The Health Effects Of Smoking Shisha

What is Shisha?

Shisha is a new way of smoking tobacco brought into practice in the 16th century by a physician named Hakim Abula-Fath Gilani. He made a device whose purpose was to pass the smoke through water in an attempt to purify it, an unproven system that has raised dust among the medical community.

Shisha is made up of a head that contains tobacco separated from an array of coal by foil. The Shisha’s head is fixed firmly to a system of airtight pipes that draw tobacco smoke into a bowl of water.

As the person inhales through the hose, smoke is drawn in from the bowl to the smoker.

Shisha Smoking Practice

The recent practice of smoking shisha has changed in different ways as the substance smoked has evolved from the use of only tobacco to the addition of flavorings such as apple, mint, and grape.

The smoking of shisha has increased greatly due to the increase in the number of shisha serving venues and the cheaper rate at which it is being sold.

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The constituents of shisha smoke

The smoke that comes out of shisha contains components from both tobacco and coal. These constituents include;

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH)
Carbon monoxide (CO)
Nitric oxide (NO)
Nicotine
Furans
Nanoparticles

Both tobacco-containing and tobacco-free molasses have a high level of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) which is a carcinogenic compound.

High exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons may lead to the development of various malignancies after smoking shisha.

It has also been reported that shisha smoke contains volatile aldehydes, including formaldehyde, acetaldehydes, acrolein, methacrolein, and propionaldehyde.

These chemicals have been linked with many respiratory disorders, respiratory tract irritation, lung cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The Health Effects Of Smoking Shisha

Many persons who smoke shisha think that the sweetened tobacco that they smoke through water pipes is different from the tobacco in cigarettes as they feel it those not affect their throat, hence it must be less harmful.

Some also think since the tobacco is burned on charcoal and filtered through a water pipe, what is taken in is just flavored water vapor. Wrong!

Shisha smoking can be more harmful and risky than smoking cigarettes. A shisha smoker can in an hour session of smoking inhale as much smoke as the equivalent that from 100 cigarettes or more.

Shisha smokers absorb higher levels of dangerous chemicals than regular cigarette smokers.

Shisha smoking is associated with many health problems.

It has been reported to affect the automatic regulation of the cardiac cycle, by causing an acute reduction in heart rate variability. This can make one susceptible to arrhythmia, systemic inflammation, and the risk of coronary heart disease.

Studies show that the total antioxidant capacity and vitamin C were found to be lower in shisha smokers than in non-smokers. This means that smoking shisha can significantly reduce the vitamin C and antioxidant levels in the body.

High blood pressure has also been seen to be common with those that smoke shisha. Studies conducted show that diastolic blood pressure, systolic blood pressure, and heart rate were observed to rise significantly after smoking shisha.

These health problems described above were notably higher in people smoking shisha, compared to those smoking cigarettes. People who smoke both cigarettes and shisha were reported to have the highest systolic blood pressure and heart rate.

Research on the effect of shisha also shows that a single shisha smoking session affected platelet function significantly and consistent daily smoking resulted in longer clotting of blood and consequently longer-lasting injury.

There is a risk of infection with tuberculosis (TB) and hepatitis after smoking shisha. Shisha is smoked as a group rather than as an individual and hence sharing of mouthpiece can lead to various commensal and pathogenic organism transmission through saliva.

The risk of the infectious disease still exists due to the moist nature of shisha molasses, creating room for the growth of different microorganisms.

The smoking of shisha can introduce many harmful chemicals into the body, many of which are known to cause cancer development.

Shisha smoking has been associated with lung cancer, bladder cancer, and prostate cancer, keratoacanthoma of the lips, squamous cell carcinoma, oesophageal cancer, nasopharyngeal cancer, and oral dysplasia.

The Health Effects Of Smoking Shisha