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| Photo from: www.shaneharrison.com |
Most people relate unhealthy to the physicality as it is the most obvious and the easiest to gauge. Most people who are unhealthy do not know that they are unhealthy because they have normal weight or BMI (Body Mass Index) or that they have no disease, at least as for now. Being unhealthy is doing things that causes damages to the body that might go beyond repair and would end up one having an illness in the future.
When I was in college, my life was so fast-paced that many times I sacrificed eating well and going to sleep for examinations, reports and clinical duties. I used to eat at fast foods (usually take-outs), and consumed processed food such as canned goods, junk food, and all those other stuff rich in preservatives. I also drank coffee more than five times in a day just to keep me awake and able to study, attend classes and go to duty. My weekends were spend drinking with friends, smoking cigarettes, and staying up late partying. I had to do those things as it was the only "outlet" that I considered. I lost weight, I had dark eye bags, and had plenty of pimples on my face. I did not look unhealthy. As a matter of fact, people from my hometown complimented me for losing weight and "looking good". Of course, it is a stereotype that if you're thin, you're pretty. What people did not know was that I was damaged, inside. I could have had cancer somewhere inside my body. But yes, since I was thin then I was pretty.
"DNA is the genetic ‘instruction manual’ found in all our cells. If DNA becomes damaged, and is not repaired properly, then the cell may get the wrong instructions and start to multiply out of control. This can lead to cancer." - Cancer Research UK
So what causes the DNA to become damaged? Exactly everything that I did could have caused damage to my DNA! I was lucky my body was compensating well, and repaired my DNA's without fail. What if it did not? The answer is obvious: I would have died of cancer already. It could have not been cancer, but other diseases cause by how I abused my body.
1. A study revealed that people who sleep less than 6 hours have more C-reactive protein - a protein associated with heart attack risk.
2. Junk food is often filled with trans-fat - an artificial fat being used as a stabilizer so premade foods can last for long periods of time before they are consumed. As your body works to remove this fat from your system it can build up in the liver and cause damage.
3. The cooking oils and preservatives used to maintain fast food products make it difficult for your body to shed fat, making hard to shed the extra calories even if you attempt to up your activity level.
4. Kids who smoke experience changes in the lungs and reduced lung growth, and they risk not achieving normal lung function as an adult.
5. Difficulty walking, blurred vision, slurred speech, slowed reaction times, impaired memory: Clearly, alcohol affects the brain. Some of these impairments are detectable after only one or two drinks and quickly resolve when drinking stops. On the other hand, a person who drinks heavily over a long period of time may have brain deficits that persist well after he or she achieves sobriety. Exactly how alcohol affects the brain and the likelihood of reversing the impact of heavy drinking on the brain remain hot topics in alcohol research today.