Unhealthy Habits You Need To Ditch

These tendencies are derailing your best efforts at living better and longer.

We all have them: Those less-than-healthy or downright dangerous habits that can subtract years from our lives. Most of these harmful tendencies--like smoking and eating poorly--are well-known thanks to the constant finger-wagging of physicians and public-health officials. Others, like taking chances with safety and skipping immunizations, are less obvious.

While circumstance, low motivation or even lack of support can derail our best attempts at being healthy, there is hope: According to a recent study published in the American Journal of Medicine, a sizable percentage of people can successfully adopt a range of healthy activities or habits in middle age.

The study looked at 15,708 adults between the ages of 45 and 64. More than 8% of the participants began eating at least five fruits and vegetables daily, exercised a minimum of 2.5 hours per week, maintained healthy weights and refrained from smoking.

Dr. Dana E. King, a co-author of the study and vice chair in the department of family medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina, considers these four habits to be the pillars of good health. And the study proved as much: Those who changed their lifestyles experienced lower total mortality and fewer cardiovascular disease events.

"These changes are not easy to make and our environment is not encouraging," King says. "But making them is very beneficial."

The Cost of Bad Habits

Smoking and excessive weight gain are particularly pernicious since they've been linked to a range of bad health outcomes, including cancer and heart disease. They're also expensive habits when it comes to the cost of health care. Expenditures related to smoking reach as much as $96 billion annually. Obesity is estimated to cost $90 billion, and it may get pricier. A report published this month by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that adult obesity rates had increased in 23 states from 2006 and 2008.

While smoking and obesity are prime targets for public-health officials, patients can improve their health in other ways. Mary Jean Schumann, a registered nurse and chief programs officer for the American Nurses Association, says that routine immunizations are cost-effective and promote excellent health. More than 20 diseases can be prevented by vaccines, including Hepatitis B, diphtheria, mumps and influenza.

Yet survey results published last year by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, a non-profit organization, found that few Americans know which vaccines are recommended for adults--and more than half are unconcerned about contracting a vaccine-preventable disease.

Simple high-risk behaviors, like not wearing a helmet while riding a bike or not buckling up while driving or riding in a car, are other, less-scrutinized bad habits.

"People don't look at those as health behaviors, but they are," says Schumann, who has treated countless patients in the emergency room with injuries from accidents that could have been prevented.

Changing Behaviors

Even though common sense says unhealthy choices result in poor outcomes, people tend to have difficulty connecting the two. And even when they do, it can be a long-term struggle to end the pattern.

"[People] have good intentions but can't seem to pull off the changes," says Suzanne Havala Hobbs, a clinical associate professor of health policy and management and nutrition at the University of North Carolina's Gillings School of Global Public Health.

She attributes that dynamic to a combination of factors: suburban and urban infrastructures that don't promote physical activity; a sense of fatalism that sets in when people tire of fighting what can seem like a losing battle; and a lack of support from friends and family.

While individuals have no power over city planning, they can tackle the other two issues. Waning motivation to lose weight, for instance, can be remedied by doing enjoyable physical activities instead of committing to a rigid and joyless routine at the gym. Enlisting the support of loved ones is another essential strategy since it can turn smoking cessation or healthier eating into a family affair as opposed to an individual struggle.

Despite these tactics, some people face greater health-improvement challenges than others. In Dr. King's study, those who were at risk for chronic conditions were no more likely to make changes.

"We have to find out what the real motivators are for people," he says, mostly because improved health is within the reach of most. "Turning back the clock can be done."

Medical Center Diets That Aren’t

Fast and Easy Weight Loss Secrets? Don't Count on It

The Internet is rife with diets that claim to provide the secret to quick and substantial weight loss. If you assume that any diet attributed to world famous medical centers must be trustworthy, think again. Top-rated medical centers encourage weight loss through intensive multidisciplinary programs based on balanced diets that meet nutritional needs. If you see a diet espousing rapid weight loss by sticking to just a few foods over and over, go directly to the Web site of the hospital that supposedly endorses the diet and you’ll probably find that the diet claim is a hoax.

The “Cleveland Clinic Diet,” for example, claims to produce weight loss of up to 10 pounds in three days. The three-day program includes meals of specific foods, such as hot dogs, vanilla ice cream, cabbage and eggs, which supposedly increase metabolism to burn fat. Actually, it promotes short-term weight loss through an extremely low calorie level and a low carbohydrate content that leads to water loss. The three-day program is followed by four to five days of “normal” (not extreme) eating and then restarting the three-day plan. This cycle makes long-term weight loss unlikely. After a few runs through the cycle, there’s a good chance those “normal” days may get even less normal, since studies show that the greater the rigidity of dieting rules, the greater the likelihood of binge-eating when the rules end.

