These Five Bad Habits are Silently Damaging your Health

Many of us have unintentionally become slaves of our habits and later found it difficult to quit them. Remember adolescence has precarious developmental phases during which teenagers undergo many internal and external changes that affect their physical and mental health. Getting dominated by certain bad or addictive habits might silently deteriorate your health and God forbid you have to face serious consequences in future. Let’s explore those culprit habits and ways to quit them conveniently.

Biting Nails:

According to a Professor of dermatology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, “Chronic nail biting can change the shape of the nail permanently so that they grow shorter and wider, making nails look stubby,"

When you bite your nail constantly you are actually damaging their matrix, (the soft-tissue structure that builds the hard nail). Biting can cause discoloration and bacteria and yeast can easily enter your gut via such unhealthy habit. This habit can damage your skin around your nail bed, which can ultimately lead to infection. You can easily catch colds and other illnesses when you put your fingers, carrying germs, into your mouth.

Solution:

Keep your nails neatly trimmed or manicured. If you bite your nail in stress, either meet a counselor or try stress relieving exercises to manage it.

Telling Lies Constantly:

Surprisingly habitual lying will ruin your physical health in an indirect style .Each time we tell a lie, it has to be managed so we tell more lies to hide the first. Being afraid of being spotted, the person get stressed which causes the release of stress hormones such as cortisol—and excessive release of such hormone damage your health. The liar will probably start complaining about headaches, insomnia, back ache, and irregular heartbeat etc.

A survey was conducted at the University of Notre Dame. When a group of students stopped telling lies for a week or two, their social and physical conditions get better. Notre Dame University professor Lijuang Wang concluded the experimental analysis in the following statement “Statistical analyses showed that this improvement in relationships significantly accounted for the improvement in health that was associated with less lying.”

Solution:

The best solution is to get determined not to speak lie in any condition.

Surf before Bed

The “blue light” emitting from electronic devices like phones, computers, and TVs can retard your sleep. According to some researches nighttime light might be a cause of cancer, diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.

A researcher conducted at UiB’s Faculty of Psychology said, “We know that evening light affects the biological mechanisms that delay sleep and the circadian rhythm. In addition, computer games or television shows can generate excitement and make sleep more difficult,”

Solution:

It’s better to read a good book before lying going to bed.

Eat when you are not hungry.

Many students develop a habitual eating pattern even when they are not hungry. If this habit persists and you eat constantly even if it’s healthy food – you will gain weight. The result would be cardiac problems, diabetes, high blood pressure, and chances to develop certain kinds of cancer. Excessive eating will store extra calories and unhealthy ingredients inside your body causing chronic illnesses like diabetes, and acidity.

An Indian college study that involved 45 undergraduate students revealed that individuals who were hungry before the meal showed lower blood glucose levels after consuming the meal than individuals who were not hungry before taking the meal.

Solution:

Calculate your consumption by checking portion sizes before meals and measure out snacks you have taken intermittently. Keep yourself busy so you will not have time to eat.

Delaying sleep

If you don’t get enough sleep, you’re more likely to have high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and depression and you cannot effectively learn and remember things. Without 7 hours of sound sleep, you are damaging your immune system and your immune system becomes weak. To fight against various diseases strong immunity is required.

Dr. Nathaniel Watson, the co-director of the Washington University’s Medicine Sleep Center at Harborview Medical Center conducted a study and found out that the immune system works best when the body gets enough sleep. Through his study he confirmed that When sleep-deprived people are given a vaccine, fewer antibodies are produced. If sleep-deprived people are then exposed to a virus, they will be more prone to catch them.

Solution:

Set a regular sleep routine and stick with it. And do your best to get 7-8 hours a night

USEFUL LINK:
https://www.thrillist.com/health/nation/common-habits-that-ruin-your-health