If you ask everyone you know if they would like to live a healthy lifestyle and stay fit for the rest of their lives, almost everyone will answer yes. However, if you ask the same set of people if they would like to adjust at least 5 of their lifestyle choices that are detrimental to their health and pay the price to live healthily, some would grumble that living healthy is expensive, others will hide under the no-time syndrome. What we don’t know is we cannot cheat our bodies.
The modern lifestyle coupled with the no-time syndrome has caused more harm than good to our health. This is why the rate at which people fall sick this day and the increasing rate of chronic sickness leaves a lot to question. Today, unlike before, children are being advised to stay indoors and keep themselves busy with digital experiences rather than engaging in sports activities with their mates. The more we are complacent; the more our overall healthiness is affected. The question is; what are the lifestyle choices that are detrimental to our health.
To start with, there are four factors that contribute to early deaths; healthcare system, human biology, environmental factors, and lifestyle. Among these four factors, the human lifestyle causes more than 52% of death. In addition to this, according to WHO, 60% of factors responsible for human overall healthiness are related to lifestyle. As simple as your lifestyle is, it controls your overall health. Lifestyle is a simple term used to describe your way of life, how you choose to live your life starting from the food you eat, how much time you dedicate to sleeping, and every other important thing. Your lifestyle affects everything about you. This article focuses on five lifestyle choices that are detrimental to your health.
Poor Diets
One of the lifestyle choices that are detrimental to your health is poor diets. The importance of food to human health cannot be underestimated. Food provides us the energy we need to run our daily activities, it nourishes our body and enhances the functionality of all the body parts. Our nutrition affects how we act, think and look. However, it is important to note that not all foods do this. There are some foods that are detrimental to human health. In fact, studies reveal that regular consumption of fatty food denies the body some of the essential nutrients needed for it to flourish. Malnutrition is not a term that applies to only children, adults also suffer from malnutrition. Poor diet affects your problem thinking ability, your body performance, and your physical alertness. Beyond this poor eating habit leaves a trail of chronic diseases like inflammation, heart diseases, diabetes, gout, cancer, and muscle weakness.
Poor Sleeping Habit
Another important aspect of your lifestyle you should pay attention to is your sleeping lifestyle. Sleep cannot be detached from good health. Sleeping disorder affects not just your mental health but also your social, economical, psychological, and emotional health. Sleeping disorder is a terrible habit that can hamper your health and affect your productivity.
Little or no Exercise
Another important practice many people often ignore is exercising. The truth is we know exercising is good for our health, but somehow, we don’t know how good this is. If you want to live healthier, look smarter, and less stressed, then try exercising. Follow up with a routine consistently for 2 months and watch how this makes you feel. Exercise helps to get the body back into shape and burn out excess fat. A study on the impact of exercise on mood involves 26 healthy men and women who are constantly exercising to stop doing this for a period of two weeks. The result shows an increased negative mood. Beyond this, exercise helps to build the body muscle, strengthens your joints, bones, and body, and slows down the effect of aging. Ignoring exercising is one of the lifestyle choices that are detrimental to your health.
Study
Another important lifestyle choice we often overlook is studying. Studying is an exercise of the soul. Studying could be as little as reading a book or engaging in meditation. Meditation is not the blanking out of your mind. According to Herbert Benson, there are four stages to meditation; awake, sleep, dream, and the fourth stage which refers to the stage of eliciting relaxation response (RR). In Benson’s explanation of these four states, he said what distinguished the fourth stage from the other three is the first three stages happened simultaneously, while the fourth stage is triggered by specific actions. The actions required to trigger the fourth stage include comfort, quiet, tool, and attitude. For more than 4 decades Benson and his colleagues have continued to show that the RR stage affects the genomic, functional, psychological, physical, and structural outcome in humans. Indeed, lack of study is another important lifestyle choice that is detrimental to your health.
Water
Although the benefits of drinking water seem to have been oversold before you think of quitting your habit of going about with a bottle of water, read this. Joan Koelemay, RD of the Beverage Institute said “Think of water as a nutrient your body needs that is present in liquids, plain water, and foods. All of these are essential daily to replace the large amounts of water lost each day.” In the same vein, Kaiser Permanente nephrologist Steven Guest, MD, says “Fluid losses occur continuously, from skin evaporation, breathing, urine, and stool, and these losses must be replaced daily for good health.” Water helps to restore and balance the body fluid at every interval we lose it.
The neglect of the 5 lifestyle choices examined above is not only detrimental to the health but also affects overall body performance. When you get these lifestyle choices right, you are on the right track. However, if you are constantly stuck with the no-time syndrome complaints, you might regret your choices in the long run.
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