Ready to leave your hookah habit behind? Alpha can help you quit.

Nicotine is considered the most powerful addiction. Quitting, on average, will require 6-8 attempts. Self-quit success rates are just 2%-4% so congratulations on looking for support. Did you know that getting help to quit doubles your chances of success? Or that as little as 3-5 minutes talking with a Tobacco Treatment Specialist significantly improves your ability to quit? A hookah (also known as a waterpipe, narghile, arghila, qalyān, shisha) is a single or multi-stemmed instrument for vaporizing and smoking flavored tobacco called shisha. It is usually fruit-flavored tobacco, heated with hot coals and combined with water to form a vapor that can be smoked. In the Middle East and Arab world, people smoke waterpipe as part of their culture and traditions. Most of the shisha being smoked in hookah cafes, bars and lounges contain nicotine, which is highly addictive. The fruit-flavored tobacco is heated with hot coals that produces high levels of carbon monoxide, metals and cancer-causing chemicals which can cause lung, oral and esophageal cancers, heart disease, stroke and emphysema. Hookah smokers may absorb higher concentrations of toxins because they puff more, inhale deeper and smoke for longer periods of time. It is estimated that in an hour-long smoking session of hookah, users consume about 100 to 200 times the volume of smoke of a cigarette. Additionally, passing water pipes from person to person can transfer bacteria and viruses which can spread herpes, hepatitis and tuberculosis. Hookah smoking is a social and cultural practice, so it may be overwhelming to think about trying to quit. But it is also very addictive and dangerous. If you are ready to kick the habit, help is available.