"It Will Eventually Kill You": Medical Professionals Are Revealing The "Bad" Everyday Habits That Are Slowly Ruining Your Health
Liz Richardson
Tue, December 16, 2025 at 5:31 PM UTC
Add Yahoo Health on GoogleWe recently wrote a post where medical professionals revealed the "bad" everyday habits that are harming your health. In the comments, doctors, nurses, and other health workers shared more bad health habits you need to know. Here's what they had to say:
Note: Some responses were pulled from this Reddit thread by u/Sea_Fig1387 and this one by u/setealemtresspasser.
1. "I’m a surgical physician associate (PA). Don’t let your abdominal pain go on for a week before you seek medical attention. Operating on a gallbladder that’s been infected for a week, for example, is astronomically more challenging than if you had come in when it started. It also puts you at higher risk for intraoperative complications."
—Anonymous
2. "Not taking care of your joints and using proper form while exercising. Pushing through discomfort is okay. Pushing through pain is not — your body is trying to tell you something!! Also, warming up and cooling down are essential, not optional!!"
Related: Women Shared The Dumbest Things Men Have Said About Their Bodies, And Now I Need A Drink
3. "Eating excessive processed foods. Processed foods have 'hidden' sugar and other bad ingredients. Processed foods bypass your body’s real and necessary 'food processor' from chewing with saliva to fiber cleaning out the lower parts of the alimentary canal."
4. "Internal medicine PA here. Not getting age-appropriate cancer screening is just negligent. Early discovery can save your life. Get your pap smear, mammogram, yearly full skin check, screening colonoscopy (or do the non-invasive cologuard and skip the prep and procedure altogether; if it’s abnormal, you still need a scope, though), and lung cancer screening if you meet criteria."
"Men, talk to your provider about PSA Prostate-Specific Antigen testing (aged 55–69). Refer to the USPSTF screening guidelines."
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
—Anonymous, 46, Minnesota
5. "Brushing your teeth is only half the job. Flossing removes food particles that are stuck between your teeth and your gums. If left too long, they break down and become acidic, slowly eroding away at your enamel."
"Also, brushing immediately after vomiting will exacerbate the damage to your teeth from the stomach acids. Rinse your mouth with warm water and bi-card soda to prevent any further damage!"
6. "I work in the ER. Actually follow up with your doctors: If I tell you to see someone, you need to do that. The reason your condition gets worse is that you don't know really anything about it, so you can't tell when you need intervention or not. That's what your doctors are for, and that's why I tell you to see them even if you feel fine now."
7. "Not washing your hands after: A) blowing your nose; B) bathroom breaks; C) handling pets, pet food, and litter boxes; D) cooking or eating, before and afterwards; E) removing cleaning or medical gloves; F) performing any first aid, before and afterwards; G) you visit someone who is ill, again both before and after; H) touching public door handles, shopping carts, etc., when you return home; and I) your hands become soiled."
—Anonymous, 72, Texas
8. "Skipping vaccinations. There is a reason why certain diseases are extinguished (i.e., polio), there is a reason why people live longer, and there is a reason there is a consistent decline in cervical and HPV associated oral cancer."
9. "Just to emphasize the importance of not smoking, if you do smoke and get lung cancer from smoking, said cancer is going to be much more aggressive, have no actionable mutations and low immunogenicity, making treatment options much more limited and less effective."
10. "I'm a first responder who works alongside medical professionals in the field of public safety. For the love of god, if you engage in high-risk anything, wear a helmet. Engaging in ego-driven and risk-taking bad habits will eventually kill you. I have seen 35 mph crashes with no helmet result in death, and 55 mph head-on motorcycle vs. minivan with a helmet result in 'she walked away, and she needed a new helmet.' You only get one skull, one brain, and one life. Don't let 'I need to feel the wind on my face' or 'helmets are for bad riders' be the reason you don't use one."
"My family was devastated when my mom’s little brother hit another deer on his motorcycle, and it ended in an organ donation — his skull was obliterated. Wear a damn helmet. And a seatbelt. Or a flack jacket. Wear whatever your sport has for protective equipment; your loved ones will thank you for it, and if you live to old age, your future older self will thank you, too!"
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
—Anonymous, 37, Wisconsin
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
11. "Not stretching. Even 10 minutes a day can do wonders for your health."
—[redacted]
12. "If you're diagnosed with a chronic problem, such as congestive heart failure, diabetes, kidney failure, etc., we take a lot of time to teach you how to take care of yourself. Please, do follow the instructions. If you don't understand, please let us know so we can continue working with you. Do these things so you're not repeatedly readmitted to the hospital, because this will continue to happen until one day when you are wheeled out by the funeral home. We hate watching you slowly killing yourself."
—[redacted]
13. "TAKE YOUR MEDICINE IF IT IS PRESCRIBED TO YOU. I can't count the number of people I see who have a known issue, then develop another problem, and when I ask if they are taking their medications, they say, 'Well, I didn't think I needed them, so I stopped.' I don't care if you feel fine; if your blood pressure is 200/110, you can go from 'fine' to 'hemorrhaging into my brain' in a second."
14. "When you are prescribed antibiotics, take them as prescribed and don’t keep some extra so you can 'use them next time you’re sick.'"
"Also, if you are told to follow up on something, you should probably follow up on it...We don’t say to come back for no reason."
15. "Ignoring your irregular sleep patterns and not getting enough sleep overall!"
—Anonymous, 65, Arizona
16. "Do educate yourself on your health, your conditions, your medications, etc. It astounds me that people take prescriptions and don't know what they're for, or who don't know the basics of the conditions they've been diagnosed with. 'I dunno' is a common answer anymore. Why don't you know? Why don't you know things about your own body?"
"The internet is a vast research tool you should be using, and there are a plethora of ways you can utilize it to help you understand and make informed decisions about your health."
Related: 22 "Mild" Health Symptoms That People Often Ignore Until It's Just Way Too Late
And finally...
17. "Medical dietetics student here. A healthy diet includes VARIETY!!! Eat a variety of whole grains, nuts, beans, fruits, vegetables, and lean meats."
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
Doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals, what other "bad" health habits do people not realize are seriously harmful? Tell us in the comments, or if you prefer to remain anonymous, you can use the form below.
Also in Goodful: "NEVER Disclose This": Women Are Sharing The "Urgent" Safety Tips That Other Women Taught Them, And They're Crucial To Know
Also in Goodful: If You've Ever Been Called An Introvert, This Quiz Will Reveal Which Of The Four Types You Actually Are