The Dr.s

[mattarios2]

good point scoop, makes sense.

[Kathrynx]

many hookah smokers keep telling themselves that hookah smoke is better than cigarettes. neither is better than the other.
they are both bad in their own way.

sure, cigarettes are burned and might have more carcinogens but you dont take huge lungful's each inhale...
with hookah, the heat from the charcoal does vaporize the nicotine and molasses/glycerin without burning the tobacco itself but taking huge inhales allows those sticky vapors to get further in your lungs while clogging up the smaller ventricles (or whatever they are called in your lungs) with sticky substance.

we can debate this for another hundred or thousand years but i dont think we will ever get a definitive answer. they each have their so-called advantages and disadvantages over the other which is what makes it such a tough comparison.

Aveolar sacks...

I've seen the effects on lungs and smoking first hand many times. I've dissected a few bodies and have found some tar and some black lungs. Not to mention cancer, asbestos....etc.

[Voski]

There is that one video where the asian guy runs a whole bunch of cigs through a hookah and then boils the water leaving the chemicals/tar. Someone should replicate it with hookah tobacco.

[chinamon]

many hookah smokers keep telling themselves that hookah smoke is better than cigarettes. neither is better than the other.
they are both bad in their own way.

sure, cigarettes are burned and might have more carcinogens but you dont take huge lungful's each inhale...
with hookah, the heat from the charcoal does vaporize the nicotine and molasses/glycerin without burning the tobacco itself but taking huge inhales allows those sticky vapors to get further in your lungs while clogging up the smaller ventricles (or whatever they are called in your lungs) with sticky substance.

we can debate this for another hundred or thousand years but i dont think we will ever get a definitive answer. they each have their so-called advantages and disadvantages over the other which is what makes it such a tough comparison.

the sticky substance i believe you are referring to is tar...you need to prove the tar is in the smoke...personally i can only supply anecdotal evidence of tar not occurring as i smoked indoors for 3 years and nothing smelled of hookah. if it had tar it would have (see cigarette smoke). instead the glycerine simply dissipated.

no, not tar. the sticky substance i was referring to was vaporized glyercine and molasses.
they do not just dissipate. it is not water. what do you think that slimy/sticky stuff is in your hose after all the sessions?

[mattarios2]

slimy sticky stuff in the hose?

I have no idea what you are talking about and have never had any slimy sticky stuff in my hose ... hehe sounds funny.

[chinamon]

slimy sticky stuff in the hose?

I have no idea what you are talking about and have never had any slimy sticky stuff in my hose ... hehe sounds funny.

well, the hose doesnt stay clean from smoking. there is some sort of buildup left in the hose.

[Anxiety]

actually, in the show 3 of the 4 doctors smoke the hookah

[ColibriDon]

Seriously, I am so tired of these "Hookah=bad?" posts.

Of course it's not healthy! Of course it's dangerous! Of course it's delicious, relaxing, and pleasant!

Can't we all just enjoy our hobby without worrying about how bad it is for us? Everything causes death, life causes death.

Sure, I could say how I used to smoke cigs and then switched to hookah and how it felt like I did before I started smoking cigs in the first place. Sure I could say that, after smoking hookah exclusively for 6 months, I tried a cig and felt like my lungs were on fire and being compressed into sugar cubes of pain. Sure, I could mention that none of this happens when I smoke hookah. But what's the point?

We all picked up this hobby because it's a good hobby to have, not because we're health nuts.

Enjoy it guys. Who knows how long we're going to be here?

/rant

...Sorry, not an attack against this thread, more of an attack on the health threads. haha

More to the point, I didn't watch the show but it doesn't sound too in depth. Edited February 4, 2009 by ColibriDon

[mustang_steve]

slimy sticky stuff in the hose?

I have no idea what you are talking about and have never had any slimy sticky stuff in my hose ... hehe sounds funny.

I have....my old Syrian hose had so much buildup in it that I coudl taste it if I touched the tip hole with my tongue....that was teh reason I came up with a method of using pipe cleaners (had t twist four of them together) to remove some of that crap, as the hose was not a "washable" variety.

[Bulldog_916]

Seriously, I am so tired of these "Hookah=bad?" posts.

Of course it's not healthy! Of course it's dangerous! Of course it's delicious, relaxing, and pleasant!

Can't we all just enjoy our hobby without worrying about how bad it is for us? Everything causes death, life causes death.

Sure, I could say how I used to smoke cigs and then switched to hookah and how it felt like I did before I started smoking cigs in the first place. Sure I could say that, after smoking hookah exclusively for 6 months, I tried a cig and felt like my lungs were on fire and being compressed into sugar cubes of pain. Sure, I could mention that none of this happens when I smoke hookah. But what's the point?

We all picked up this hobby because it's a good hobby to have, not because we're health nuts.

Enjoy it guys. Who knows how long we're going to be here?

/rant

...Sorry, not an attack against this thread, more of an attack on the health threads. haha

More to the point, I didn't watch the show but it doesn't sound too in depth.

I've actually researched it and, it turns out, life IS the #1 leading cause of death in the world today. I was shocked.

If I live to be 100 and it sucks, great. If I live to be 70 and enjoy every damn year of it, that's better to me. I'm doing my best to enjoy it.

