose dependency for men who smoke more cigarettes.
01:45 For example, 10 cigarettes versus 20 cigarettes,
01:49 then there's an increment of this risk of erectile dysfunction.
01:53 Other things, if you have other comorbidities,
01:57 such as diabetes, blood pressure, stress, and also high cholesterol,
02:02 your magnitude of erectile dysfunction will go up.
02:07 One more is your age.
02:09 If you're older, then obviously erectile dysfunction is more risky
02:14 if you're a smoker.
02:15 And also if you are actually stressed,
02:19 and this problem will go up quite significantly.
02:23 One thing that is crucially important is that if you cease to smoke,
02:30 then that smoking cessation actually can reverse erectile function.
02:35 For example, on Petri dish, we know that experimentally,
02:41 if there is a reduction in the nicotine exposure,
02:45 within 36 hours, there's already a reversal of the vasculature compromise.
02:52 On other trials, it's shown that by six months,
02:56 men begin to see reversal of function after the cessation of the cigarette smoking.
03:05 However, obviously this is dependent on how long you've been smoking
03:10 and exactly how many cigarettes do you take.
03:14 There will be one point of irreversibility.
03:18 Therefore, you don't want to be in a situation where all the vessels are already hardened
03:23 and no reversal is possible.
03:27 However, on average, most men will regain their sexual functions
03:33 as long as they cease to smoke within two years.
03:37 For the following week, we're monitoring how alcohol can cause sexual dysfunction
03:43 and also how if you choose to reduce the alcohol consumption
03:48 because of your New Year resolution,
03:51 how is that going to improve on your sexual function?
03:54 If you are interested, obviously stay tuned for next week's Putting Dr. G on the Spot.
04:00 [Music]
04:02 [Silence]