The 6 Absolute Worst Things You Can Do For Your Health
Here’s what NOT to do if you want to live long and healthy, according to six top docs. (Photo: Stocksy/Danil Nevsky)
When it comes to your health, there’s no shortage of information out there — a lot of it confusing and seemingly contradictory. But there are a few things that are pretty objectively bad — behaviors you should really steer clear of if you want to live a long and healthy life.
To that end, we asked six doctors to share the worst things you could do with regard to your health (so you know to steer clear).
(Photo: Flickr/Michaela Shipman)
“Drinking a few sodas a day or eating junk food regularly.”
- Frank Lipman, MD, integrative and functional medicine expert and author of The New Health Rules
(Photo: Flickr/srgpicker)
“Smoking remains the most deadly habit that affects heart health. It’s the most powerful risk factor.”
- Steven Nissen, MD, chairman of the department of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic
(Photo: Flickr/Kevin)
“Smoking is at the top of the list. Lack of physical activity. Sitting too much. Engaging in cultural hypocrisy: We ring our hands and hear about the obesity epidemic everyday, but we just keep running on Dunkin’ and marketing multicolored marshmallows to kids. Food is the construction material of the child. [Junk food] contributes to chronic disease, a greater likelihood of heart disease, cancer and diabetes, and premature death.”
- David Katz, MD, director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center and author of Disease-Proof: The Remarkable Truth About What Makes Us Well
Related: The Weirdest Things Doctors Get Asked
(Photo: Flickr/Matthias Ripp)
“Driving while sleep-deprived. So many people get in the car after sleeping only four or five hours. They don’t realize the reaction time issues — it takes three times as long to react after four or five hours of sleep. If you close your eyes while you’re driving 60 miles per hour, it takes less than two seconds to go off the road.”
- Michael Breus, PhD, sleep expert and author of The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan: Lose Weight Through Better Sleep
Related: 6 Doctors Spill Their Worst Health Habits — And How They Repent
(Photo: Flickr/Mauricio Arriagada)
“Not wearing condoms. Make sure you buy the condoms and are not relying on someone else so you’re always prepared. HIV is still out there. There are still thousands of heterosexual women who get HIV every year.”
- Hilda Hutcherson, MD, gynecologist and associate dean of the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and author of What Your Mother Never Told You About S-E-X
(Photo: Flickr/Maegan Tintari)
“Any kind of tanning — indoor or outdoor. Smoking also doesn’t do great things to your skin.”
- Neal Schultz, MD, New York City-based dermatologist and founder of DermTv.com and creator of BeautyRx by Dr. Schultz.
Read This Next: What Doctors Wish They Learned In Medical School
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