Where Does The Buzz From From?

[TigerLord]

The best Shisha I've smoked so far was Hookah Hookah or Nahkla... so I'm sort of excited to see what my AF and Tangiers will do to me.

However I've always wondered where the buzz came from? I've never smoked cigarrette but I,m pretty sure nicotine doesn't buzz, and since Shisha is free of any substance you usually find in NHT, what gives the buzz?

Just wondering...

[Bulldog_916]

Nicotine gives the buzz. It's absorbed into the blood stream and gives the light-headed element to it. If I havent smoked Tangiers or Nakhla in some weeks, they buzz me the next time I smoke them. It just happens.

[mattathayde]

mostly it is nicotine but the lack of pure air is part of it. if u take a bunch of hits in a row you will buz from the combination but the lasting buzz is from nicotine

-matt

[TigerLord]

mostly it is nicotine but the lack of pure air is part of it. if u take a bunch of hits in a row you will buz from the combination but the lasting buzz is from nicotine

-matt

I thought shisha had less nicotine than cigarettes, so cigarette smokers get buzzed from it?

[modisess]

people who are new to cigarettes will experience a great amount of buzz from smoking them... but people will get used to it and ultimately the buzzed feeling will eventually fade away for veteran smokers....

as for them smoking shisha, it'll probably be the same as smoking some zigzags for them. Edited August 22, 2008 by modisess

[mattathayde]

mostly it is nicotine but the lack of pure air is part of it. if u take a bunch of hits in a row you will buz from the combination but the lasting buzz is from nicotine

-matt

I thought shisha had less nicotine than cigarettes, so cigarette smokers get buzzed from it?

depends on the cigs and the shisha you are comparing. cigs dont have the % listed any more, at least where im at but some shisha has .05% and some has .5%. i have a friend that doenst smoke and never gets a buzz from any tobacco (i think she finally got a small one from tangiers one night). where other people take 2 hits on a hookah of something light and get a buzz.

its really just a different way of getting nicotine so cig smokers probably can still get a buzz easily from it because its not how they normally get it

-matt

[joytron]

its nicotine; tobacco's natural defense against insects; so basically what gives you the buzz is a pesticide trying to kill you.... its kinda a trip.

[mattathayde]

its nicotine; tobacco's natural defense against insects; so basically what gives you the buzz is a pesticide trying to kill you.... its kinda a trip.

and also tomatoes and peppers have nicotine in them, much much less than tobacco by any means but still interesting
-matt

[SimplexCoda]

its for sure the nicotine. In terms of having less than cigs, your prolly thinkin of tar and other additives. Im sure shisha and cigs have a simular nicotine count, but shisha has no additves other than flavor.

[hookah hippie]

the nicotine woot

[Codename067]

Good ol' Nicotine.

[MechAnt]

Just to add more to this, it is the Nicotine.

Nicotine thins the blood so your O2 levels don't necessarily drop but the blood cannot deliver quite as much oxygen as it can prior to nicotine being added. This is why drinking heavily, to the point where you'd consider yourself drunk, and then hitting the hookah is not a good idea. Nicotine thins your blood but not the alcohol.

[fcbayern]

Sorry if this is a stupid question but if the nicotine is what gives the buzz.. Does this mean that shisha that is washed give less of a buzz?

[mattathayde]

Sorry if this is a stupid question but if the nicotine is what gives the buzz.. Does this mean that shisha that is washed give less of a buzz?

correct for the most part, some times part of the "buzz" is really coming from the stuff released buy quick light coals or from breathing deeply and frequently but for the most part it does come down to the nicotine

-matt

[Fluffy]

shisha (even washed has alot more nicotiene than cigarettes.

[prozak64]

its for sure the nicotine. In terms of having less than cigs, your prolly thinkin of tar and other additives. Im sure shisha and cigs have a simular nicotine count, but shisha has no additves other than flavor.

I've often wondered about the nicotine content, though: if shisha does have a the same amount of nicotine, and if nicotine is the addictive substance in cigarettes, how come I never hear of anyone being addicted to hookah or having withdrawal symptoms when trying to quit?

That's what's always made me wonder if maybe the buzz has a lot to do with something else.

[mattathayde]

its for sure the nicotine. In terms of having less than cigs, your prolly thinkin of tar and other additives. Im sure shisha and cigs have a simular nicotine count, but shisha has no additves other than flavor.

