We have all heard that exercising and eating right is the stepping stone to living a healthy life. Some of us have also tried different diets and exercise routines to maintain a healthy lifestyle. But along with doing the things that enhance our health, there are also a lot of things that we must avoid doing for the sake of our health.

There are some obvious things like smoking and drinking that negatively affect your health, but there are some not-so-obvious things, too, that take the years off your life. Some habits that seem normal are contributing to shortening your lifespan. Here, in this article, we will point out six habits that can shorten your life.

1. Not Going For a Checkup:

If you are a busy person who doesn’t even have enough time to take out of their busy routine to go to a doctor, you are seriously risking your life. This is more like an indirect way of shortening your lifespan. When you go to a doctor for regular checkups, you keep yourself updated about your health. A doctor can guide you about how you can take better care of your health and which habits are harming your health severely that you should give up. They can recommend you important tests to make sure you are healthy. Doctors are quick to identify any underlying, rare, or hidden symptoms of diseases.

Some diseases are easy to get misdiagnosed, and misdiagnosis or even a late one can seriously affect your lifespan. For example, mesothelioma is a disease that often gets misdiagnosed or diagnosed late if a person doesn’t take the symptoms seriously and doesn’t go to a doctor in time. However, the mesothelioma survival rate shows that long-term survival is sometimes possible, as 10% of malignant mesothelioma patients will still be alive after 5 years. That’s why, when you skip going to a doctor regularly, you risk your chances of survival in case of a serious health condition.

2. Not Flossing Your Teeth:

Your dental hygiene is extremely important when it comes to your health, and ignoring your dental hygiene can result in reducing your lifespan. Here is where the importance of flossing your teeth comes in. This isn’t just a hollow threat made by your dentist, but in reality, not flossing one’s teeth can lead to several life-threatening diseases because most life-threatening diseases are linked to gum diseases. Gum diseases lead to serious conditions like kidney failure, heart problems, and diabetes.

Flossing your teeth is crucial for a long healthy life as a study by The Journal of Aging Research shows that if you never floss your teeth, it will raise your mortality risk by 30% as compared to those who floss daily. 30% is not a figure that you can ignore.

3. Sleeping Too Much or Not Enough:

Believe it or not, fixing your sleeping schedule can fix your health for the most part and vice versa. If you have a habit of staying up very late, then you are shrinking your life years. When you don’t sleep early, you don’t get enough sleep, and that is where the problem begins. Not getting enough sleep is linked to serious health implications. A study from the Sleep journal reports that those who sleep less than six hours at night are 12% more likely to have a premature death than those who sleep for eight hours. But there is also the other side of the story. Sleeping too much is also not an ideal situation.

Sleeping right does not mean you must sleep for very long hours. Sleeping in late shortens your lifespan. A study by PLOS One journal reveals that those who sleep for more than nine hours face a higher risk of a shortened life. Thus, the right strategy for sleeping is to get the right amount of sleep, not much, not less. Sleeping for seven to nine hours at night is the perfect scenario.

4. Binge-Watching TV:

As a busy person, you probably put all the seasons and series you want to watch for the weekend and then binge-watch them in one go. Well, as fun as it is, it’s equally dangerous for your health. Studies and research show that watching TV for prolonged hours can reduce your life. A study by the Harvard School of Public Health states that watching television for two or more hours a day will lead you to develop certain diseases and decrease your life expectancy.

The study states that cutting down your time watching television can significantly lower the risk of developing heart-related diseases, premature mortality, and type 2 diabetes.

5. Consuming Too Much Salt:

You must have heard that excess of everything is bad. Well, that is certainly true in case you consume too much salt. Adding too much salt to every meal you eat can lead to terrible consequences and decreases your life expectancy. According to the Journal of American Medical Association, 9.5% of total diet-related deaths are caused by too much salty food. Thus, if you have a habit of salting everything you eat too much, it is better if you curb this habit of yours right now.

Consuming salt in high quantities can result in kidney failure and other heart-related diseases. It is also the biggest cause of hypertension, also known as a silent killer. Hence, it is taking away years from your life without you even realizing it.

6. Using Technology Too Much:

If you find yourself always glued to a screen, you are seriously jeopardizing your health. Using your phone or laptop too much affects your posture badly, and this poor posture causes several other health-related problems. For example, using a laptop with a poor posture can cause stress on the back, neck, head, and shoulders. This stress puts blood vessels, internal organs, and nerves under unnecessary extra pressure. This poor posture transforms into chronic pain that decreases a person’s lifespan.

National Cancer Center reports that people who talk on the phone for several hours daily have 50% more chances of developing brain cancer. Moreover, exposure to light from the screen at nighttime messes up the circadian rhythm, which leads to negative health consequences.

Conclusion:

When it comes to living a long, healthy, happy life, you will find many guides on what to do. Even though doing the right things and having healthy habits is the foundation of a long life, avoiding unhealthy habits is equally important. There are many daily habits that we develop that shorten our lifespan. So even if you work out daily but don’t avoid these six habits pointed out above, your lifespan will decrease. Give this article a read and know which habits you must avoid.

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