[Majid]

So we still don't have any real answers? I am thinking to hang up the hose for health purposes though..Well documented evidence might convince me to stop.

[Balthazar]

Seriously, I am so tired of these "Hookah=bad?" posts.

Of course it's not healthy! Of course it's dangerous! Of course it's delicious, relaxing, and pleasant!

Can't we all just enjoy our hobby without worrying about how bad it is for us? Everything causes death, life causes death.

I am getting pretty tired of these "Stop talking about it, we're all going to die!"-posts.

You're right about the fact that just about everyone knows that hookah (or any other kind of smoking) is bad for you. And I agree, people should be able to enjoy the things they enjoy without being forced to listen to the moral preaching that usually narrows down to "You're shortening your life, asshole". BUT, what's the alternative? Would you rather ban topics that discuss the potential health effects of hookah smoking? Reading these posts is 100% voluntarily.

Personally I will probably not stop smoking hookah anytime soon, regardless of what science tells us, but I really appreciate that people put effort into studying the effects of it. That doesn't include all the propaganda type of studies, of course.

Closing your eyes won't make the problems go away. And it seems to me like you've already rationalized your smoking with the perfectly reasonable argument that life in itself is dangerous, and one should be able to enjoy smoking hookah without worrying about it. As I said, I agree with you on that. But does these discussions really make you insecure about your smoking? That's about the only reasonable explanation I find for the "I'm getting sick of these posts"-trend. And if that's the case, well, shoveling it under a big carpet doesn't really do anything good. Are you also getting sick of discussions about the dangers of alcohol, cigarettes or narcotic substances?

[r1v3th3ad]

any web showings of this episode?

[ColibriDon]

Seriously, I am so tired of these "Hookah=bad?" posts.

Of course it's not healthy! Of course it's dangerous! Of course it's delicious, relaxing, and pleasant!

Can't we all just enjoy our hobby without worrying about how bad it is for us? Everything causes death, life causes death.

I am getting pretty tired of these "Stop talking about it, we're all going to die!"-posts.

You're right about the fact that just about everyone knows that hookah (or any other kind of smoking) is bad for you. And I agree, people should be able to enjoy the things they enjoy without being forced to listen to the moral preaching that usually narrows down to "You're shortening your life, asshole". BUT, what's the alternative? Would you rather ban topics that discuss the potential health effects of hookah smoking? Reading these posts is 100% voluntarily.

Personally I will probably not stop smoking hookah anytime soon, regardless of what science tells us, but I really appreciate that people put effort into studying the effects of it. That doesn't include all the propaganda type of studies, of course.

Closing your eyes won't make the problems go away. And it seems to me like you've already rationalized your smoking with the perfectly reasonable argument that life in itself is dangerous, and one should be able to enjoy smoking hookah without worrying about it. As I said, I agree with you on that. But does these discussions really make you insecure about your smoking? That's about the only reasonable explanation I find for the "I'm getting sick of these posts"-trend. And if that's the case, well, shoveling it under a big carpet doesn't really do anything good. Are you also getting sick of discussions about the dangers of alcohol, cigarettes or narcotic substances?

It's not so much these posts make me insecure of smoking. Far from it. In fact, whenever I saw an anti-smoking commercial, all I wanted to do was have a cig.

I'm not closing my eyes to the problem either. I am fully aware of the potential health hazards of smoking, I have done a lot of research on it myself (read: read articles online) from both sides of the problem. And yes, there are sides that dispute the anti-smoking propaganda and if one looks in the right places, one can find strong evidence to point to the fact that smoking isn't as dangerous as some people make it out to be.

Think of my post this way:

If I were reading a forum about street racing, commenting on how much fun it is to go 120 on the interstate against other crazy rice-burners, I would be annoyed by a post that said "Speeding kills!". Of course speeding kills...in some cases. However, bringing this to the forefront of a conversation where people embrace the dangers and joy of speeding is irritating. And I would be tired of those posts.

The same can be said here. I'm not mad that people are worrying about smoking dangers, if it makes them happy, go for it. What I don't like is having the same facts regurgitated onto a thread--kind of like how people get sick of 1000+ threads on how to pack Tangiers.

As to your question, "Why to I read these health posts?", it's simple. I read them in the hope of finding legitimate research that someone has stumbled upon. But I rarely find that and most people just say it's not as bad as cigarettes, which I believe.

That being said, I'm not sure why one would think that being annoyed by redundant posts would equals being insecure about smoking because, for me at least, that simply isn't true.

[Balthazar]

Makes sense. Sorry for jumping to conclusions.

Maybe it would be an idea to make a sticky thread for all the posts related to research (or quasi-research, as it is in most cases) on hookah smoking and potential dangers?

[ColibriDon]

Hehe. No worries.

That's a good idea, however. Maybe we should get a sticky for that like you suggested, it would be a good idea.

...Same goes for Tangiers threads.

[Kapten Kanel]

When it comes to life - quality>quantity
Being alive is one thing, living is another, hehe kinda kliche but...
The people that say that hookah is as bad as smoking cant have tried either of them, just how i feel after a hookah session compared to smoking cigs is enough for me to prove that hookah is alot less dangerous at least Yeye i know, hookah could be dangerous in other ways, blablabla, going outside is dangerous too...