8 Everyday Habits That Harm Your Health

Little do we realize how our habits affect our overall health. The seemingly innocent habits could harm you in ways you never even thought of. For instance, you may feel that keeping the phone close to your head while sleeping is fine. But recent studies prove how it can adversely affect your brain and other parts of your body. Similarly, other habits, which you thought were normal, could actually be the culprits behind a serious health issue or a disease which may latch itself to you in the future. And these habits are so familiar that post reading this, you may want to change your everyday habits altogether. Now that is an unrealistic goal, to begin with, but over time you may switch to healthier, or should we say safer habits.

Also read: 10 Habits That Can Harm Your Kidneys

Here's a list of 8 innocent habits which you thought were normal but are actually backfiring on your health in a number of ways.

1. Stiffing or holding back a sneeze

Manners suggest that sneezing out too loudly is rude or impolite. So you may prefer stiffing your sneeze instead. But do you know how unhealthy this habit is? Holding back a sneeze by pressing your nose can put too much pressure on your intracranial. It blocks the blood flow to the brain and compresses the blood vessels. This may lead to headaches and in extreme cases, hearing problems.

Cleaning your hair regularly is important but you need to see how often it is good to wash hair. Too clean hair can also be harmful for you. Washing your hair too often can rob them of their natural oils and can make them look brittle.

Tight jeans may look very attractive, but not many know how that can be harmful for health. It is like compromising your health just for the sake of looking attractive. These jeans press on your nerve endings really hard. It causes a constant feeling of discomfort which can cause harm to your nervous system. It blocks blood flow to your legs which can make them go numb.

This is perhaps the one thing which we all do. In the era of smartphones, it is routine for a person to start the day by looking at the phone and to take a quick glance at it right before going off to sleep. The harmful radiations of your phone could weaken your bones and disturb your sleep, making you an insomniac. Also, the artificial lights of the phone can disrupt the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone. Keep your phone away before going off to sleep for the sake of your health.

Once you get comfortable with contact lenses, you may sometimes forget to take them off before going off to sleep. But do you know how harmful that can be for you? You may wake up with painful eyeballs in the first place. But when this happens way too often, it could expose you to a risk of damaged corneas.

Keeping yourself hydrated at all times is a good thing to do. But you need to know when to stop. At some point of time, drinking too much water may become harmful for you. It could make you overweight, uncomfortable and bloated. If you have to go to the toilet more than once in two hours, it signals that you are drinking too much water. For an average person, three liters of water in a day should suffice.

Overuse of painkillers could make you more prone to pain in the form of rebound headaches. These headaches occur when one starts taking painkillers way too often. If you are taking painkillers more than three times a week, you are increasing your likelihood of getting rebound headaches.

Wearing sunblock may seem like a necessity, especially during this time of the year. This, however, could rob your body of vitamin D, thereby exposing you to the risk of deficiencies, depression and osteoporosis. Most of the beneficial vitamin D is created by the action of sunlight. So if you wear a sunblock too often, that natural source of the vitamin is blocked. Use in limited quantities, but do not expose your skin to tanning because of vitamin D. Wear a sunscreen if you are afraid of the damaging effects of the sun.