Are You Making These Health Mistakes?

May 27, 2009 by GiGi

Welcome back!

Prevention Magazine recently came out with the 14 Worst Health Mistakes. Geared toward women, it still seems like men could benefit from these, too. How many of these health mistakes are YOU making?

There were some of the normal health boo boos we all make sometimes such as not getting enough sleep, forgetting to floss, thinking salads are healthier than they really are, not weight lifting, not using enough sunscreen and ignoring your aches and pains.

But there were also several new ones I didn’t realize (or maybe I just didn’t think about) that I found interesting:

Rocking out while you work out – this may not pertain quite as much to those of us over 50 that don’t routinely listen to ipods, but obviously if you’re in a crowded gym, you’d have to be cranking that thing up pretty loud to hear anything. Anything over 85 decibels can cause hearing loss. Take it from us old farts that went to way too many loud concerts when we were teenagers – hearing loss is not fun!

Driving with your windows down – especially if you commute to work in a city. Apparently, the exposure to air pollutants is quite high – a health risk to your lungs second only to smoking.

Watch your friends health habits – if you have friends that gain weight, you are 71% more likely to gain weight too – especially if they are the same gender. The same holds true about drinking. Texas researchers found that people were 82% more likely to be heavy drinkers when their coworkers held liberal views about alcohol.

If you are having surgery – check your surgeon’s track record. An example: heart valve—replacement patients were 44 % more likely to die when the procedures were performed by less experienced doctors. So be sure you ask a lot of questions about their experience.

You may want to catch the article to read the rest. If nothing else, it might be a wake up call to health mistakes you may know about, but forget to do on a regular basis.