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The Healthiest Hookah Smoke?


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After reading the discussion about dyes in Starbuzz tobacco, I began to wonder -- if someone wanted to smoke shisha but keep it as healthy as possible, what is the optimum configuration?

What type of hookah base, hose, bowl, coals, tobacco, filters, would produce the least amount of chemicals or harmful byproducts?

Would be interested to read everyone's opinions on this.
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natural coals (the ones that don`t self ignite), just a glass base, a stem made of anything but copper, perhaps a nicotine filter (don`t know for sure, i have never used them), and herbal tobacco (but beware, it tastes way worse than normal tobacco).
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Sorry for the butt-in, but I felt like I should state that I still ain't completely convinced that the herbal stuff is better for you. Sure it dosen't have any nicotine but regardless, your still breathing shit into your lungs. To me that's like saying you wanna snort something but you don't wanna do drugs. Is there any proof that flour or chalk dust are really any much better for you?

EDIT:
I agree with Ioannis Edited by Shavo989
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You could probably smoke something as random as chocolate chip cookies, and it would still be bad for you. If your worried about health, just smoke less. Shisha isnt even all that bad when it comes to tobacco.

Also, natural coals are simply alot healthier for you, the self lighting coals are filled with chemicals.
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Washable hoses aren't much of a problem, if you only wash them seldomly and make sure to dry them very thoroughly rust shouldn't be an issue for you at all. I can't see any problems arising using the hardware store vinyl tubing as hoses, though, you don't have to worry about rust at all and you can see inside of them to know when it's time for a good rinse. If they aren't visually pleasing you could just buy some fabric and sew yourself up a cover. Other members have said to only use the food grade tubing, so I'd keep that in mind.

EDIT:
Oh, and welcome to the forum! Edited by Shavo989
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OR you could just go to Home Depot/Lowes/local hardware store and pick up some vynal tubing, food grade of course. The stuff I bought came in a 10 ft section... could cut it down if I wanted to, but I don't tongue.gif

But yeah, I don't think that necessarly natural coals are better... and I def don't think that herbal stuff is better... so yeah, pick your poison and just enjoy it. Kinda kills the session if you're all worried about it tongue.gif
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QUOTE (ioannisds @ Feb 21 2007, 10:02 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
The healthiest hookah smoke is the one where you don't even light up. For everything else, pick your poison. There is no healthy way about it.


+1

I can tell you at my hardware store, we have this flexible vinyl tubing thats just perfect for a hose.. I get it for like 50 cents a foot. When my washable hoses go the way of the shitter, I'll save the wooden pieces and make a new hose out of that one.
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anytime you inhale smoke it will be equally bad... as I recall one study, smoking nicoteen doesn't have a direct cause with cancer, but cancer relates to smoking.

In other words:

smoking doesn't cause cancer

but

people with cancer tended to smoke.

It seems for the most direct correlation with cancer and many other diseases tends to be stress, many stressed people tend to smoke to calm themselves.

though I'm not sure what the term is Nicoteen is a drug that increases oxygen intake into the lungs. THis is probably the reason it has a relaxing effect despite its fact that is is an upper. Edited by cypherkk
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QUOTE (cypherkk @ Feb 22 2007, 04:01 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
anytime you inhale smoke it will be equally bad... as I recall one study, smoking nicoteen doesn't have a direct cause with cancer, but cancer relates to smoking.

In other words:

smoking doesn't cause cancer

but

people with cancer tended to smoke.

It seems for the most direct correlation with cancer and many other diseases tends to be stress, many stressed people tend to smoke to calm themselves.


Nicotine is not the supposed cause of cancer in cigarette smoke.

The fallacy that you expressed in the last line of your post is heard far too often. Lung cancer is not about stress, it's about sucking smoke into your lungs. And, incidentally, there is some evidence that this old idea about stressed people being more likely to smoke has the causality backwards; in fact, it may be that being a smoker causes stress.

