Wednesday, oh wednesday......ohh....oh..........ooo snap

It is currently 2.25 AM and god damn it I cant sleep, I get really weird freaky dreams that are best not known to mankind and so I just stay up and keep busy till im so tired my brain will surrender to a no image closure agreement and everyone is happy. Sofi and Sarah (sisters) leave for Dubai tomorrow night, so we had dinner near Subang Parade, Arab restaurant, food wasn't bad but then again im often at these places just for the shisha. So while having dinner we started debating on the health issues of the shisha compared to cigarettes. I always thought the shisha was a safer bet since it didn't contain nicotine but then Sofi said the amount of smoke you inhale balances out the crap from a ciggy, basically the argument got nowhere so we decided to look it up when we got back...and this is what I got.

Although the use of Hookah (shisha) has been commonly attributed to be much worse than regular tobacco smoke, tests remain inconclusive as to the true health impact of the hookah. Some studies conclude that Hookah smoke is safer than tobacco cigarette smoke[27], while other studies refute this claim.

Each hookah session typically lasts more than 40 minutes, and consists of 50 to 200 inhalations that each range from 0.15 to 0.50 liters of smoke.[28][29] Reports by the World Health Organization and the American Cancer Society have shown that, in a one-hour hookah session, users consume about 100 to 200 times the smoke and about 70 times more nicotine than they would in one cigarette.[30]

The water used to filter the smoke does not work efficiently to remove all the harmful chemicals.[31]

A study on hookah smoking and cancer in Pakistan was published in 2008.[27] Its objective was "to find serum CEA levels in ever/exclusive hookah smokers, i.e. those who smoked only hookah (no cigarettes, bidis, etc.), prepared between 1 and 4 times a day with a quantity of up to 120 g (the average bowl in holds 30g) of a tobacco-molasses mixture each (i.e. the tobacco weight equivalent of up to 60 cigarettes of 1 g each) and consumed in 1 to 8 sessions". Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is a marker found in several forms of cancer. Levels in exclusive hookah smokers were lower compared to cigarette smokers although the difference was not statistically significant between a hookah smoker and a non-smoker. Also the study concluded that heavy hookah smoking (2–4 daily preparations; 3–8 sessions a day ; 2 to 6 hours) substantially raises CEA levels.


Basically its their both just as bad, but as I do shisha like..once every 2 weeks its all good...I think, ok this wiki doesn't really help. What was interesting though was finding out that this stuff actually could have originated from India...hah! Bet most of you didn't know that (myself included) always thought it was a middle eastern thing.

The secret is finding out whats your favorite flavor and sticking with it, and since you can mix them around it usually takes a lot of experimenting before you find the right one for you..then there is finding the place that does it right. In Malaysia we get a lot of those stalls then leech on to mamaks or other restaurants and open up small shisha booths, I suggest you avoid these since they more often then naught use bad quality coal thus ruining the taste and your lungs.


But once you find the right spot and your best flavor its just a matter of taking a break after a long day and blowing your troubles away, preferably not in someones face. I find Grape-Mint a good combi. Ill edit this later as soon as i remember a few good spots in KL for shisha....err..ing..