Herbal cigarettes: Just as deadly

You might have come across herbal cigarettes or may even be a herbal cigarette smoker. Herbal cigarettes are look like normal cigarettes and they contain herbs like ginseng, jasmine, passion flower, and marshmallow. Those herbs may be beneficial to health if administered otherwise. However, if you think herbal cigarettes are healthy and do no harm to your body, think again. 

Putting any type of smoke in your lungs can damage it. Like normal cigarettes, herbal cigarette smoke contains tar and it burns down cilia in the lungs. Cilia are tiny hair-like structure in the lungs that trap harmful particles and prevent them to enter the body through lungs. Tar is mainly responsible for smoking induced respiratory diseases including lung cancer. 

Another byproduct of cigarette smoke, whether it is of herbal or normal tobacco cigarette is deadly toxic gas carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide blocks the absorption of oxygen in the blood. It reacts with red blood cells to form a different compound that cannot bond with oxygen.  Though a single cigarette smoke cannot produce enough carbon monoxide to kill, it can result in short term breathlessness, increased heartbeat, and dizziness. Long term exposure to carbon monoxide means decreased capacity of the body to metabolize due to constant lack of oxygen. Therefore it leads to obesity, clogging of arteries and a host of cardiac problems. 

There is another type of so-called herbal cigarettes known as kretek. It is a combination of ground cloves and tobacco. One of the famous brands internationally smuggled from Indonesia is Garam Gudang. The American Lung association says that kerets deliver twice as much tar, carbon monoxide and nicotine than normal cigarettes. So you can easily understand how many times they are more dangerous to smoke.

Herbal cigarettes may only be useful if you are trying to kick the butt. Since they don’t contain the addictive nicotine, you won’t get addicted to them. Otherwise, if you think that they are healthy and will benefit your body, think again. They are just as bad, if not worse killers than normal tobacco cigarettes.