The detrimental impact that smoking has on someone’s body cannot be understated. Everyone knows long-term smoking can result in lung cancer, emphysema, and other awful health effects. One of the principal impacts that smoking and general unhealthiness have is a negative impact on the hormones in one’s body. But what impact does smoking have on your testosterone? Does smoking boost testosterone?
Happy Urology and our South Florida urology practice are here to give you some useful information on what smokers can expect of their hormone levels when they have been smoking for a long time. Continue reading below to learn from our Miami urologists and Florida Penuma surgery professionals.
Does smoking lower testosterone? Smoking cigarettes is widely known to have negative health effects. However, the effects that smoking tobacco and nicotine have on the body are still not widely known. According to a new comparative study, results indicate that both groups – smokers and non-smokers – had about the same testosterone levels in their blood. The results of this are still rather up in the air, but there is enough evidence to suggest that quitting smoking could do nothing but improve your health. In fact, there are many studies that suggest that smoking cessation could increase the amount of testosterone in a man’s blood.
So, smoking is not directly linked to lower testosterone, but smokers that cease smoking may experience a boost in the sex hormone. An interesting angle to this question is the levels of testosterone in smokers before they become “smokers.” Higher testosterone levels in men are linked to a greater propensity to engage in riskier behaviors such as smoking, drinking, and gambling. This could mean that men who smoke could have more testosterone present in their blood, which could slightly skew the results of these studies.
While it may not decrease testosterone, smoking could have an impact on the presence of other chemicals in the body. One of the main components in producing testosterone is zinc. Smokers who have a poor diet have lower levels of zinc, which later impacts their body’s ability to create testosterone.
Does smoking boost testosterone if you are smoking marijuana? While the link between smoking weed and lower testosterone is not yet fully understood, it is known that smoking cannabis could lead to lower testosterone. While there are some studies that have been conducted that point to the impact of marijuana on the body, there have been many that point to its negative effect on sperm count, sexual function, and testosterone levels.
In fact, there was a 1974 study conducted by the New England Journal of Medicine that pointed out that the testosterone levels of marijuana smokers and non-marijuana smokers were incredibly different. The study found that the men that did not smoke weed were almost double that of those that were habitual cannabis smokers. Guys who did smoke marijuana had an average T-level of about 416, while the non-smokers hit about 724. This is an important finding because the negative health effects of low testosterone occur in levels below 600. The impact of weed on testosterone is only present for around 24 hours, which is good news for marijuana smokers. This means that these low testosterone levels are not permanent.
Like smoking cigarettes or marijuana, the link between smoking cigars and testosterone levels is not well understood. However, whatever impact that cigars have on someone’s body is less dramatic than someone who smokes cigarettes because of the way that they are consumed. For one, cigars are typically only smoked once a while on special occasions, rather than cigarettes, which are usually consumed many times throughout the day.
Does smoking boost testosterone? The answer is still up in the air. Aside from answering questions like this one, we are a urological practice that is dedicated to helping our customers with whatever kind of urological service they may need. We are dedicated to making sure that our patients receive the most updated and effective treatment available. We provide a wide range of services, which include the following:
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