Chioma Owolabi 
Unhealthy lifestyle habits are patterns of living practiced regularly, which can be voluntary or involuntary, that cause danger to your health. According to our English dictionary, habits are seen as actions performed repeatedly and automatically, usually without awareness. A habit can also be an addiction. Lifestyle, on the other hand, can be seen as a regular pattern of living. We are characterized by our lifestyle.
Unfortunately, many individuals practice unhealthy lifestyles without knowing it. To them, it’s just a common routine of life, for example, cutting the fingernails using the mouth, using your hand to remove some particles inside the mouth or teeth, picking your nose with your finger, etc.
Most health-related issues are traced back to an individual’s unhealthy lifestyle habits. Let’s consider 10 unhealthy lifestyle habits you have to ditch now.
10 Unhealthy Lifestyle Habits
The first solution to every problem is being able to identify and admit that you have a problem. Unhealthy lifestyle habits didn’t just become a habit overnight; they started somewhere. Such habits include:
1. Late Night Food
When you work or watch movies at night, you tend to feel hungry, resulting in consuming junk or eating heavy food at night. Eating very late at night causes indigestion as your digestive system is very slow at night. However, many factors influence your eating time, such as your work schedule, loss of appetite, etc.
It is recommended to eat 3 hours before sleeping. In a case where your work schedule is so tight that it demands you to eat very late, researchers recommend eating light food before going to bed, such as oatmeal, fresh veggies, popcorn, low-fat Greek yogurt, fruits, nuts, cereal, milk, cheese, and crackers.
2. Lying Down Immediately After Eating
This is one common unhealthy lifestyle habit that is practiced by many. Researchers discovered that lying down after eating can be disastrous to one’s health and cause acid reflux, risk of Barrett’s esophagus and esophagus cancer, indigestion, increased weight gain, and improper sleep. Researchers discovered that people who have a longer time between meals and sleep have fewer risks of developing stroke. It is advised to stay up for 3 hours before lying down.
3. Negative thoughts
Thinking negatively has some negative roles to play in your life. Negative thoughts can lead to worries, fear, stress, and anxiety, affecting your mental, emotional, and physical health and making you susceptible to diseases and illnesses. You must try substituting your negative thoughts with positive ones.
4. Always Biting Your Fingernails
Biting your fingernails is one unhealthy lifestyle habit that can lead to infection when the skin around your nail bed is injured. The finger always carries germs, so it is advised not to put your fingernails into your mouth because it opens you up to several illnesses and diseases.
5. Always On Earphones and Listening To Music On High Volumes
Studies have shown that 70% of individuals suffer from ear problems as a result of listening to high-volume music with earphones.
It’s very common to see youths with earphones, as it has become part of them.
The ear is very fragile, as sounds coming from the earphones hit the eardrum directly, which can lead to temporary or permanent damage to the eardrum.
6. Intake Of Junk Food
It’s a norm that many people prefer eating junk food to eating prepared or cooked food, and that’s because we are in an age where people don’t like stress; they see cooking as stressful and would prefer hamburgers, coke, and cake instead of normal food. You can make little lifestyle changes by starting to avoid unhealthy foods and starting to take probiotic supplements that can help recover your gut health.
Eating junk food will not only make you obese but will also cause complications in your body system, such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, high cholesterol levels, and high blood pressure. Many junk foods have chemical sources that are not good for human consumption.
7. Low Water Intake
Health experts recommend 3l of water intake daily as a healthy lifestyle habit, but it’s unfortunate that most don’t adhere to that.
When your body doesn’t get enough water, it becomes dehydrated, and hard stool and constipation begin to set in.
Water is important to the body, as about 60% of the body fluid is water.
Understandably, your work schedules are very tight, but that should not excuse you from staying healthy by drinking water. As the popular saying goes, “Water is life.”
8. Low Or No Exercise
Lack of exercise weakens the muscles. It has been proven that to stay healthy, fit, and strong, exercise is inevitable. Engaging in daily exercise has a lot of advantages. It helps improve blood flow in the body, helps in weight reduction and energy regain, helps against high blood pressure, and reduces the risk of some chronic diseases like cancer, heart failure, diabetes, etc. It helps to keep the heart healthy and the body fit.
Researchers recommend daily exercises for adults, like running, jogging, walking, skipping, etc.
9. Drinking Too Much Alcohol or Smoking
Smoking has been one major cause of lung cancer. According to statistics, 90% of lung cancer deaths result from smoking. Sadly, many people know this truth but can’t help but smoke. Smoking affects every aspect of one’s life, from internal to physical.
Why are people addicted to smoking? Yes, it’s normal in this century for people to grade you as an amateur when they discover you don’t smoke.
People are addicted to smoking because the nicotine in cigarettes, when released to the brain, makes the brain release a hormone called dopamine, which is a hormone for pleasure. Dopamine makes you feel happy, gives you energy, and makes you feel on top of your world.
That excitement makes people very addicted to smoking because of the after-pleasure. However, its after-effects will be very destructive to health as they cause brain cancer, lung cancer, bad blood, stained teeth, and a shortened life expectancy.
10. Surfing With Your Phone or PC Before Bed
This is one common unhealthy lifestyle habit practiced by children, youth, and young adults. We are in a century where almost everyone is obsessed with gadgets.
Researchers discovered that the light from your gadgets at night gets to your brain and stops the hormone in charge of sleep (melatonin) from releasing the chemical, which is why people don’t fall asleep at night when surfing the net.
Furthermore, the light radiating from your gadget has every tendency to damage the eyes, which is why you feel that pain in your eyes after staring long at your phone or tablets.
Researchers recommend staying away from your phone 1 hour before bed so your brain can relax well and your sleep will be comfortable.
Surfing the net at night lessens your sleep time, which, when continuous, has a long-term effect on your health. Such effects can include cancer, depression, damage to the retina, sleep disruption, etc.
Last Words
These and more are some unhealthy lifestyle habits practiced by many.
A habit doesn’t just start in a day. It develops gradually with continuous practice. It’s sad to note that some people don’t know how dangerous these habits can be to their health, which is why they still overlook such unhealthy lifestyle habits; instead, they conclude that “something must kill a man.”
Health is more important than wealth. When you are healthy, it implies you are wealthy.
