Important facts about hookah smoking.
Is Hookah Smoking a Better Alternative than Smoking?
Have you replaced your smoking habit with Hookah Smoking? Maybe you think it is a better alternative to smoking cigarettes.
Yes, we know the smell is sweet and tastes better. Furthermore, it is a great social experience and only an occasional habit.
However, there is no such thing as a healthy option to replace your smoking. A fact is that it is more dangerous than smoking a cigarette.
What is Hookah Smoking?
The Hookah started way back in India during the 15th Century. The Hookah consists of a glass base known as the Shisha with a water pipe to smoke flavored tobacco.
All over the world, it has different names from a hubble-bubble, Goza, Narghile, to Argileh. Furthermore, it became a status symbol for Sultans in the Ottoman Empire.
They used to smoke it at diplomatic meetings and royal dinners to show they were becoming part of the culture. The pipe used is substantial and water is placed in the chamber.
There is another flexible tube that stems from it, allowing you to inhale the smoke. Therefore, the sweet taste is appealing for people from young to old.
To get the water boiling, you use burning charcoal placed on top of the tobacco. The tobacco is separated from the charcoal with foil.
As the charcoal heats up below, it starts forming smoke that you pull through the hose from the water chamber.
The smoke cools down before you inhale it into your lungs.
So What Makes The Hookah Dangerous?
Maybe you are thinking or heard that by smoking the Hookah, it’s healthier because the nicotine and toxins are removed. Yes, the water-cooled smoke is less harsh for your lungs but the toxicity of the inhaled smoke stays the same.
These chemicals still cause cancer as it is not filtered out. When smoking the Shisha, it still has the same harmful toxins found in a cigarette that include:
· Arsenic
· Carbon Monoxide
· Chromium
· Cobalt
· Cadmium
· Tar and the list goes on
While many tobacco products claim it does not have tar present, the manufacturers are misleading you. A fact is the tobacco has tar until it starts burning when smoking a cigarette. With the hookah it is present until heated.
As you use charcoal to heat the tobacco the latter contains carbon monoxide and metal that lead to cancer.
Is The Hubble-Bubble Safer Than Smoking?
While a cigarette contains up to 22mg of nicotine with about one milligram absorbed by you the hookah bowl consists of more nicotine.
A fact is that it contains up to a packet of 20 cigarettes. Furthermore, you know how addictive nicotine is and smoking the hookah for a non-smoker eventually leads to smoking.
During smoking, you inhale up to 600 ml smoke that is twenty puffs on a cigarette. The typical smoking of the hookah lasts up to an hour.
Therefore, you inhaled up to 90,000 ml of smoke and took up to 200 puffs. So if you are smoking the hookah you are getting in more than six-time carbon monoxide with 46 times more tar.
What is more, that with one hookah session, you can absorb the same amount of chemicals! So you are smoking two to ten cigarettes in one session a day depending on how often you use it.
Now we are not saying that smoking a cigarette is healthier as both leads to health concerns.
Related Health Concerns
Whether you smoke the hookah or a cigarette, you can still get lung cancer and oral cancer. However, dragging the hookah leads to stomach and esophageal cancer as well.
Furthermore, you can also get heart disease and decreased lung function. There is secondhand smoke present similar to smoking cigarettes.
Another big negative is that as more than one person is sharing a pipe, sometimes it leads to spreading illnesses from colds, oral herpes, to other infections.
A Word from QuitGo
Hookah and cigarette tobacco is addictive and hazardous for your health. A one-hour session of smoking the hubble-bubble exposes you to the same nicotine and toxins from smoking a cigarette the whole day.
Therefore within the hour, you smoke your blood pressures raised, and your heart rate is faster leading to a heart attack.
The longer you smoke the hookah it contributes to other concerns like lung disease or cancer similar to smoking a cigarette.
The best thing you can do is to quit by avoiding all tobacco products. If you want to live a healthier life set your quit date and use the QuitGo Kit that is nicotine and chemical-free to get you started.
Start your quit journey with us today!
