Today's Health Lessons
Break Your Bad Habits
By: Heather Loeb
http://www.menshealth.com
A friend offers you a smoke while you're tailgating at the game. You
have one every now and then, and you're not hooked, so sure, thanks.
Besides, it does look good with your drink.
This, my friend, is your brain battling a bad habit—and losing. As we
continually perform a behavior—smoking socially, say, or texting while
driving—neural pathways in our brains form new patterns, according to a
recent MIT review. Once the prompt arrives, your brain shifts into
autopilot.
"Situational cues bring out habits that are deeply embedded," says Ellen
Peters, Ph.D., who studies risk perceptions at Decision Research, a
psychological research firm in Eugene, Oregon. "When that habit
surfaces, it's hard not to let it overcome you." The problem, of course,
is that these proclivities can endanger your health. So follow our
guide to rid yourself, once and for all, of a few distinctly unhealthy
habits.
A Quick Drag Every Now and Then
While regular smokers have a chemical component fueling their
addiction, people who smoke only occasionally succumb mainly to social
and environmental triggers. "The most powerful prompt is often being
around other people who are smoking or drinking," says Michael Fiore, M.
D., director of the University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research
and Intervention. In stressful situations, a cigarette can put you at
ease: Ten minutes after you take a puff , your brain releases a surge of
dopamine, a neurotransmitter that can make you feel relaxed and happy.
Why it's bad:
Lighting up even a
few times a week is still poisoning yourself. "There's no lower limit
of exposure to tobacco smoke that is safe. Period," says Richard D.
Hurt, M.D., director of the Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center. In
fact, a single cigarette can almost instantly injure the inner walls of
your blood vessels. That damage can lead to heart disease and blood
clots. Looming in the background, of course, is also the risk of
developing a full-blown addiction. Some research suggests that about a
quarter of "occasional" smokers go full-time.
Break the habit:
When you can't
steer clear of the smokestacks, benign substitutes can work wonders, Dr.
Hurt says. For instance, grab a drink stirrer and hold it between your
fingers like a cigarette. Set it between your lips while you take out
your wallet or phone. This keeps your mouth and hands busy. And carry
nicotine gum or lozenges—these can mimic the effects of nicotine from
cigarettes, Dr. Fiore says.
Evenings in Front of the Tube
Grabbing some snacks and firing up the plasma after work is okay once
or twice a week. But every night? Yes, bad habit. "People who are under
high levels of stress and who may not have a large network of friends
are prone to isolating themselves after work," says Leonard Jason, Ph.
D., a DePaul University psychologist who studies the challenges of
breaking bad habits. "Eventually, it becomes their default."
Why it's bad:
Slumming it on the
couch plays havoc with your body and your brain. For one thing, people
can consume up to 71 percent more food while they're glued to the tube,
so it's no surprise that watching more than 19 hours a week increases
your odds of being overweight by 97 percent, according to a 2007 Belgian
study. And researchers at Case Western Reserve University found that
for every hour of TV beyond 80 minutes that you watch daily, your risk
of developing Alzheimer's increases by a whopping 30 percent.
Break the habit:
If you have a
digital video recorder, use it to record shows, and simply start your
descent to bedtime later in the evening, Jason suggests. Zipping through
the commercials can cut about half an hour off every 2 hours of couch
time. Then, at least three times a week, make after-work plans that
specifically involve people—meet friends for dinner, or join a
recreational sports team. "Finding alternatives that you can do with
others helps reduce passive TV viewing," Jason says.
Your Caffeine Drip
The human body embraces some vices with gusto, effectively launching
lifelong habits by punishing you for skipping even a single hit. That's
caffeine's MO. When a caffeine fanatic doesn't get that fix, bloodflow
in the brain spikes, according to a 2009 study in Psychopharmacology.
This expansion of blood vessels results in a headache, while you suffer
from symptoms such as fatigue and grumpiness. To avoid this, you visit
the vending machines or the office java pot. (Makes us wonder: Why can't
fruits and vegetables hook us like this?)
