Headache after a hookah hurts: causes, prevention, treatment methods

A severe headache and a broken condition is a problem that happens not only with those who do not know the measures when drinking alcohol. After smoking a hookah, a person can also encounter unpleasant symptoms resembling a hangover: throbbing pain in the head, nausea, dizziness, general poor health, and heightened sensitivity to sounds and light. It turns out that situations when a headache after a hookah is not a rarity, and this has its own explanation.

Causes of hookah hangover

To understand why a headache “covers” after a hookah, you need to understand the intricacies and features of the device of the smoking device itself and some physiological properties of our body.

Excess nicotine

Tobacco mix for hookah is, in essence, ordinary tobacco, which contains some impurities and flavorings. This means that when smoking hookah nicotine enters the body. Unlike cigarettes, hookah is able to “give” the body much more nicotine: hookah smoke becomes “softer” due to passage through water, so it is inhaled more and deeper.
The hookah smoking session itself lasts at least 30 minutes. During this time, a person can get so much nicotine that intoxication occurs, one of the symptoms of which is a headache. The chances of “earning” nicotine intoxication are especially high if you smoke hookah on an empty stomach, because through the mucous membrane of an empty stomach, nicotine penetrates the body completely unhindered.

Harmful poisoning

As already mentioned, the hookah tobacco mixture contains various additives to create a pleasant taste and aroma. Thanks to them, smoking a hookah becomes “delicious”, but as a rule there is no data on the quality of these additives. In the vast majority of cases, these are artificial chemicals that are very harmful to the body. Their effects on the nervous system can be unpredictable.

Alcohol poisoning

Despite widespread warnings, some hookah lovers still fill the vessel of the smoking device with alcohol. Such experiments can get away with heavy hookah smokers, but not for beginners.
The fact is that when smoking a hookah, alcoholic vapors enter the body along with smoke. Through the mucous membrane of the lungs, alcohol is more strongly absorbed and quickly enters the bloodstream. The stronger the alcoholic drink in the hookah, the stronger the consequences of alcohol intoxication.

Low quality coal

This “sin” is mainly home hookah smokers who want to save. Instead of special hookah coal, they kindle charcoal for barbecue. Such coal is saturated with special impurities, which, together with smoke, enter the body and poison it.

Violation of technology for igniting a hookah

In some cases, the hookah is kindled incorrectly, and the tobacco in it begins to burn. In the process of combustion, in contrast to quiet decay, carbon monoxide is produced having the chemical formula CO. It is very harmful to the body and causes oxygen starvation, which can lead to vasospasm and headache.

Dehydration

Due to deep inhalations and exhalations, the natural evaporation of the liquid through breathing increases significantly, and if we add to this the fact that smoking a hookah can last about an hour, it becomes clear why dehydration occurs after smoking a hookah.

How to prevent a headache after a hookah

It turns out that there are a lot of reasons for a headache after smoking a hookah. If you understand why a headache can hurt after a hookah, some reasons can be eliminated. To minimize the negative effects of smoking a hookah, you need:

• do not smoke hookah on an empty stomach;
• while smoking, be sure to drink water to make up for fluid loss;
• smoke hookah slowly and do not try to inhale the smoke as deep as possible;
• do not smoke hookah on alcohol;
• choose the “right” coal and comply with the technology of ignition of a hookah;
• smoke hookah in a well-ventilated area.

If the head still hurts

If it is too late to prevent the consequences of the hookah, you need to deal with what we have. It is impossible to find out the exact cause of the headache, but there are not many options: intoxication (nicotine, alcohol, harmful impurities, carbon monoxide) or vasospasm. Accordingly, for the pain to go away, you need to eliminate these phenomena.

• a tablet or coffee will help against spasm of blood vessels;
• to accelerate the elimination of toxic substances from the body, you need to drink more. Must eat. To saturate the body with oxygen, it is worth taking a walk in the fresh air.

Since the hookah is not at all safe for health, you should not get involved in it. Moreover, it is not worth bringing the matter to health problems. A headache after a hookah is the first “bell” that health is harmed, so you need to not only eliminate the headache, but also draw conclusions for the future.

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