I’m a doctor — here are 4 things I would never do because they’re bad for your body
She’s giving her TikTok followers the 4-1-1 on four bad habits to avoid.
Dr. Jess Andrade, a sports medicine specialist and pediatrics doctor in Massachusetts, is sharing the four activities she won’t do — vape, pull an all-nighter, exercise for less than 150 minutes a week and consume too many artificial ingredients and preservatives.
Vaping
To prove her point, Andrade showed a picture of popcorn lung — the nickname for bronchiolitis obliterans, a lung condition that makes breathing difficult because of damage to small airways.
Johns Hopkins Medicine reports that the culprit is diacetyl, a chemical that was widely used to give popcorn its buttery flavor. Now it’s added to the liquid in some flavored e-cigarettes to evoke a buttery or creamy taste.
It seems that some teens are already taking Andrade’s advice to quit vaping.
Data from September shows that 1.63 million US middle and high school students (5.9%) reported using an e-cigarette in the past 30 days compared to 2.13 million (7.7%) in 2023.
This is good news since besides bronchiolitis obliterans, vaping can cause lung cancer, organ damage, heart disease, asthma, breathing problems and other conditions.
Not sleeping for 24 hours
“Pulling all-nighters or not sleeping for 24 hours — the same as being legally drunk,” Andrade wrote in her June post.
Driving with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08% or more is considered driving while intoxicated.
Being awake for 17 hours mimics a BAC of 0.05%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC says being awake for 24 hours is similar to having a BAC of 0.10%.
Experts recommend getting seven to nine hours of sleep a night. A study published this week finds that the effects of a restless night can linger on our brains for days.
In the long term, poor sleep has been linked to a higher risk of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, anxiety and other chronic health problems.
Not exercising enough
According to the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, adults should aim for 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity and two days of muscle strengthening a week.
Andrade said not reaching that threshold raises your risk of several diseases including heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, colon, breast and uterine cancers, along with obesity, high blood pressure and stroke.
Consuming too many artificial ingredients
Artificial ingredients and preservatives are often found in processed foods — the bad apples in a diet.
Eating too many ultra-processed foods can lead to obesity, diabetes, depression, heart disease, heart attacks, stroke and high blood pressure.
