 Hookahs (Ghelyoon in Farsi) have long been used for smoking tobacco in the Middle East, North Africa and parts of Asia. Hookah lounges are also becoming increasingly popular in the US and other countries. The pipes consist of a long tube attached to a glass or plastic container that holds water in its base. A hookah is a water pipe, in which flavored tobacco is inhaled through a hose. The tobacco is called shisha, and comes in many fruitlike flavors.
Hookah smoking has become popular in the West in the past few years. Hookah bars and lounges can be found in many cities. Thankfully, these hookah bars are subject to many states' indoor smoking ban policies.
Hookah water pipes are not safe to smoke. The water does not filter out all the toxins, and the nicotine is addictive. Several types of cancer and gum disease have been linked to hookah smoking.
Researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm studied 262 adults in Saudi Arabia, where hookah smoking is widespread, to find out if hookahs are as tough on the teeth as cigarettes
Some people think hookahs deliver less tar and nicotine than cigarettes and have fewer health consequences because the smoke is filtered by the water.
Not true, Thomas Eissenberg, head of the Clinical Behavioral Pharmacology Laboratory at Virginia Commonwealth University, said in a prepared statement.
"Water pipe smoking may be associated with significant health risks, and we only now are beginning to accumulate information on the issue ," Eissenberg said.
Initial research indicates hookahs can increase carbon dioxide and nicotine exposure, speed up heart rate, and may contribute to heart disease and cancer.
The water pipe is another method of tobacco use, one that we should not ignore as we fight the tobacco epidemic. Past experience has taught us that ignoring the epidemiology and health effects of tobacco-use products can lead to a public health disaster that may have been preventable," Eissenberg said.
A doctor suggesting that smoking hookah or water pipe could lead to AIDS although the idea that HIV can be spread through saliva has been discredited but are you willing to take that risk? .
The American Cancer Society has more about the dangers of Hookah smoking...Click Here
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