People need to understand something: there is nothing inherent about tobacco that is so evil in terms of smoking it, aside from the small cardiovascular ill-effects of nicotine and the fact that it might be more likely to carry some particular carcinogenic compounds than other things you can put in your mouth and set on fire. As it is, I (like others who've commented above) see no reason why we should assume that "herbal" tobacco is any safer. Introducing large quantities of smoke into your lungs is, generally, a bad thing.
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I was referring the the well documented effect stress has on health... Weakens the immune system and such which is the primary defense against most diseases. The human body's immunes system generally protects itself by killing off foriegn cells, it doesn't recognize as part of the body. Most of the time its viruses but can be other cells. Cancer is a mutated cell that reproduces out of control of normal cell regeneration. I would imagine most of these would be illiminated by the immune system, but if it is compromised and week it would be unable too. Its actually fairly easy for a cell to become mutated... and the body generally gets rid of most of the cells.

I understand there's even a disease that changes the white blood cells and causes them to attack normal healthy cells.

I don't perport that smoking, ingesting or any other form of consumption of nicoteen, or any narcotic is entirely healthy, but there are benefits and drawbacks to all drugs (most especially alchohol). After all, coccain (if you excuse its use) is the primary treatment during operations for glocoma. I don't recommend its use, in a non-medical uses.

ANYTHING, taken too much can cause negative complications, from asprin, water, and even oxygen.

I'm probably gonna get this thread locked... my bad. wink.gif Please excuse any references that may or may not be proper as merely the examples they are meant to be. Edited by cypherkk
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either way, if you're looking to get the least particulates out of your smoke, which is what usually irrates peoples lungs and causes damage, then use a vinyl hose from lowes, no copper stems, cold water, washed tobacco, and one of those filter pieces on the end. thats gonna filter out as much as possible without say breathing through a coffee filter or something. Edited by camelflage
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QUOTE (cypherkk @ Feb 22 2007, 04:30 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I was referring the the well documented effect stress has on health... Weakens the immune system and such which is the primary defense against most diseases. The human body's immunes system generally protects itself by killing off foriegn cells, it doesn't recognize as part of the body. Most of the time its viruses but can be other cells. Cancer is a mutated cell that reproduces out of control of normal cell regeneration. I would imagine most of these would be illiminated by the immune system, but if it is compromised and week it would be unable too. Its actually fairly easy for a cell to become mutated... and the body generally gets rid of most of the cells.

I understand there's even a disease that changes the white blood cells and causes them to attack normal healthy cells.

I don't perport that smoking, ingesting or any other form of consumption of nicoteen, or any narcotic is entirely healthy, but there are benefits and drawbacks to all drugs (most especially alchohol). After all, coccain (if you excuse its use) is the primary treatment during operations for glocoma. I don't recommend its use, in a non-medical uses.

ANYTHING, taken too much can cause negative complications, from asprin, water, and even oxygen.

I'm probably gonna get this thread locked... my bad. wink.gif Please excuse any references that may or may not be proper as merely the examples they are meant to be.


Again, it's one thing to say that stress has an incredibly strong effect on the body (it does); it's another thing entirely to claim that it's the stress that causes lung cancer in smokers, as you did. Smoking causes lung cancer, period.

The anything-can-be-bad argument is silly. Smoking, done at normal levels, is far more dangerous for you than asprin aspirin, water, or oxygen when consumed at normal levels. Also, let me reiterate that it is not nicoteen nicotine that is blamed for the cancer in smokers, it's everything else in the smoke. I never claimed that the nicotine was the problem (which is why I think nicotine filters are kind of silly). Additionally, nicotine is not in any way a narcotic.
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In response to the OP, I don't know if there is much you can do aside from buying filter tips that will help you make hookah smoking more healthy, and even then, I think the filter tips are primarily designed to filter out nicotine, which is not really the problem.

People here can speculate about what components you can put in a hookah to make it the least unhealthy, but it really is just speculation. The hookah itself seems like a red herring to me. The biggest problem with smoking is the non-nicotinic compounds that come off the tobacco, and there is very little you can do to stop those compounds from reaching your lungs (even smoking washed tobacco probably doesn't help).
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To echo others, hookah is like sex with strangers- there's no 100% safe way to do it!

What I do is to use premium washed tobacco, and all-natural coals. Then I limit myself to smoking once per week or at social gatherings. Not much else we can do I'm afraid. sad.gif

You could always switch to having a passion for loose-leaf tea like I do. smile.gif
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QUOTE (tingjunkie @ Feb 22 2007, 02:16 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
To echo others, hookah is like sex with strangers- there's no 100% safe way to do it!

