Hookah smoking! Because of its pleasant flavour and aroma as well as the fact that most individuals only smoke hookah rarely, it is frequently misunderstood for a healthier alternative to smoking cigarettes.
But…
Hookah has harmful effects that are comparable to cigarette smoking and is not healthier than smoking cigarettes. It is just as addicting as smoking cigarettes and may even be more hazardous.
Let’s examine the health dangers of smoking shisha or hookah in this blog post!
Table of Contents
What is Hookah Shisha?
Hookahs are thin metal vases-shaped water pipes. Other names for a hookah include water pipe, narghile, or shisha.
Hookah creates smoke by heating a sweet, gooey tobacco over charcoal and filtering it through cooled water. The smoke is then breathed through a flexible hose.
An individual can also smoke tobacco by combining it with sweet flavours like apple, chocolate, coconut, licorice, or watermelon – which is termed as hookah shisha.
Hookahs have been used for centuries in prehistoric India and Persia. Nowadays, hookah shisha is frequently done in groups, either at home or at cafes or lounges.
How Does Hookah Work?
The common parts of hookah include a water bowl, metal body, a head with holes in the bottom, and a flexible hose with a mouthpiece.
Now, how does hookah work?
The apparatus heats the water while burning charcoal, which also burns a tobacco mixture. The smoke that the charcoal produces aids in transferring the tobacco up though the water and hose to the mouthpiece.
Is Hookah Safe?
Despite the smoke passing through water, the dangerous and addictive compounds generated by the tobacco are still present.
During the combustion of charcoal used to heat hookah tobacco, production of hazardous byproducts including carbon monoxide, metals occur. These substances are not filtered out by the water in the hookah and may pose added health hazards.
What’s more? If someone is close to the hookah, they can still breathe in secondhand smoke even if they don’t smoke directly from it.
Harmful Effects of Smoking Shisha on Health
The following negative effects on health may result from smoking shisha:
1-Cancer
Hookah smokers run the risk of developing a wide range of cancers, including bladder, oesophagus, lung, oral, and stomach cancers.
2-Heart Disease and Stroke
Hookah smoke can increase your risk of heart attack and stroke since it can raise your blood pressure and heart rate. In addition, smoking a hookah can aggravate heart disease and clogged arteries.
Get to know about the healthiest tips for a healthy heart.
3-Lung Disease
Smoking shisha even sometimes has been connected to deteriorated lung health. Smoking hookah over time raises the risk of lung conditions such chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and pulmonary dysfunction.
4-Secondhand Smoke
Shisha side effects also include secondhand hookah smoke. Just like with secondhand cigarette smoke, if a lit hookah water pipe is in the room, you are inhaling carcinogens. Even if a person does not smoke themselves, exposure to secondhand smoke can lead to heart disease, lung cancer, and stroke.
5-Infectious Diseases
Additionally, there are dangers related to how shisha smoking is done in public. The hookah is typically smoked in designated bars, and owing to incorrect cleaning, the mouthpiece may not be hygienic to use.
Infectious disorders like tuberculosis, aspergillus (which affects the lungs), helicobacter (which causes stomach ulcers), herpes, and hepatitis may spread as a result of using it.
Hookah vs Cigarettes
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), ‘many of the same health dangers as cigarette smoking are associated with using a hookah to smoke tobacco’.
For instance, nicotine, a highly addictive chemical, is still delivered by cigarette smoke. In order to produce hookah smoke, charcoal must also be burned. When charcoal and tobacco mix, poisonous gases are produced that are similar to cigarette smoke.
Additionally, a hookah user may be exposed to the toxins in the smoke for a longer period of time than a cigarette smoker. A person typically takes 20 puffs on a cigarette, whereas a hookah session can last an hour and result in 200 puffs.
Furthermore, smoking a hookah provides more than 2.5 times as much nicotine as cigarette smoke. Nicotine in this quantity has the potential to be quite addictive.
Get to know about some cancer causing habits.
Hookah Myths
Certain hookah bars may promote the non-tobacco products they sell as having no negative health consequences. This is untrue since the smoke still contains toxic substances like carbon monoxide and other poisons.
Other myth regarding hookah use include:
- Smoking a hookah is not addicting. As mentioned earlier, nicotine, a highly addictive substance, is present in hookah smoking which makes it quite addictive.
- Harmful substances are filtered by the water in hookah smoke. No hazardous compounds are filtered out by the water in hookah smoke.
- Because cigarettes employ heat, they burn the lungs, whereas hookah smoke is colder and does not burn. Even after cooling down, hookah smoke can still harm the heart and lungs.
Wrapping UP!
Hookah smoking does not provide any health benefits and carries various serious health hazards, despite the fact that some people think it is a safer and more socially acceptable alternative to tobacco smoking.Other persons who use hookahs run the risk of breathing in secondhand smoke. Therefore, it is preferable for people to refrain from smoking tobacco products, even by using a hookah, to lower the risks of harming the lungs and other organs. In case you find difficulty refraining cigarettes or smoking shisha, you can consult with the best addiction specialists near you via Healthwire.pk.
