10 Daily Habits That Could Shorten Your Life

Rebecca Lewis December 04, 2013

Our habits play a big role in our health and well-being. Below are ten habits that many people engage to everyday that are making them more prone to health problems.

You’re sitting down for more than a few hours a day. Spending too much time in your desk could be cutting out two years from your life, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal. What’s more – you just can’t prevent its potential health effects by exercising. Another research published in the JAMA Internal Medicine revealed that people who sit more than 11 hours a day are at 40 per cent risk of dying over the next three years.

You watch TV a lot. Watching television makes the negative effects of sitting even worse. Researchers from Harvard University have found that people who watch television for two hours or more are at an increased risk of premature death, heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. According to a report published in the New York Times, "every single hour of television watched after the age of 25 reduces the viewer’s life expectancy by 21.8 minutes."

You’re jobless. Unemployment is one of the common sources of stress, which in turn, makes your body more vulnerable to illnesses. After analysing 40 years of data from 20 million people in 15 countries, a group of Canadian researchers found that being jobless increases a person’s risk of dying by 63 per cent.

You don’t have friends at work. Whilst you get to spend only a few hours with your co-workers every day, it is also important that you keep a harmonious relationship with these people. According to Tel Aviv University, peer social support, which represents how well a participant is socially integrated in his or her employment context, is a potent predictor of the risk of all causes of mortality. In their study, they found that workers who had poor social support were 2.4 times more likely to die.

You’re having a hard time finding true love. Being single for a prolonged period of time could cost you a whole decade whilst having a difficult time finding a mate can shave off months from your life, according to a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Another study by the Harvard Medical School revealed that communities with gender ratios skewing significantly more male or female caused the minority sex to have shorter life spans. And even though marriage does have ups and downs, not getting married could increase risk of death over a lifetime by 32 per cent.

You’re not having quality time with friends. Social relationship is a big factor for long life. Research by the Brigham Young University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has found that people with weak social connections die at much higher rates than their counterparts. They compared the health effects of loneliness with the effects of smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

You’re eating too much unhealthy food. This is far too obvious but many of us continue to do it. Proper diet is essential to good health. Foods high in salt, sugar, saturated and trans fats, additives, preservatives and other chemicals increase the risk of different diseases, including type 2 diabetes, obesity and heart disease. Last year, a study by Harvard Medical School which involved more than 120,000 people revealed that diet high in red meat can shorten life expectancy by 20 per cent.

It takes you several hours to reach your workplace. The stress brought by long commutes had been linked to the same negative effects as sitting. It also reduces the likelihood that individuals will consistently participate in health-related activities. Researchers from the Sweden’s Umeå University found that the highest mortality risk was with female commuters, who were found to have significantly shorter lifespan after consistently commuting for 31 miles or more.

You’re taking out ‘sex’ from your to-do list. A 1997 study published in the British Medical Journal found that men failing orgasm for extended periods of time increase their mortality risk by up to 50 per cent than those who have frequent orgasms, even after taking into account other factors like age, smoking habit and social status.

You’re sleeping too little or too much. Sleep deprivation has been widely linked to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, dementia, cognitive problems, and early death. But some studies have also shown that getting too much sleep could cause health problems as well. So how long do we need to sleep each night? Research shows that most people require seven or eight hours of sleep to function optimally. Taking a 30-minute afternoon nap also comes with amazing health benefits.