If you are completely honest with yourself, you would most likely have to admit that you have some bad habits. The majority of the habits we get into, however, although not exactly good, won’t have any serious negative health connotations for us. Some do, though, and it is these that we must make a big effort to quit as soon as we realize just how problematic they are.
Knowing that we have bad habits and trying to quit them is a good idea even if they aren’t causing any particular health issues, but when they could be lowering your lifespan in some way, or simply making life a little more difficult, then they need to be stopped. Here are some of the habits that can have dire consequences.
Watching Too Much TV
Most of us enjoy watching TV, and that’s not a bad habit in itself. TV offers us the chance to unwind and relax after a long day, and we can also learn from it, depending on the types of shows that we watch.
It’s when our TV watching becomes too much and we are doing it for many hours at a time that it can have a negative affect on our health. Too much TV can cause physical problems including heart attacks, obesity, or even strokes. That’s because, when you watch TV, you are sitting in one place for a long time. When this happens, the amount of fat in your body increases as you are not moving enough in order to reduce it. In addition, your blood sugar levels will rise.
To combat these issues, try to reduce the amount of TV you watch each day. Try taking up an exercise class instead, or go for a walk. Perhaps you could sit and read a book, or listen to music, rather than watching the screen (although if you do this, make sure that you get up once every hour or so to move around).
Drinking Too Much Alcohol
Alcohol seems to be a big part of many people’s lives; it is used for celebrations, to help us to feel better after a bad day, to welcome people, to relax, and so on. It is part of our everyday society, and for the most part it is completely accepted (unlike illegal drugs, for example, which everyone knows are against the law and bad for our health).
Enjoying alcohol responsibly is not completely detrimental to your health, although alcohol does contain a lot of calories and can contribute to weight gain; plus it can affect your sleep patterns. However, a small amount every now and then is not the kind of habit that we are talking about. We are talking about the kind of habit that takes over your life, where you find that you are drinking more and more, and eventually cannot get through the day without it.
Drinking alcohol in excess can lead to many different problems. For example:
- High blood pressure
- Liver failure and liver disease
- Excess blood fats
- Weight gain
- Weight loss (those who drink too much may forget to eat, or skip meals in order to drink)
- Heart failure
Furthermore, alcohol prevents us from thinking clearly, and therefore our decision-making abilities can be impaired. This will have a serious impact on your job. Personality changes will also negatively affect your relationships.
Quitting drinking can be very difficult, and in some cases it even becomes a physical impossibility due to withdrawal symptoms. Therefore rehab centers for alcohol could be the best option.
Being Too Stressed
You may not think of stress as being a habit, but it can certainly become one if you let it. It is easy to fall into the habit, for example, of looking for the negative in everything, or of assuming that particular aspects of your life are going to go wrong. This will raise your stress levels, which will be manifested as physical ailments due to the amount of cortisol (the stress hormone) that floods your systems when the body is stressed. A little cortisol is good–it creates a certain amount of alertness and boosts productivity–but too much causes high blood pressure, heart complaints, ulcers, and much more.
It is important to be less stressed in life if you want to be healthier and not run the risk of literally making yourself unwell. Whatever the cause of your stress, you need to understand it and then work on it so that it is no longer a problem. Whether it’s your finances, your homelife, your job, or anything else, once you recognize it and take charge of it, you will feel so much better.
There are also practical steps that you can take in order to de-stress yourself. These could include going for a long walk in nature, taking a warm bath to relax, meditating, listening to music, taking a nap, and a lot more besides
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