The Cleveland Clinic expressly denies any support for this diet. The center’s Web site includes a statement denying the diet, saying its restricted calories and rules of allowed versus forbidden foods are “not the way to long-term, sustained weight loss and health.” The Cleveland Clinic does not recommend any rigid diet. Instead, it recommends a mostly plant-based Mediterranean-style pattern of eating with abundant vegetables and fruits, limited animal protein and moderate amounts of healthy fats like olive and canola oil, nuts, seeds, olives and fatty fish.

A diet circulating for decades purportedly from the prestigious Mayo Clinic is another hoax. The plan allows unlimited meat, fish and poultry, plus daily eggs and limited vegetables, and adds grapefruit at each meal “to burn up fat.” By eliminating sugar, starch, fruit and “white vegetables,” this diet ends up high-fat, low carbohydrate and moderate to high in protein. It’s nutritionally inadequate and the direct opposite of dietary recommendations to reduce risk of cancer and heart disease. Furthermore, specifically saying you can “eat until you’re so full you can’t eat any more” is exactly the opposite of the skill most people need to learn—to stop eating at a satiation point well before “stuffed.”

The Mayo Clinic’s Web site denies any support for this diet. Its approach to weight loss involves a balanced diet with plenty of vegetables and fruits, as well as physical activity and goal-setting. There is a Mayo Clinic eating plan, called the Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight Pyramid, but far from the rigid, limited diet circulating the Internet, it includes a wide range of healthy foods, including up to 75 calories per day of sweets.

State-of-the-art nutrition care doesn’t mean highly restricted, rigid plans, at least not without intense medical supervision. Premier medical centers employ registered dietitians to create individualized plans that lead to weight loss and also meet nutritional needs, fit personal preferences and lifestyle, and work long-term. But like the Duke Diet from the Duke Diet and Fitness Center, these world-class centers all emphasize an approach that also includes re-learning skills like grocery shopping and cooking, daily physical activity, behavioral change and record-keeping (such as food and activity logs).

The Secret the Food Industry Doesn't Want You to Know

What's replacing the trans fats in your food?

Trans fats, those inflammation boosting, heart-disease-promoting nutritional nightmares, are rapidly disappearing from store shelves and restaurant menus as health-minded consumers become increasingly savvy about what's in their food. The poster children for bad nutrition, trans fats are banned from use in restaurants from New York City to the state of California, and food manufacturers are reformulating packaged foods and labeling them "trans-fat free" in response to popular demand. Sounds like a win for consumers, right?

Not so fast, says Sonja Connor, M.S., R.D., L.D., because while food manufacturers have been reducing or removing trans fats from their products, they've replaced them with equally harmful but less vilified saturated fats. "The popular media have de-emphasized the roll of saturated fat and cholesterol as being important in coronary artery disease," saysid Conner, a research associate professor in the School of Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland.
The emphasis in the media and popular culture on the dangers of trans fats has directed attention away from the ill effects of saturated fats, which has allowed food manufacturers to quietly introduce them into formerly trans-fat-filled foods. And while saturated fats get little airtime, "100 years of scientific studies … provide the crucial evidence for implicating dietary saturated fat and cholesterol as the major cause of coronary disease," said Connor in a presentation this week to the Washington State Dietetic Association.

While both types of fat are harmful, Americans eat about five times more saturated fat that trans fat. To manage your fat intake and safeguard your health, get in the habit of reading nutrition labels. The American Heart Association recommends that limiting the amount of saturated fats you eat to less than 7 percent of total daily calories. That means, for example, if you need about 2,000 calories a day, no more than 140 of them should come from saturated fats. That's about 16 grams of saturated fats a day.

In addition, the Food and Drug Administration offers these tips you can use every day to keep your consumption of saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol low while consuming a nutritionally adequate diet:.

• Check the Nutrition Facts panel to compare foods because the serving sizes are generally consistent in similar types of foods. Choose foods lower in saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol. For saturated fat and cholesterol, keep in mind that 5 percent of the Daily Value (%DV) or less is low and 20 percent or more is high. (There is no %DV for trans fat.)

• Choose alternative fats. Replace saturated and trans fats in your diet with monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. These fats do not raise LDL cholesterol levels and have health benefits when eaten in moderation. Sources of monounsaturated fats include olive and canola oils. Sources of polyunsaturated fats include soybean oil, corn oil, sunflower oil and foods like nuts.

• Choose vegetable oils (except coconut and palm kernel oils) and soft margarines (liquid, tub, or spray) more often because the combined amount of saturated fat and trans fat is lower than the amount in solid shortenings, hard margarines, and animal fats, including butter.

