Poor Health Habits








Any behaviour that is beneficial to one’s physical, social and mental health often linked to a high level of discipline and self control is said to be an healthy habit and any one that go contrary  on the other hand is regarded as poor health habit.

Habits either good or bad are very difficult to do away with and it is better to build habits that are good, healthy earlier in life because it makes one grow in the wise and this increases the chances and possibilities of one staying healthy in life.

When good habits are  put in place, it becomes easier for an individual to resist the poor and bad habits.

The apex Health Organization in the world (W.H.O),viewed health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being of an individual and not merely the absence of diseases or infirmities.

Good health is a priceless asset that is easy to be taken for granted; students in both primary, secondary and even tertiary institutions are faced with many changes that affect many aspects of their lives. 


During this time, students are desperate to find a place to belong and often make choices that negatively affect their academic achievement and their ability to experience and enjoy optimum health. 

This stage has been the focus of attention of people, people at this stage ought to  look for ways to improve their health and wellness in other to complete their academic effort. This can be done by regular exercise and lifestyle modification or changes.
   
Health as agreed is wealth, and it is of greater awareness that the  economic and individual personal’s growth is not easily achieved without good health.  

Health habits were created to provide a holistic approach to natural healing and the usual state of health one maintains. 

 Overall  health comes from recognizing the flaws, the mistakes and life changing decisions that are easy to be adapted to but painfully difficult and seemingly impossible. 

Poor health habits such as excess drinking of alcohol, not washing hands before and after eating and also after visiting toilet, discharging faeces inside bush instead of toilet, smoking, watching pornography, heavy makeup, unprotected sex, having more than one sexual partner e.t.c) obviously take their toll on individuals and their families.  

The costs to other members of society are less obvious but more far-reaching.
Poor health habits can also mean, a pattern of behaviour or behaviours that is  regarded as been detrimental to one’s physical,social,mental,spiritual or emotional health which is often linked to a lack of self-control.  

The persistent exhibition of habits that are deleterious to one’s health and general well-being  is what is regarded to as poor health habit. 

Continuous exhibition of such acts and behaviour makes it part of us and becomes so hard to break or leave.

 The formation of habit is the process by which behaviour, through regular repetition, becomes automatic or habitual. This is modeled as an increase in automaticity with number of repetitions up to an asymptote. 


This process of habit formation can be slow. It has been found out that the average time for an individual  to reach the asymptote of automaticity is 66 days with a range of 18-254 days, meaning that poor habits could become permanent in one within the duration of time stated above.


As the habit is forming, it can be analysed in three parts: the cue, the behaviour, and the reward.  The cue is the thing that causes your habit to come about, the trigger to your habitual behaviour. 

This could be anything that your mind associates with that habit and you will automatically let a habit come to the surface.  


The behaviour is the actual habit that you are exhibiting and the reward, a positive feeling, therefore continues the “habit loop”.

It means that if such habit is a poor health habit that is detrimental to health, it will continue in the trend. 

It is important to note that a habit may initially be triggered by a goal, but over time, that goal becomes less necessary and the habit becomes more automatic.

Poor health  habits a times  is an undesirable behaviour pattern.  

Common examples include: 

1.Nail-biting
2.Sex film (Pornography )
3.Eating junks 
4.Smoking
5. Lack of sleep
6. Sedentary lifestyle 
7.Having more than one  sexual partner
8.Unprotected sex
9.Drug abuse
10.Excessive  alcohol consumption
11. Improper hygiene
12 Breakfast skipping.

Skipping Breakfast:Breakfast  has been regarded as one of the most important meal. It helps the body to begin and kick start the sum of all the entire chemical reactions that takes place in humans. 

This include, transportation of substances to where they are needed in the body and also digestion.
Breakfast  is very important as it is truly  a break to the long fast from the previous night.

Advise on this poor health  habit  is that students should avoid skipping break fast as doing so is not the best for their wellness.


Lack of Sleep:Not getting enough and quality sleep has been said to be one of the greatest poor health habit that is peculiar to students.

Eight (8) hours is believed to be enough for good and quality sleep. However, many students fails to sleep up to this  hours due to their engagement though at the detriment of their health.

Depriving yourself from sleeping makes you prone to all sort of diseases ranging from short temper,tiredness and followed by lack of concentration and focus.

When you skip sleep continuously, the effect on your mental health becomes a bit more serious. It makes decision making difficult.

Lack of sleep makes you become more prone  to an increase home, road and school accidents or injuries.

Persistence  lack of sleep affect your overall health and wellbeing. This can as well make susceptible to other serious medical conditions which include, heart diseases,obesity (the mother of all disease), diabetes and hypertension.

Nail Biting:This is another poor health habit that is common among people of all ages.Nail biting also known as “onchophagia”, predisposes an individual  with this habit to some gastrointestinal tract diseases such as diarrheal, Cholera,Typhoid and so on.

Your nails are a hidden place for disease causing agents to breed.
Nail biters are also susceptible to another infection called paroncychia.

This skin infection paroncychia, manifest around the host’s nail. Microorganisms,yeast and bacteria that resides at the nail region gain access into the body in the process of biting nail through abrasions or the tiny tears. 

This leads to redness, swelling and formation of white-yellowish fluid(pus) around the nail.

Nail biting is a poor health habit as it has the capacity to impair your quality of life and wellness.

It is advised you determine the things that pushes or triggers you to biting your nails and do away with such.

Excessive alcohol consumption: consuming alcohol excessively is another poor health habit. This act is inimical to your health. This is because alcohol affects all the body system,it’s detrimental effect  vary from persons. 

The alcoholic volume consumed,the individual’s body mass,the genetic make-up,and the health status of individual determine and influence how the health  of such person responds to this poor habit (heavy  drinking).

When you consume alcohol in excess,this can cause the activation of enzymes that aid digestion that is produced by pancreas.

You also stand a risk factor of having cancer. The long and short effect of excessive consumption of alcohol include, liver cirrhosis, colon cancer, stomach ulcer, chronic kidney  disease, social stigma, impotence in male, infertility in female and lots more. 

However,all these are effects are preventable when you drink responsibly.

Smoking: This is another poor health habit found in our community. Smoking is the biggest risk factor for cancer  of the mouth, throat and the habit is responsible for other diseases. 

It’s constituents include nicotine , carbon monoxide and tar. Nicotine though not carcinogenic in nature but it is high in addictive content.

Each time you smoke a stick of cigarette, you just succeeded in causing a scar to your lungs and as well cause a damage to your breathing.

Smoking is highly inimical to virtually all organs in the body.

To stay healthy from this poor habit, quit smoking as it pose a greater risk  to your health and wellbeing.



In this present world, cure is expensive so why not prevent some habits that are inimical to your health and enjoy your wealth. 

Behavioural health modification is what everyone most desire and by doing so, you are adding years to life and life to years.

0 thoughts on “Poor Health Habits

  1. In your write up, you mentioned eating junks as poor health habit. Can u please explain the place of malnutrition in the health well being of man.

  2. Sir this my question should not be as if am encouraging drinking. If drinking is poor health habits what happon to calories and nutrients contend in it?

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