Aussie men are being urged to ditch their vapes after research found a link between smoking electronic cigarettes and erectile dysfunction.
Vaping has exploded in popularity in recent years, particularly among young Aussies, as it doesn’t carry the same stigma and price tag as cigarettes – with a Chinese-made vape costing as little as $20 compared to a pack of cigarettes at $50.
With brightly coloured packages and fun flavours, such as grape and pineapple, it’s easy to see how they have caught the attention of young people.
Vapes were previously marketed as a safer alternative to cigarettes but evidence in recent years suggest the electronic devices cause similar damage to the body.
Experts are warning vapes can damage a users DNA, cause a number of respiratory issues, promote tumours, increase the risk of lung cancer and heart disease and is even linked erectile dysfunction.
Australia’s leading urologist and medical advisor for online men’s health platform Mosh, Doctor Chris Love (pictured) said the research was ‘concerning’
Aussie men are being warned to ditch their vapes after early research finds a link between vaping and erectile dysfunction
A study, published by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in November 2021, analysed data of e-cigarette use in about 13,000 men over the age of 18.
It found healthy men aged 20 to 65 years old who vaped were more than twice as likely to report experiencing erectile dysfunction than men who did not vape.
‘ENDS (electronic nicotine delivery systems) were linked to erectile dysfunction ‘independent of age, cardiovascular disease and other risk factors,’ the study wrote.
Australia’s leading urologist Doctor Chris Love told Daily Mail Australia the study’s results were ‘concerning’.
Dr Love, who is a medical advisor for the online men’s health platform Mosh, said while the study was a few years old it is vital to educate doctors and the public on the long-term impacts of vaping on men’s sexual health.
‘It’s worthwhile bringing to people’s attention again because a lot of vapes do have nicotine in them and that’s the cause of the problem,’ Dr Love said.
‘There are lots of things young men do early in life that may impact them and lifestyle factors are important in developing conditions later on.
‘Vaping fits into that group of things that we think should not be done if you want to keep yourself healthy into the future.’
Dr Love explained nicotine was already known to have impacts on sexual performance and said vaping was exposing men to the problem on a far wider scale.
‘ED is a very common condition in men, particularly more common as men get older,’ Dr Love said.
‘However, I think all urologists and all specialists that work in this area are seeing younger men presenting with ED.
‘Erectile dysfunction is a vascular condition, just like heart disease, so if something is bad for the heart, it’s going to be bad for erections too,’ Dr Love said.
‘That’s why cigarette smoking is bad for erections. Vapes have that, let alone the other chemicals we still don’t know about.
‘There may be lots of reasons but we’re seeing younger men and certainly vaping is not helping the situation.’
Dr Love, who has more than 35 years of experience as a urologist, warned young men against vaping as it can cause the narrowing of blood vessels, which cannot be reversed.
‘The reason men get erectile dysfunction from cigarettes and probably vaping is the nicotine because it makes the small arteries closed down,’ Dr Love said.
‘Over time, that becomes a permanent narrowing of the arteries, and that’s why the heart arteries narrow and why you get heart disease if you smoke. The same thing happens in the penis arteries, but it often happens earlier in life.
‘At the moment, we don’t have any technology to open those arteries up if they closed down. This is why we’d like men to not damage their arteries to start with.’
The erectile dysfunction specialist said treatment involves taking Viagra and, if nothing else works penile implant surgery.
Dr Love said prevention was better than a cure and suggested quit campaigns should include warnings on the possible bedroom side-effects of smoking.
He claimed an effective slogan to deter men from smoking a cigarette or electronic device would be ‘if you smoke, your penis won’t work’.
‘If a man can’t get an erection, we can fix him by putting an implant in, but the overall scheme of things, you try and prevent those problems happening, and that’s the whole potential issue with vaping,’ Dr Love said.
‘Rather than have pictures of dead toes and all the rest on cigarette packs as they do, they should just have on the side of the pack “if you smoke, your penis won’t work.”
‘I think that will stop a lot of young men from smoking. If they pick up a pack of cigarettes and it’s got someone whose toes have fallen off, they’ll go “oh, that’s an old person”.
Dr Love said further research into the links between ED and vapes are needed, but he believes the effects of vaping will turn out to be just as bad for erections as smoking cigarettes.
‘With the increasing instances of vaping, the increasing number of vapes that have nicotine and with that concerning study in the background, I think doctors that deal in this area would predict we are going to see erectile dysfunction develop,’ he said.
‘We’ve known about for years that cigarette smoking is not good for you. It may be that vaping is going to turn out just as bad for erections.’
Experts advise vaping can be particularly damaging for young people because it damages DNA, promotes tumours and can cause a number of respiratory issues
Erectile dysfunction [ED] is the medical term for when someone is not able to get a satisfactory erection, 비아그라 구입 or is unable to keep their erection, and can occur for many reasons.
Age, diabetes, performance anxiety, certain medications, surgical procedures and lifestyle choices can all cause ED.
While it is more common among older men, most often caused by poor blood flow to the penis due to narrowing arteries, more people under 40 are seeking treatment for ED than ever before.