Find out if hookah will harm you if you actively work out in the gym. And which hookah to give preference to with or without nicotine. Over the past ten years, hookah smoking has become very popular and even fashionable among young people. Today you can buy a hookah for home use. You can also find hookah bars. Let's find out what harm is caused by hookah smoking in sports.
The history of the emergence of the hookah
It will probably be interesting for someone to know how the hookah appeared and when it happened. Scientists suggest that the origin of the hookah is the mountainous area on the border between modern India and Pakistan. The first specimens found are quite primitive. They were made from clay over 1000 years ago. An earthen flag or a coconut shell was used as a vessel.
The first hookahs were designed for smoking hashish or opium. Modern hookahs are used exclusively for smoking tobacco. Then the hookah came to the Persian Kingdom, where it began to be used for smoking tobacco. About five centuries ago, hookah reached Turkey and immediately became popular among wealthy people.
If there was a hookah in the house, then in those days it also spoke of the high welfare of the family. Gradually, the hookah became the property of the lower classes, and instead of copper and glass, wood was used in the production of cheap hookahs. Gradually, it spread throughout the world, including in our country.
Is there any harm in smoking hookah for athletes?
Now many young families have hookahs at home. It is also popular among athletes. It should be admitted that hookah smoking is nothing more than a new fashionable trend and dictates its own conditions. Never something new says about its danger to the body. Only over time does it become clear that various negative consequences of this hobby are possible.
One of the most popular myths surrounding the hookah is talk about its complete safety. A sane person will independently understand that this is nothing more than an advertisement. This is human nature, because we try to justify our weaknesses, even knowing that they are harmful to the body. We will not hide the fact that hookah smoking can be beneficial, however, the harm of hookah smoking in sport overrides its positive qualities with interest. Many lovers of this entertainment are actually sure that hookah tobacco blends do not contain those harmful substances that are present in ordinary tobacco.
It is also extremely popular that all kinds of additives, say, wine, milk, almost completely eliminate the negative effects of hookah on the body, since a minimum of nicotine and tar gets into it. Among other popular misconceptions, it is worth noting the absence of addiction, the ability of the hookah to relieve stress. Let's get rid of these misconceptions and find out what harm is caused by hookah smoking in sports.
Let's start with carbon monoxide, which is impossible to get rid of. In this regard, an hour of smoking a hookah is about 100 times more dangerous in comparison with a cigarette. There is no doubt that nicotine and other harmful substances are contained here less in comparison with cigarette smoke.
However, in terms of the amount of carbon monoxide, hookah is significantly ahead of cigarettes. If you smoke a hookah for 45 minutes, then the amount of carbon monoxide entering the body can be equated to one pack of smoked cigarettes. In addition, remember that you need to take a deeper breath to inhale, which involves the penetration of smoke into the farthest corners of the lungs.
Today our compatriots practically do not smoke hookah alone. This suggests that from a hygiene point of view, this activity can be more dangerous than even carbon monoxide. While smoking, the salivary glands work very actively. This leads to that. That part of the saliva of each participant in the smoking ceremony ends up in a liquid filter.
Thus, each subsequent participant in this process inhales not only smoke, but also particles of the saliva of his comrades. As a result, even the mouthpiece does not save you from the possibility of contracting infectious diseases. Passive smoking in this situation is absolutely no different from usual. Most often, a hookah lover is smoked indoors and everyone who is in it becomes passive smokers. In this case, there is one excuse - hookah smoke is safe for health and at the same time has a pleasant aroma.
Although hookah is less likely to have a negative effect on the heart muscle and lungs than cigarettes, it does. In any case, you are using a narcotic substance, and the only difference lies in the way nicotine is delivered to the body. Hookah smoking has the same negative effect on the body as regular cigarettes.
Very often, hookah fans claim that they cannot be addicted to this activity. This is a completely false statement, just a person gets used to smoking cigarettes faster. At the same time, scientists are confident that slow addiction may be even more dangerous than fast addiction, because getting rid of it is much more difficult.
Today, you can find a lot of scientific evidence for the dangers of hookah smoking in sports. It is quite obvious that if it is unsafe for athletes, then ordinary people will definitely not benefit. As an example, we will cite the research of American scientists. As you know, this state wants to become a smoke-free country soon. At the same time, hookah is now very popular among young Americans. Students have a lot of stressful situations and it is understandable that they are looking for ways to relieve stress. Cigarettes have long been recognized as hazardous to health, but hookahs are often thought differently.
Since the smoke in this case passes through a liquid filter, it is assumed that it has time to cool down and lose a large amount of harmful substances. Moreover, many are sure that smoking a hookah is more pleasant than a cigarette.
Since the scale of hookah smoking in the United States has reached a large scale, scientists decided to conduct a study of this issue. About 700 students took part in the experiment, which speaks of the scope of the study. It should be admitted that no serious pathologies were found in the students' bodies. However, they are also not observed from smoking cigarettes at a young age with a relatively short experience. But the myth of the absence of dependence has been completely debunked.
Moreover, it turned out that addiction develops even faster in comparison with conventional cigarettes. Almost half of the study participants did not smoke cigarettes before hookah. At the moment, they have all become heavy smokers. If you want to enter the body thanks to the liquid filter and less nicotine and tar gets into the body, the smoke is not completely cleared of these substances.
It is necessary to say a few words about the potential benefits of this hobby, which may sound somewhat strange after talking about the dangers of hookah smoking in sports. The thing is that with the help of a hookah you can perform breathing exercises by filling the flask with water.
The more fluid you use, the greater the resistance will be, and thus the lungs will train more actively. It should also be noted that the hookah can become an effective inhaler. In this he is even able to surpass Frolov's simulator.
To inhale, pour the tincture into the flask. Moreover, for this you do not even need to make decoctions of herbs, which allows you to preserve the maximum amount of nutrients. From the point of view of the possibility of inhalation, the hookah looks very promising. If we talk about smoking, then you should not believe all the myths that exist today.
Hookah and sports: myths
- Hookah smoking is equivalent to smoking hundreds of cigarettes. If you smoke even three cigarettes in a row, you will feel nauseous and dizzy. These phenomena are associated with nicotine overdose. This does not happen while smoking a hookah.
- Hookah, unlike cigarettes, is safe. It is quite obvious that some of the harmful substances contained in the smoke remain in the liquid filter. It is foolish to argue that this fact is not true. But when talking about the safety of a hookah, they almost always forget that a person inhales more smoke, which penetrates deeper into the lungs, since the inhalation turns out to be stronger. In the course of numerous studies, it was found that the content of harmful substances in tobacco mixtures for hookah is much higher than in cigarettes.
- Hookah effectively relieves stress. In the life of athletes, there are no less stressful situations than students. Often it is to relieve stress that athletes smoke hookah. We will not contradict the obvious fact that smoking is relaxing, but alcohol works the same way. Scientists have shown that moderate exercise is very effective in relieving stress. Maybe it's better to visit the hall than to smoke a hookah? This will allow you not only to relieve stress, but also to benefit the body. We have already talked about the harm of hookah smoking in sports.
- Hookah will allow you to give up cigarettes. One of the most powerful hookah-related misconceptions. Changing cigarettes for a hookah, you can only change the way nicotine is delivered to the body and nothing more. We specifically talked about the study of American scientists who established the presence of addiction when smoking hookah. This already speaks volumes about the fact that you will not be able to quit smoking thanks to the hookah.
We are not going to give up anyone from this new hobby. We talked about the possible harm of hookah smoking in sports, and it's up to you to decide.
More answers to questions about hookah in this video:
