A public health physician, Dr. Chinonso Egemba, popularly known as ‘Aproko Doctor’, has warned women against smoking shisha, noting that indulging in the act can make their breasts sag.
Dr. Egemba also noted that those smoking shisha—a single- or multi-stemmed instrument for heating or vaporising and then smoking either tobacco, flavored tobacco, or sometimes cannabis, hashish, and opium through a water basin, often glass-based, before inhalation—are equally more at risk of looking older than their age.
According to him, smoking shisha can trigger the destruction of collagen and elastin which are important for skin health and function, adding that when shisha breaks down the elastin, it can cause sagging breasts.
Elastin is a protein that the body naturally produces. It provides stretchiness and strength to the tissues and many organs. Collagen is a protein that plays a protective role in the human body, found in the bones, muscles, skin, and tendons.
In a video on his Instagram page @aproko_doctor, he said: “I just hope you know that aside from many things that shisha causes, which we have been shouting all around, but it doesn’t seem to enter your ear, that shisha can also break down elastin, which is a component of the body that can cause sagging breast.
“My dear, before you order that shisha, I hope you now know that there are consequences for your action.
“And you, Emeka, you are looking at me in your mind, you’re saying ‘yes, doctor tell them’. I’m talking to you too; that shisha you are joining Nkechi to smoke, I hope you know that it can break down collagen in your skin.
“In your mind, ‘I’m a sharp-looking guy, my skin is fresh’ but it’s not, it’s looking like that of a 70-year-old man. You’ve smoked your young age away.
“So my dear, you are not created to smoke; if you are created to smoke, they would have put an exhaust at the back of your head.”