• Consider fish. Most fish are lower in saturated fat than meat. Some fish, such as mackerel, sardines, and salmon, contain omega-3 fatty acids, which are being studied to determine if they offer protection against heart disease.

• Choose lean meats, such as poultry without the skin and not fried and lean beef and pork, not fried, with visible fat trimmed.

• Ask before you order when eating out. A good tip to remember when eating or ordering out is to ask which fats are being used in the preparation of your food when eating or ordering out.

• Limit foods high in cholesterol such as liver and other organ meats, egg yolks, and full-fat dairy products, like whole milk.

• Choose foods low in saturated fat such as fat- free or 1 percent% dairy products, lean meats, fish, skinless poultry, whole grain foods, and fruits and vegetables.

5 Sleep Myths Busted

It accounts for a third of your life and a big chunk of your health and longevity. So why aren't you sleeping enough?

What a night. The woman of your dreams appeared. Your pulse raced. Heavy breathing ensued. You do remember it, right? Oh, wait, you were asleep. And that's not all you missed. Under cover of night, sleep floods your veins with age-defying human growth hormone. Sleep raises an army of T cells and sends them into battle against colds and infection. Sleep resets the appetite controls that tell you to not hit the turn signal when you pass a McDonald's. And, of course, sleep helps you above the neck as well as below the belt.

"It stabilizes your waking brain, makes you more alert, and allows you to process information faster," says David Dinges, Ph.D., who studies shut-eye at the University of Pennsylvania. "It helps you remember things and consolidate those memories." You won't get that from a Red Bull. So then why are we engaged in a society-wide experiment in sleep deprivation? Average nightly sleep time during the workweek in the United States is down nearly 20 minutes in the last decade, to six hours and 40 minutes. And men ages 30 to 44 are the worst offenders: Thirty percent of them say they log less than six hours of sleep at night, according to a survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The price you pay for this sleep deficit is more than just lost productivity—your health can suffer too. So wake up! It's time to shed some light on this dark territory.

Successful, driven guys should be good to go on five hours a night: MYTH

True, Napoleon slept four to five hours a night, and Thomas Edison got by on four. But world domination and the lightbulb might have been mere warm-ups had these guys slept more. Sleep scientists estimate that only 10 percent of adults are hardwired to need appreciably less (or more) sleep than the recommended seven to eight hours. And by cheating on sleep, you're limping through life with the cranial equivalent of a torn calf muscle. Scarier still, people who are sleep-deprived often don't even know they've turned into zombies. After dividing 48 volunteers into four sleep regimens—eight, six, four and zero hours a night (a.k.a. torture)—University of Pennsylvania researchers found that the six-hours-a-night group fared as poorly on measures of alertness and memory after two weeks as the no-sleep crew did after 24 hours. But participants in the six-hour group didn't feel very sleepy even when they were performing at their worst. Accumulating a sleep deficit also leads to "microsleeps" while you're awake. "Your brain becomes unstable and will go 'off-line' for half a second," Dinges says. The more sleep-deprived you are, the more frequent and longer the lapses.

Snooze strategy: If you didn't sleep seven to eight hours every night this past week, go to bed this weekend at your regular weekday time, but don't set your alarm clock. Did you rise on Saturday and Sunday at the same time you would have on, say, a Tuesday? Then you may be one of those few people who can sleep less yet remain healthy. The rest of us mere mortals can begin to repay our sleep debt by dozing 10 hours a night on weekends and then sticking to seven to eight hours during the week. Your brain will use this strategy whenever you accumulate a sleep debt, says Ruth Benca, M.D., Ph.D., medical director of the Wisconsin Sleep Center. Otherwise, you want to stay consistent with your sleeping.

Frequently needing to pee in the middle of the night might indicate a health problem: TRUTH

That first stumble to the bathroom in the dark can be chalked up to the beer you drank watching the Knicks game. The second one can spell trouble. "If you habitually take two or more bathroom trips a night, you probably have obstructive sleep apnea," says Alex Chediak, M.D., medical director of the Miami Sleep Disorders Center. With sleep apnea, the soft tissue at the back of your throat blocks your upper airway during sleep, stopping your breathing for anywhere from 10 seconds to a minute or even longer. This can occur hundreds of times in a night, depriving you of restorative deep sleep and starving your vital organs of oxygen. No wonder sleep apnea has been linked to heart disease, hypertension, and mood disorders.

But why does it wake you up to pee? Because those mini-suffocations result in lower circulating oxygen levels, your heart pumps harder, raising your blood pressure. As excess fluid builds up in your veins, a feedback loop triggers the release of a pressure-relieving diuretic, making you need to pee. An enlarged prostate and high blood sugar can also prompt middle-of-the-night bowl breaks. But with those conditions, says Dr. Chediak, you'll pee a lot day and night.

