Does Alcohol Cause Erectile Dysfunction?

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Doctor David Thomas. I'm a practicing psychotherapist with the Whitford-Thomas Group in Tampa, Florida, here to discuss the question Does Alcohol Affect Erectile or Cause Erectile Dysfunction? Erectile dysfunction is what we want to talk about first. And, oftentimes erectile dysfunction has two courses. One is a medical course, so it's really caused by something that's kind of malfunctioning in the system. And there's oftentimes with more younger males, erectile dysfunction is a result of performance anxiety. So let's talk about erection, first, 'cause then we can see it's tied into alcohol. First of all, when you're talking about, well, you know, what creates an erection. Erection is initiated by some type of sensory stimulation or physical stimulation to the brain. Actually the brain detects that stimulation, and then from there, the brain sends a message to the penis to relax the muscles, which allows the flow of blood to come into the penis and therefore create the expansion and the erection. And the penises ability to maintain the erection is really regulated by how long the muscles can maintain that flow of blood into the penis. Now let's talk about alcohol. What does alcohol do? Well, alcohol comes into the system through the stomach. Of course you drank it, but then it comes into the stomach and the lower intestines, and then it circulates throughout the system via the blood. So the more alcohol you have in your system, the more blood volume exists in the body. And so, since the blood flow is the main cause of the erection, alcohol can, in fact, increase the volume intensity of the blood itself. Therefore, interestingly, alcohol doesn't create erectile dysfunction. Actually it can help in the maintaining of the erection. Now certainly that has its, you know, it's limitations. Certainly heavy intoxication can actually work just the opposite, because alcohol is a sedative and as a result, in order to maintain that erection it's more than just simply the blood flow. There has to be....the brain has to constantly stimulate it through thought as well as through physical sensations. So those are minimized through heavy intoxication. They could work just the opposite, and at that point, can create the dysfunction. Hope this information's been helpful. From Tampa, Florida, I'm Doctor David Thomas."