Smoking tobacco using a pipe, or shisha, has been around since ancient times in both Persia and India. There are many names for the same thing: hookah, narghile, argileh, waterpipe, goza, and hubble bubble.
The water pipe consists of a bowl, a chamber, a pipe, and a hose and can be used for inhalation. Tobacco is heated with a charcoal flame, and the resulting smoke is filtered through water before being inhaled. Some historians believe that a coconut shell water pipe with a milk filter may have been the original method of smoking opium or hashish.
Some of the bad effects of smoking shisha are the same as those of smoking tobacco, but they are not the only ones.
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- 1. Cancer.
According to Mayoclinic. Shisha smoking exposes users to more harmful substances than cigarette smoking. This is due, at least in part, to the fact that smoking shisha and cigarettes is done differently, both in terms of the number of puffs taken and the depth of inhalation. Over the course of an hour, a shisha user will inhale 200 times as much smoke as they would from a single pack of cigarettes.
Carbon monoxide, heavy metals, and carcinogens are all dangerous substances that can be found in shisha smoke. The water used as a filter in a shisha pipe doesn’t do much to protect against them.
2. Cardiovascular Diseases.
Shisha consumption has been linked to atherosclerosis, the hardening and narrowing of arteries. Cigarette smoke is harmful not only to the lungs but also to the lining of the arteries, which can lead to the buildup of a fatty deposit (atheroma) and subsequent artery narrowing. Several cardiovascular conditions, including angina, congestive heart failure, a heart attack, or a stroke, are possible once such adjustments are made.
It’s not shocking that shisha smokers become addicted to nicotine because the drug is found in approximately equal concentrations in shishas and cigarettes. Nicotine makes your body make more adrenaline, which raises your blood pressure, heart stress, and risk of heart disease.
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Traditional shisha is customarily prepared by replacing tobacco with charcoal or wood cinders, exposing smokers to far higher levels of the dangerous chemical carbon monoxide than is the case with cigarette smoking. Because cigarettes contain carbon monoxide, the blood can’t carry as much oxygen, which makes the heart work harder.
3. Infectious Diseases.
There are risks associated with the social norms around shisha use as well. The mouthpiece provided may not be clean enough for use, and the device is typically smoked in specialized bars and cafes. As a result, there is a risk that diseases like tuberculosis (a bacterial infection), aspergillus (a fungal infection of the lungs), helicobacter (the bacterium responsible for stomach ulcers), herpes (a virus that causes hepatitis), and hepatitis C (a viral infection of the liver) could be spread through its use (a liver infection).
Because many shisha smokers don’t know about the risks, the World Health Organization has done studies and called for steps to educate the public and make the drug less popular.
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