Quitting Smoking Could Help You In The Bedroom

As if the increased risks of lung disease, emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease weren't enough to dissuade people from smoking, now you can addpotential bedroom problemsto the list.

A new study in theBritish Journal of Urology Internationalshows that men who stopped smoking hadgreater sexual arousalthan men who still smoked.

"With younger men, therisks of smokingin that population appear more far off. They think, 'I don't really need to worry about this until much farther down the road,'" study researcher Christopher Harte, of the VA Boston Healthcare System, told Reuters. However, this study shows that there could be a more immediate effect from smoking.

For the study, researchers had 65 male smokers take part in an eight-week smoking cessation program that involved nicotine patches and counseling.

Researchers also tested themen's sexual arousalbefore the stop-smoking program, in the middle of the program and a few weeks after the program, theDaily Mailreported.

At the end of the study, 20 men hadstopped smokingfor at least a week, while 45 men were still smoking. However, the men who had quit for a week or longer became sexually aroused faster than the smokers,TIMEreported.

However, these changes in arousal weren't seen until the stop-smokers had ceased using a nicotine patch, suggesting it's the nicotine in the cigarettes -- not the cigarette smoke or whatever else -- thataffects the sexual arousal,TIMEreported.

It also has yet to be seen if theeffects actually carry into the bedroom, since "it might take longer for men to actually notice their level of difference subjectively outside of the lab, which is also dependent on their relationship with their sexual partner," Harte told Reuters.

Past studies have also shown a smoking-sex link. One study by the University of Hong Kong showed that quitting smoking was linked with fewerimpotence problems, according to theTimes of India. Another study in theAmerican Journal of Epidemiology, showed that smokers have ahigher risk for erectile dysfunction, with the risk associated with the number of cigarettes they smoke, Reuters reported.

And a recent study, to be published in the journalNicotine and Tobacco Research, shows that quitting smoking is actually associated with a change in personality. In that study, University of Missouri researchers found thatpeople who smoke were more neurotic(anxious and emotionally negative) and impulsive (acting without considering the consequences) than people who don't smoke. However, quitting smoking was also associated with a decrease in neuroticism and impulsivity, researchers said.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.