I've often wondered about the nicotine content, though: if shisha does have a the same amount of nicotine, and if nicotine is the addictive substance in cigarettes, how come I never hear of anyone being addicted to hookah or having withdrawal symptoms when trying to quit?

That's what's always made me wonder if maybe the buzz has a lot to do with something else.

they say nicotine is the addictive part of cigs but there are many other things added into them that make them more addictive, and while i dont know of many people that jones for hookah like they do a cig i know i sure have a lot of "want" be it cravings of the mental or physical addiction of either the nicotine or just the flavor and relaxation

also you have to remember that hookah is steamed (so yes the nicotine should be pulled out) but that may make a difference in some way compared to cigs since those are fully burned

-matt

[trivial]

Sorry if this is a stupid question but if the nicotine is what gives the buzz.. Does this mean that shisha that is washed give less of a buzz?

not a stupid question but a good question... but yes it gives little to no buzz... but depends on the person

[mattarios2]

like matt has stated, I think people get the wrong idea of nicotine, yes it is addictive, but i believe it is the chemicals in the ciggs that cause the real intense addiction. Friends of mine smoked ciggs and were hooked real bad, they quit, and now they cant touch a cigg, but they puff hookah with me almost every night and find no addiction.

I am not saying it isn't addictive I am sure it is, but a lot easier to lay off because of the natural state and no chemicals used.

Also a cigg burns a lot hotter than a hookah. Hotter = more tar = more carcinogens = makes you more f'ed up.

It also allows the carcinogens to stick in your body better because there is more tar for the carcinogens to stick to, which i believe would help add to the addiction ciggs cause.

[Bulldog_916]

Nicotine content in cigarettes as a percentage of the volume of tobacco is a lot higher in cigarettes than it is in shisha. It can be 20% in cigarettes. In shisha, it rarely surpasses 1%. I know it's labeled as .5% but you have to know that's not an accurate measurement 100% of the time.

[MeHT]

It's not just nicotine. It's also carbon monoxide that the coals produce. Upon inhalation CO is actually bound to hemoglobin in favor of oxygen in your red blood cells. So when you hit from a hookah you get a dose of toxic gas that is transmitted to your body instead of oxygen. Plus the nicotine, yes.

[Canon]

shisha (even washed) has alot more nicotiene than cigarettes.

that is if your assuming that cigarette company's don't put nicotine in their stuff. nicotine is what gives tobacco its addiction. ive had both hookah and cigarettes and i can tell you cigarettes are alot more addicting then hookah..

back on topic. nicotine gives you the buzz.

[mattathayde]

to the whole "cigs have more nicotine" yes one cig has more nicotine than the same weight of tobacco in shisha but hookah smokers smoke much more tobacco at a time.

-matt

[Bulldog_916]

What I mean by the nicotine is a percentage of the volume of tobacco means that if you have 1g of cigarette tobacco, it's 12% nicotine using Newports as an example. With shisha, it's far less, <1% per gram. That means that even if you smoked 50g of shisha in a bowl, that doesnt mean that you're smoking 50% nicotine. It just wouldnt make any sense. You're adding the relative amount of nicotine per gram of tobacco to get your final result. You smoke 1 bowl of shisha a day, that doesnt mean you smoked the equivalent of 15 cigs. It doesnt jive.

[mattathayde]

What I mean by the nicotine is a percentage of the volume of tobacco means that if you have 1g of cigarette tobacco, it's 12% nicotine using Newports as an example. With shisha, it's far less, <1% per gram. That means that even if you smoked 50g of shisha in a bowl, that doesnt mean that you're smoking 50% nicotine. It just wouldnt make any sense. You're adding the relative amount of nicotine per gram of tobacco to get your final result. You smoke 1 bowl of shisha a day, that doesnt mean you smoked the equivalent of 15 cigs. It doesnt jive.

o no i agree with cigs compared to shisha, but my quick research lead me to find you only get about 1mg of the 9mg of nicotine in a cig (the other 8mg is burned off), so ya there is probably about 10% but you only get 1% nicotine form the cig weight.

nicotine wise i would say that a hookah smoker gets more nicotine over a shorter period of time, and if smoking a bowl of hookah was like 10-15 cigs i would be coughing my arse off since i smoke 2-3 hours a day of hookah and dont have a cough at all, yet if i smoked a cig the next day i would cough some

-matt