Snooze strategy: Raising the pillow end of your bed by a few inches can help prevent that tissue from blocking your throat. Snoring could also be waking you in the middle of the night, and one major cause is nasal obstruction. Wash out mucus and irritants by mixing 1/4 teaspoon of table salt in 2 cups of warm water and flushing your nose twice a day using a medical or bulb syringe. Japanese researchers found that people with nasal obstruction were twice as likely to experience daytime fatigue as people with clear passageways. For video instruction on the technique, visit mayoclinic.com and search "nasal irrigation." If the peeing persists around the clock, schedule a prostate exam and have your blood-sugar level checked by your doctor after an overnight fast.

The post-lunch bonk can't be avoided: MYTH

Many Europeans scarf down a carb-loaded lunch and then shut down from 1 to 4 in the afternoon. But with unemployment soaring, let's assume a three-hour nap won't play well at the office. If you find yourself entering what amounts to a food coma after lunch, you're probably eating too many carbohydrates in the morning. And what you're not getting enough of is making it worse. "A postlunch crash is a telltale sign of poor nighttime sleep, as is dozing in meetings, theater performances, or similar environments," says Dr. Benca. Not sure if you're experiencing a modest dip or a true crash? Take a minute or two to fill out the Epworth Sleepiness Scale. This online questionnaire is the same one sleep docs use on their new patients.

Snooze strategy: Along with improving your nightly sleep pattern, eat three small meals spaced two hours apart in the morning. Try a protein shake at 7 a.m., two eggs and a small cup of oatmeal at 9, and an apple and a handful of almonds at 11. You'll consume fewer carbohydrates, and you won't be as likely to overeat at lunchtime. In fact, a salad with grilled chicken and avocado on top should be enough to keep your mind focused and your head off the desk all afternoon, says Keith Berkowitz, M. D., medical director of the Center for Balanced Health in New York City.

Waking up at 4 a. m. every day just means I'm an early riser: MYTH

More likely, you—along with 60 million other Americans—have insomnia, an inability to fall or stay asleep. "Insomniacs wake at the slightest disturbance and feel unrefreshed in the morning," says Dr. Benca. Insufficient sleep exposes the sufferer to a litany of performance and health problems. In a study published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research, researchers found insomniacs were more than twice as likely as normal sleepers to call in sick for long periods.

Snooze strategy: Let's assume that you've already cut back on caffeine. What you want to do is make your sleep more efficient, says W. Christopher Winter, M.D., medical director of the sleep medicine center at Martha Jefferson Hospital in Charlottesville, Va. Dr. Winter likens poor sleep to a bookcase missing a few volumes, representing gaps in your sleep. By going to bed an hour or so later, those gaps won't be as long as or frequent. Soon enough, you should be waking up after the roosters, not before them.

A tiring workout before bed will help me sleep more soundly: MYTH

Regular exercise is one of the best sleep-promoting remedies, but working out late at night risks leaving you wide-eyed in bed. "It's easiest to fall asleep when your core body temperature goes relatively quickly from very warm to very cold," says Dr. Chediak. "After exercise, that cooling process takes four to six hours." It's better to take a hot bath or sauna session close to bedtime. "Anything that raises core body temperature will help get you started on sleep," says Dr. Chediak. He says the cooldown period into the sleep zone following a bath takes just two hours—half that of an exercise session.

Snooze strategy: Work out—but do it first thing in the morning for all-day energy and a quick drift into deep, restful sleep. Studies show that exercise improves sleep as effectively as a class of sleeping pills that includes Restoril and Halcion.

Alcohol can help me sleep at night: MYTH

Only if you equate a good night's sleep with passing out drunk on your girlfriend's sofa. Alcohol messes with the normal sleep cycle, especially the back end of the cycle. "Four hours into sleep, alcohol wears off and leaves you in an excitable state," says Dr. Chediak. You'll sleep lighter, wake more easily, and be hung over when you do wake. After three nights of intoxicated slumber, even the initial knockout punch begins to wane. Dr. Chediak warns of another drawback to using a six-pack as a sleep aid. "Being a muscle relaxant as well as sedative, alcohol can even create sleep apnea symptoms in snorers who don't otherwise have the condition," he says. Unfortunately, liquor is a go-to therapy for many sheep counters, used as often as over-the-counter sleeping pills and more often than prescription sleep meds.

Snooze strategy: Be consistent with your overall schedule and you won't need booze. "Your internal clock is a structure in your brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus," says Dr. Winter. "To set this clock, eat your breakfast, lunch, and dinner at exactly the same time every day for a week."