Over the past few decades, the effects that smoking has on our daily lives has been made clear. Not only does smoking alienate you from your friends and co-workers, it makes you smell bad, gives you terrible breath, gives you multiple kinds of cancer and it costs a fortune.

But possibly the best reason ever to quit smoking is that smoking can directly impact your sex life, and we don’t mean your ability to have it, although your chances will most likely be greatly improved if you quit. Smoking has been linked to a significant decrease in stamina and its affects on the lungs are already well documented.

Ask the average person what they need to do to live a healthy life and you get the usual answers: eat right, exercise and stay away from smoking, drinking and drug use. But the number of people that actually follow their own advice is small. Most folks don’t equate that advice to sex since sex is something that feels so automatic to most of us. But living a healthy lifestyle can have a huge impact on how often we want to have sex, but also the quality of the sex, itself.

Many smokers report a sharp drop in not only how often they want to have sex, but also the quality of the sex they do have. They report feeling out of breath much quicker than they use to, as well as feelings of dizziness and nausea after only a few minutes of sexual intercourse. While it is impossible to say that a complete end to smoking, increased exercise and a better diet is a cure all for everything that ails you, including a lackluster sex life, there isn’t a study in existence that points to any other cure.

And if you’re having sexual relations for the purpose of reproduction, you really should consider quitting. A recent study showed a direct link between the number of cigarettes a day a man smoked and his ability to conceive a child. You wouldn’t want your wife to smoke during pregnancy, then you should be willing to quit while you try to conceive. Better yet, quit for good so your child has a father to hug during their high school graduation.

Quitting isn’t easy now, nor has it ever been. See your doctor for advice on quitting and see what aides are available so you can quit right the first time.