The New Year brings with it all sorts of Resolutions, one of many being to finally exorcise away bad habits. Everyone in the world has a bad habit that they are not willing to admit to. Some habits like smoking or excessive drinking are wildly popular-so popular that even though all the ramifications have been addressed openly, people are still lighting up and guzzling down absurd amounts of liquor.
But aside from these vices, there are some pesky habits which seem less harmful. But upon closer examination, it’s quite easy to see that these practices can have some pretty negative effects on the body and/or mind. Here are a few of the world’s most common bad habits, and what they REALLY mean…
SLEEPING WITH MAKE-UP ON
So, you’ve hit the party circuit pretty hard. You’ve stumbled into your place somewhere between the hours of 2am and 6am, and the last thing that’s on your mind is scrubbing the “beauty paint” off your face. So, you give your face a few quick Kleenex wipes, and call it a night. Dermatologists will tell you that sleeping in make-up is the absolute biggest faux pas of proper skin care. But let’s examine what sleeping in make-up REALLY does to the skin.
When you apply make-up in any capacity, your skin is not allowed to properly breathe. On top of that, other impurities, such as smoke, sweat, etc are coating the skin ON TOP of the make-up. This only makes it worse. In essence, the make-up is trapping all these extra impurities onto (and into) the skin. What people fail to realize is that sleeping in make-up ultimately traps all sorts of bacteria in the skin. And we all know the havoc that bacteria can create in the human body.
This widespread habit has been the bane of many silent existences. People say that cracking one’s knuckles (or other joints) is satisfying. Some people do it unconsciously. And some people say that it makes their joints feel better afterwards. But what is the real verdict on cracking joints?
The good news is that this habit, also called joint manipulation, is not particularly harmful on one or two occasions. But those who are prone to very frequent knuckle cracking may find that there is extra stress placed on the joints after a period of time. There are no medical reports that will completely confirm the development of arthritis, or other problems. But it has been determined that habitual knuckle crackers might develop a lower grip strength, or even have some hand swelling.
It’s a horror to flip through the pages of the latest gossip rag, or fashion magazine-only to find your favorite model or celebrity with “chewed up” fingers. The truth of the matter is that nail-biting is one of the most universal habits of the human race. (Stretching a little-but you get the idea.) People who bite their nails constantly are said to be nervous, stressed, or hungry. But aside from looking really horrible, there are a few negative repercussions to making a meal of your cuticles.
There really is a medical name for this rather irritating habit; it’s called onychophagia, and is considered to be a “stereotypic movement disorder”, or a continuous [subconscious] movement which may bring some form of bodily harm to the individual. Most physicians will agree that nail biting is more of an annoying habit than a truly harmful one. But it has been proven that children who habitually chew their nails are more at risk of contracting lead poisoning. It is said that kids who play indoors and outdoors frequently have potential to gather lead underneath their nails. Biting them afterwards only introduces the lead into the system, which can cause a host of problems.
An extremely guilty pleasure many people possess is that for crunching ice. There is something eccentrically satisfying about sipping on one’s favorite cold beverage, and sucking up a chunky piece of ice to crunch on. Most of the time, it is a subconscious habit. But like many things that people like, this is yet another one which can have a few negative repercussions. First of all, it’s just bad for the teeth. Subjecting the teeth (fragile in their own right) to excessive bouts of “trauma”, you run the risk of breaking or damaging them by continually chewing on the hard pieces.
Another common cause for this [sometimes] exasperating habit is iron deficiency. It is said that those who continually crunch ice are more than likely suffering from a lack of iron in the diet. There are also other reasons that one should probably not crunch ice—at least not in public places: bacteria. In most public restaurants, it’s impossible to know how or where the ice is stored. Open buckets of ice are prime targets for bacteria. Furthermore, some studies have shown that the ice in drive-thru soft drinks contain more bacteria than the same drive-thru restaurant’s toilet water!
READINGIN THE DARK
Many people remember being scolded about reading in poor light. Mothers everywhere warned their children that they would end up blind or worse, if they continued reading comics in the dark. Those mothers were onto something. While reading in low light might not cause blindness per se, it does in fact cause the eye to strain. When one attempts to read in low light, the eye muscles must expand to collect as much light as possible, but must also contract in order to convert the images into “words.” This is what is known as eye strain. Straining of the eye muscles is a popular cause of headaches, neck pain, and even back aches. Continuous eye strain has been said to be a factor in nearsightedness. But these studies are not rock solid. At any rate, reading in the dark may not promote long-term health defects, but it can certainly explain that pesky headache one is unable to shake after a few hours.