What I do is to use premium washed tobacco, and all-natural coals. Then I limit myself to smoking once per week or at social gatherings. Not much else we can do I'm afraid. sad.gif

You could always switch to having a passion for loose-leaf tea like I do. smile.gif


Lol, I have a passion for tea too! Although I never got into loose-leaf because I like the convenience of bags.

MY desk has three drawers in it: the top one has work crap, the middle one has over 50 kinds of tea in it, and the bottom one has my hookah in it :-)
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I think what he or she is trying to ask is what type of shisha has the least amount of chemicals. I myslef looked into this a while back and found (from Tangiers) that theres is a tobacco with all natural fruit extracts insteads of chemical flavourings. It is apparently very hard to find and very expensive but it is out there. hope that helps
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Hookah smoking is not a healthy thing, but then again neither is breathing smoggy air. Best solution is to use natural coals, a metal screen and a clean glass vase, stem and hose. You can also use tobacco free products like Soex where you get the flavor of Peach or Blackberry, with a lot of smoke, but a lighter buzz than with tobacco, since it is nicotine free. This would be healthier, but is still not as healthy as not smoking, but then again anything fun or good tasting is usually bad for you.....LIVE IT UP!!!! laugh.gif
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who cares. Nothing in this world is healthy for you. Everything is injected with some kind of steroid/chemical product that causes cancer in the long run. Everyone lives till they are 80. Just some have it a bit rougher those last few years. The only people who are royal screwed by tobacco are the 3 pack a day people, the dip multiple times a day people etc. Smoke a bowl once in a while and your fine. Probably a few times a week and its just like casual bar smoking a cig. Now smoke 6 bowls a day like some of the members on here, you just may feel it sooner.

And I highly doubt Soex is healthier for you. I dont care if its not tobacco, but your smoking something else now that is unknown because they wont tell us.
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QUOTE (Scheetz @ Feb 22 2007, 09:50 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
who cares. Nothing in this world is healthy for you. Everything is injected with some kind of steroid/chemical product that causes cancer in the long run. Everyone lives till they are 80. Just some have it a bit rougher those last few years. The only people who are royal screwed by tobacco are the 3 pack a day people, the dip multiple times a day people etc. Smoke a bowl once in a while and your fine. Probably a few times a week and its just like casual bar smoking a cig. Now smoke 6 bowls a day like some of the members on here, you just may feel it sooner.

And I highly doubt Soex is healthier for you. I dont care if its not tobacco, but your smoking something else now that is unknown because they wont tell us.


Your two claims are absurd.

1. People who smoke and do everything else the same die earlier than people who don't smoke, by a long shot. The we-all-die-eventually thing is an absurd argument. Smokers die of cancer earlier.

2. Smokers are not either 3-packs-a-day or once-a-week. There are people in between, and they die early too (just not as early as their heavy-smoking counterparts).

I'll agree with you wholeheartedly about Soex, though.
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My question is, would tea in the base be healthier than plain water? I know it wouldn't do a better job of filtering out anything toxic from the shisha, but would you be inhaling the stuff in tea that is said to be healthy for you?

Not meant to be a thread hijack, at least its relevant smile.gif
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QUOTE (mgcsinc @ Feb 23 2007, 12:11 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
QUOTE (Scheetz @ Feb 22 2007, 09:50 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
who cares. Nothing in this world is healthy for you. Everything is injected with some kind of steroid/chemical product that causes cancer in the long run. Everyone lives till they are 80. Just some have it a bit rougher those last few years. The only people who are royal screwed by tobacco are the 3 pack a day people, the dip multiple times a day people etc. Smoke a bowl once in a while and your fine. Probably a few times a week and its just like casual bar smoking a cig. Now smoke 6 bowls a day like some of the members on here, you just may feel it sooner.

And I highly doubt Soex is healthier for you. I dont care if its not tobacco, but your smoking something else now that is unknown because they wont tell us.


Your two claims are absurd.

1. People who smoke and do everything else the same die earlier than people who don't smoke, by a long shot. The we-all-die-eventually thing is an absurd argument. Smokers die of cancer earlier.

2. Smokers are not either 3-packs-a-day or once-a-week. There are people in between, and they die early too (just not as early as their heavy-smoking counterparts).

I'll agree with you wholeheartedly about Soex, though.





I think you need to slow down, take a deep breath and reread what I wrote. Your reply tells me you didnt understand half of what I wrote. And no not all smokers die of cancer. I have multiple family members to prove so. But like I said, reread what I wrote.
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