It is perhaps impossible for most of you to imagine that the incidence of men suffering from erectile or sexual malfunctioning is widespread. One can not believe the official figure of 40% as it would be definitely higher since a lot of men would shy away from admitting the truth. Several factors contribute to this state which could be a man’s age and decline in his testosterone or it could be some emotional stress or even depression. However some recreational activities like smoking, drinking and drugs could also be contributing factors.

Anything that obstructs normal blood flow to the penis is likely to play havoc with your erections. Physiologically speaking the penile region needs blood to flow smoothly for making erection a possibility.

While asleep, the number of erections can reduce substantially, if the man is a smoker. This drop in nightly erections gives an important signal that there is an underlying problem and that enough blood is not flowing for normal erection to occur. The cause of this has been identified by the Lahey Hitchcock Medical Center, Burlington, Massachusetts as excessive smoking. It is also seen that short term cessation of smoking, even for a day can improve the number of nightly erections.

Teenagers who are heavy smokers can expect their semen quality to suffer very badly. Moreover, the sperm consolidation is adversely affected. This comes in the way of their becoming a father in future and could also be responsible for giving birth to children born with genetic disorders caused by defective DNA bestowed on them by either parent.

Similarly, studies have also demonstrated that heavy drinkers are more affected by erectile dysfunction than casual drinkers. This is due to the fact that alcohol has an overall inhibitive action and definitely acts on the libido which makes erection improbable.

Thus a balanced and healthy lifestyle is behind the success of your sex life. Balanced diet and regular exercise keeps your sexual energy flowing and health glowing. Today there are good herbal aphrodisiacs available which boosts your sex energy by increasing blood flow to the penile area and treats erectile dysfunction.