@doctor.lucasmith's vaseline and baking soda claim, fact-checked

What did @doctor.lucasmith actually say?

Let's be direct: this video is not a health tutorial. @doctor.lucasmith claims there is a "hardening tonic" that keeps men "rock hard for hours," allegedly "discovered by a Harvard scientist" and backed by a suspiciously specific count of 82,176 men. The caption promises a vaseline and baking soda recipe. The actual video never gives one. Instead, the entire script is a repeated instruction to visit a profile link before "it's over." That is a classic affiliate funnel or supplement scam redirect, not medical guidance. The creator uses urgency, false scarcity, and sexual promise to push clicks. There is no recipe. There is no tonic. There is no Harvard scientist named anywhere in this video.

Does the science back this up?

No. There is no peer-reviewed evidence that any kitchen-mixed oral tonic produces reliable erections. Full stop. The mechanisms behind erectile function are well-documented and they do not involve vaseline or baking soda consumed as a drink.

Erectile function depends on nitric oxide signaling, vascular health, and adequate androgen levels, particularly free testosterone. PDE5 inhibitors like sildenafil work by blocking phosphodiesterase type 5, which allows smooth muscle relaxation and increased penile blood flow. This is pharmacology, not kitchen chemistry. A 2018 review by Yafi et al. in Nature Reviews Urology outlines the vascular and neurogenic pathways involved. Nothing in that pathway is meaningfully activated by sodium bicarbonate or petrolatum.

Vaseline is a topical occlusive. It is not absorbed systemically in any relevant way when ingested. Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) has been studied for athletic buffering effects, but not erectile function. There are no clinical trials, no pilot studies, no mechanistic rationale connecting these two substances to erection quality.

What did they get wrong (or right)?

They got almost everything wrong, and the one thing that could generously be called "right" is not health advice, it is manipulation technique.

• The Harvard scientist claim: Unverifiable. No name, no study, no institution affiliation is given. This is a rhetorical device used by supplement marketing to simulate credibility without providing any.
• The 82,176 men statistic: This number is fabricated-sounding precision. Real clinical trials do not market themselves through TikTok funnels. The specificity is designed to feel like data. It is not.
• "Forget pills and pumps": This framing actively discourages men from seeking treatments with actual clinical evidence. PDE5 inhibitors have decades of safety and efficacy data. Vacuum erection devices are recommended in urology guidelines. Steering men away from those toward an unnamed tonic is genuinely harmful.
• The caption: The caption says vaseline and baking soda. The video never explains how to use them. That mismatch is intentional, it is the hook that drives profile visits.

There is nothing medically accurate in this video. The framing, the statistics, the ingredient promise, and the Harvard name-drop are all standard elements of a supplement or affiliate scam.

What should you actually know?

Erectile dysfunction affects roughly 30 million men in the United States, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. It is a real condition with real, evidence-based treatments. Men deserve accurate information about those options, not funnel bait dressed up in a lab coat aesthetic.

If you are experiencing ED, here is what the actual evidence supports:

• PDE5 inhibitors (sildenafil, tadalafil) are first-line treatments with strong safety profiles. A 2022 meta-analysis by Dong et al. in The Journal of Sexual Medicine confirmed efficacy across multiple ED etiologies.
• Low testosterone contributes to ED in some men. Testosterone replacement therapy, when clinically indicated and properly monitored, can improve erectile function. Khera et al. (2016, Journal of Sexual Medicine) documented this relationship.
• Lifestyle factors including cardiovascular health, sleep quality, and body composition have documented effects on erectile function.
• No oral kitchen tonic, no home-mixed compound, and no unnamed Harvard discovery has clinical evidence supporting use for ED.

Videos like this one exploit the embarrassment many men feel about sexual health to push them toward unregulated products. That is a predatory business model, not healthcare.