Are you a heavy smoker? Do you consume a lot of alcohol? While TV commercials make it appear that these are manly vices that are attractive to women, the truth may surprise you. These bad habits can make you impotent!

Impotence is the inability to achieve and maintain an erection of the penis. This is necessary to penetrate the vagina during sexual intercourse.

Most of us are temporarily impotent from time to time. This is normal and nothing to worry about. But if the problem persists, impotence can shatter a man’s ego and destroy his sexual life. This can lead to embarrassing situations and strained social relationships.

“Diminished sexual desire or even loss of sexual desire is not the same thing as impotence. Impotence refers to the inability to have an erection and to use the penis for sexual activity when desire and opportunity are present,” according to Dr. David E. Larson, editor-in-chief of the “Mayo Clinic Family Health Book.”

Older men appear to be more affected by impotence than younger men. By the age of 60, about 20 percent of men are impotent. By 80, more than 70 percent of men have this problem.

But this is not always the case since some men in their 80s continue to enjoy sex on a regular basis. Obviously, age is not the only factor in impotence. Therefore, the key to controlling the condition lies in correcting bad habits that may be present.

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The effects of alcohol on sexual performance were neatly summed up by Shakespeare in this line in Macbeth: “It (drink) provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance.”

Indeed, moderate use of alcohol can make one feel sexy and its role as an aphrodisiac has been glamorized in many movies.

But the same relaxing drink that reduces sexual inhibitions can also make you impotent. And men who drink too much are so overcome by alcohol’s sedating effects that they end up in bed — sleeping instead of having sex!

This is because alcohol stops the production of testosterone, the hormone which controls a man’s sex drive or libido. With too much alcohol, the testicle’s ability to produce this hormone is impaired, resulting in little or no interest in sex.

“Alcohol damages the nerves that allow erection and ejaculation to occur. Many alcoholics are unable to produce semen by masturbation because they can no longer ejaculate forward. The nerve damage caused by alcohol results in retrograde ejaculation,” revealed Dr. Richard E. Spark, associate clinical professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School, in “Male Sexual Health A Couple’s Guide.”

The bad thing about alcohol abuse is that no one knows just how much a person can take before it completely damages his sex life. Denying that the problem exists may indicate that you are already an alcoholic on the road to impotence and infertility.

Heavy cigarette smoking is another factor in impotence. The more you smoke, the more blood vessels in your body are damaged. These include the large arteries and tiny vessels which bring blood to the penis and make erection possible.

“Autopsy studies of heavy smokers show that the small arterioles in the penis are universally narrowed, scarred, and no longer retain the elasticity needed to expand,” said Spark, a member of the American Fertility Society.

As with alcohol, the risk of becoming impotent with smoking increases with the number of cigarettes you smoke daily for years. But the effects of smoking vary in different people and some experience impotence even with a few sticks of les a day.

To enjoy sex in your later years, keep fit, eat right and love life. That simple advice can go a long way in preserving your sex life. For extra help, take Fematril, a safe and natural female sexual enhancer that can stimulate your mind and body. For details, go to http://www.fematril.com/.

Sharon Bell is an avid health and fitness enthusiast and published author. Many of her insightful articles can be found at the premier online news magazine http://www.HealthLinesNews.com.
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