Summary: Knowingly or unknowingly, people always indulge in habits that actually hinder the ability to live a healthy life. Here in this blog, a list of thirteen bad habits and their possible measures are given.
Bad habits encompass unhealthy lifestyles, improper food habits, consumption of drugs, alcohol and other idiopathic substances, as well as lazy and unhygienic daily regime etc. which culminates into health deterioration and sometimes some acute medical crisis.
Habits good or bad once formed can lead you to unhealthy and at times acute medical, emotional, or mental mess. Take the case of Susan Mackenzie from Iowa. Her workload at the office had led to sleeping disorders. This took a toll on her productivity and her efforts to maintain a healthy work-life balance.
But with a conscious effort and sense of discipline, she was able to allocate a fixed time every day for sleeping. This included switching off electronic gadgets and eating two hours before bedtime. With sustained efforts, she is now in a better position to manage office work and still have a healthy outlook towards life.
Such inspiring stories motivate us to look for remedies to overcome bad habits. With this post, we have compiled a list of thirteen most common bad habits that you might be consciously or unconsciously indulging yourself into and their possible escape routes.
Bad habits and their remedial measures
Here is the list of most commonly faced and followed bad habits:
1. Intense tobacco and nicotine addiction:
Every smoker taking a drag is aware of the fact that smoking causes cancer, yet the addiction rate is alarmingly high. Few checks on statistics reveal that nicotine addiction is incessantly increasing.
In a BBC report it was showed that in 1980 around 721 million people across 187 countries of the world smoked whereas in 2012 the number raised to 967 million people smoking every day. Amongst men and women smoking tendencies are seen greater in men than in women.
Another report from BBC showed that three amongst ten men (31%) and one in twenty women (6%) smoked daily in the year 2012. This high demand has made the cigarette industry a lucrative one. One study showed that around 6.5 trillion cigarettes are sold around the world each year. Equally depressing is the statistic that follows, which ties up an increased number of cigarette-related deaths to increased cigarette sales.
In 2018 WHO published a report stating that tobacco especially nicotine kills almost half of its users. The tobacco kills were estimated to be 7million per year of which 6 million where direct tobacco inhalers. Also, a socio-economic study from WHO reported that around 80% of the total smokers in the world live in low to middle-income economies.
Most people know that nicotine causes cancer, however certain researches show that it shrinks the brain cells and ends up causing diseases like Alzheimer’s. These are alarming news and facts, although once addicted it is difficult to get over smoking addiction.
If you are a smoker trying to kick the habit then help is available. As a feasible measure, you can choose e-cig as a smoking alternative. E-cigs are electronic devices filled with e-liquids that have varying level of nicotine filled in. With it, you can control the amount of liquid you inhale every time you smoke. As a result, you can gradually ease over the addiction and even give up smoking altogether.
2. Skipping breakfast:
There is an old saying stating that ‘eat breakfast like a king’. Skipping breakfast on a daily basis whether for late rising or dieting or workload can cause a variety of diseases.
Some of which includes: increased risk of hypertension, clogged artery, chronic cardiovascular diseases, high risks of type-II diabetes, and hair loss. Many tend to skip breakfast as a part of diet regime but researches shows skipping breakfast is actually correlated to obesity. Another research showed that obese people are at more risk of developing cancer.
3. Having a bad food habit/Basing on canned or processed foods:
For a healthy living, one must follow a proper and balanced diet. Overeating or even normally living off on processed or packaged foods not only makes you obese but processed or canned foods are equally harmful
This is because they contain certain preservatives and chemicals that causes distortion, carcinoma, and mutation in genetic components of the body.
Opt for organic food like fresh vegetables, lean meat, and fish to get wholesome nourishment from natural sources.
4. Skipping exercise:
An unhealthy and lazy lifestyle can dig your grave sooner than you can imagine. Just by eating right one cannot have a healthy body.
A study published from Mayo clinic suggested that regular exercises keep your body weight in control, combats cardiac health conditions by boosting up HDL or good cholesterols, reduces risks of stroke, diabetes, arthritis, stress and improves mental health.
5. Sleeping disorders:
Many people think that by reducing the sleeping time they can maximize a day’s output which actually is pretty wrong. A person requires at least 7-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep cycle for his brain neurons to replenish.
6. Watching television or mobile immediately before sleep:
Watching television or use of mobile phones for social networking etc. leaves reminiscence on minds. Such reminiscence causes disturbances while sleep.
So, before sleep try to meditate for a few minutes or just lay casually relaxing your mind for proper and uninterrupted sleep.
7. Consumption of alcohol:
Like smoking, alcohol consumption to an addiction level can cause some lethal and acute health hazards. According to a study about 88,000 people die from alcohol-related causes in the US. This makes alcoholism the 3rd leading death cause.
Apart from preventable causes, alcohol is responsible for a number of diseases like liver failure, cirrhosis, pancreatitis, risks of cancer in GI tract or stomach, ulcers, brain damage, malnutrition, immunity issues, osteoporosis, cardiovascular risks and many more.
8. Wearing headphones for long hours:
Plugging earphones while working or travelling or studying or relaxing is a very bad habit many have. Plugging earphones for long hours for multiple days that too at high volume can cause severe hearing difficulties.
9. Eating at a fast pace:
Often due to the crunch of time and fast-paced lifestyle people are gulping and swallowing their meals. Ideally, a person should eat slowly; chewing the morsels well and it should take about 20 minutes for a meal to finish.
Eating too fast is shown to be related to diseases like heart problems, acid reflux, choking, obesity etc.
10. Not drinking enough water:
Water although essential many are in habit of not drinking water at regular intervals. Studies have shown prolonged periods of dehydration can cause poor skin health, fatigues, frequent illness and even shrinking or drying your brain cells.
Having 8-10 glasses of water every day is the least we can do to maintain the hydration within our body.
11. Eating without being hungry or overeating:
Just as skipping meals deteriorate your health similarly overeating can equally damage the health.
An observational study from National Cancer Institute showed that obese people are more at risk of certain types of cancers like endometrial cancer, esophageal adenocarcinoma, gastric cardia cancer, liver cancer, kidney cancer etc.
Taking small portions of meals and serving meals in smaller plates might alleviate the need to eat every minute of the day.
12. Chewing of gums:
Many studies state that chewing of gums actually reduces stress levels. However, as every boon has its bane, scientists have shown that continuous chewing of gums causes impairment of short term memory and order and item identity.
13. Biting of nails:
People consciously or unconsciously bite nails. It is not only a bad personality gesture but also increases health risks. As the nail surfaces are the incubator for many microbes and germs biting it increases chances of GI distress, also nail-biting makes people more prone to cold and flu.
Wrapping it up
A healthy lifestyle with a properly balanced diet, exercise, and a stress-free life are the three main pillars of living healthily and happily! We hope this post has altered your outlook towards life for the better.
So give up these bad habits and inculcate good habits to positively impact the lives of people around you, and more importantly, your own life.
Author Bio:
Lynda Arbon is a passionate and enthusiastic health blogger. She likes keeping herself updated on the health trends and blogs. Her favorite pastime is learning history and solving crossword puzzles.