7 Deadly Health Habits

Bad habits have different effects on your health. Some habits make little difference, while others are very detrimental. Luckily, most health problems can be attributed to a small group of unhealthy habits. Here are the 7 most common and deadly:

• Smoking - Not only are cigarettes becoming socially unacceptable, but your life expectancy will be reduced by over 10 years.
  
• Alcohol Abuse - Besides brain damage, alcoholism can reduce your life expectancy by 10-15 years.
  
• Excessive Sugar Consumption - Obesity reduces life expectancy by 2 to 10 years. The fact is that Chubby Calories lead to obesity.
  
• Lack of Physical Exercise - Exercise not only makes you feel better, but can add years to your life. Even a little bit is much better than nothing.
  
• Failure to Buckle your Seat belt - Not only can a seat belt save your life, but if you are in a bad accident, the risk of serious injury is greatly reduced. Regular seat belt usage can actually add a couple of years to your life expectancy.
  
• Insufficient Vitamin D - Low levels of vitamin D are now being linked with heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. You should get at least 500 I.U. of vitamin D daily. A healthy diet with a multivitamin should meet this requirement for you.
  
• Poor Mental Health - There are a lot of studies correlating life expectancy with things like religion, marriage, happiness and depression. I really see these studies as poor attempts to measure levels of mental health. Mentally healthy people live an average of a decade longer than mentally unhealthy people.

Most people have one or two areas in the above list they need to work on. For me, it is keeping an eye on my sugar consumption and getting enough exercise. Try to reduce or eliminate these 7 deadly habits and you should be on your way to a long and healthy life.