Why it's bad:
A constant
infusion of caffeine can set your nerves on edge. "High daily caffeine
intake may decrease hand steadiness and increase anxiety," says Russell
Keast, Ph. D., a caffeine-consumption researcher at the School of
Exercise and Nutrition Sciences at Deakin University, in Australia. Then
there's a 2007 study from Dartmouth medical school, which found that
people who consumed 400 milligrams of caffeine a day (about four 8-ounce
cups of coffee) for a week experienced a 35 percent decrease in insulin
sensitivity, which may increase the risk of diabetes.
Break the habit:
Start by
keeping a food diary for a few days to identify all the sources of
caffeine in your diet—soda, coffee, tea, energy drinks—and tally the
total milligrams you're consuming, says Chad Reissig, Ph. D., a
researcher at Johns Hopkins University who studies the behavioral
effects of caffeine. (Consult beverage manufacturer Web sites for the
actual amounts.) Then reduce your caffeine intake by about 10 percent.
This could be as simple as drinking a 12-ounce can of cola instead of
the 20-ounce bottle. "You can also mix decaf with your cup of
full-strength coffee, and slowly increase the ratio," says Reissig. Keep
dialing back by 10 percent every few days until your craving subsides.
The gradual reduction should minimize fatigue and headaches, but plan
for them anyway: Go to bed earlier to keep drowsiness at bay, Reissig
says, and carry Advil or Tylenol to treat brain pain.
Cranking the Tunes
This habit sneaks up on you: You listen to your music through your
headphones at a higher volume than you should a few times, and your ears
become accustomed to it. Then you play it at that level all the time.
Eventually, you max out the volume controls on the iPod. "It's possible
to quickly adapt and become accustomed to louder and louder sounds
without realizing it," says Robert Fifer, Au. D., the director of
audiology and speech-language pathology at the University of Miami's
Mailman Center for Child Development.
Why it's bad:
Blasting
Nickelback at full volume through earbuds for long intervals can cause
permanent hearing damage, because your body lacks a self-defense
mechanism for loud noise. While you won't feel pain in your ears until
the volume exceeds 120 decibels, the damage can begin earlier than that.
The cells in your inner ear that process sound begin working overtime
to keep up with the onslaught, and eventually die off under stress, says
Dr. Fifer. The fewer of these cells you have, the more difficult it
becomes to hear soft sounds. You may also experience a constant ringing
in your ears, called tinnitus.
Break the habit:
You have to
retrain your brain to perceive lower volume levels as normal, and to
automatically tune out background noise. Start by turning down the
volume on your iPod or car stereo until you can hear other people
talking to you--they shouldn't have to shout. "If you force yourself to
listen to music at a lower level, your brain will begin to perceive it
as normal after about a week," says Catherine Palmer, Ph.D., the
director of audiology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Eye
& Ear Institute. Also, think about using Loud Enough earphones
($40, loudenough.com), which reduce your music player's maximum volume by up to 20 decibels.
Talking and Texting While Driving
We keep doing this because while we intuitively know that the
combination is unsafe, we assume nothing would ever happen to us. "If
you do it once and nothing happens, your experience tells you that it's
okay," says Peters. "Those repeated safe experiences build up a sense of
invulnerability."
Why it's bad:
The hard reality
is that our habit of talking and texting while driving, which springs
from our still-bubbling enthusiasm for our mobile devices, conflicts
directly with proof that we suck at it. Look no further than the
September 2008 train crash in Los Angeles that killed 25 people; a
commuter train's engineer had just sent a text message before the
collision with a freight train. Even having a hands-free cellphone
conversation while driving slows your reaction time by more than 20
percent, a French study found.
Break the habit:
Switching your
cellphone ringer to silent when you step in the car is an easy,
effective fix. But many people forget to do that, or they forget to turn
the ringer up again, so a better strategy is to train yourself to not want to
pick up the phone. "You can teach yourself to have a negative emotional
association with cellphone use while driving," Peters says. When your
phone rings or beeps with a new text message, visualize what could
happen if your attention is distracted—picture yourself plowing into the
car ahead of you. Be graphic about it. Then imagine the effect that an
accident would have on your family and on the family of the person you
hit. Over time, you'll start associating the ringing cellphone with a
crash, and you'll have less desire to answer it.
