Did you enjoy drinking your favorite soft drink today? How about staying up late last night? You may be aware of what the long term effects of these habits are, but you still do them, or maybe you aren’t even aware of the consequences. Drinking soda constantly, lack of sleep, cranking to your tunes, bad posture and eating junk food every day are all bad habits that can do serious damage to your health, but with a little moderation you can help yourself in the long wrong.

        Soft drinks may taste great, but, no matter what soda you drink, whether it is Coca Cola or Pepsi, it isn’t healthy. Drinking soda can cause tooth decay, nutritional depletion, obesity, type two diabetes and even heart disease. The main reason that soda is bad for you is because it is jammed packed with sugar. When this much sugar is consumed, your pancreas will produce and release more insulin, which will empty the sugar in your bloodstream and dump it into your tissues and cells for energy. This will raise your insulin levels, which can lead to your immune system weakening, causing you to be more susceptible to disease. With the excess sugar not being able to be absorbed by the tissues and cells it all ends up turning into fat. This doesn't mean you can’t ever drink soda, but simply drink it in moderation. Healthy alternatives can be water, fruit juice and even tea.

        Staying up late every night texting your friends or watching television, then waking up early, doesn't do much good for you. Immediate side effects are headaches, bags forming around the eyes and trouble concentrating. Physiological side effects are irritability, memory lost, and dizziness. Serious side effects could include obesity, healing abilities, clumsiness and mood swings. These side effects do not always happen right away, but if staying up late is a regular part of your lifestyle, it can cause major long term health problems.

        You heard it. You sat across a room from someone jamming out to music and you can perfectly hear the lyrics. Blasting your tunes through headphones can cause major damage to your hearing. The waves and vibrations of the music pound into your delicate eardrums, located close behind the hammer and anvil. Sound, which is collected by your outside, visible ear, travels through the outer ear canal. Your eardrum then vibrates as well as the three mini bones around it: the anvil, hammer and stirrup, which are all named due to their shapes. This vibration goes to the cochlea, which has many little hairs that have nerve signals sent to the brain. If you listen to loud music, the hairs fall off and you gradually lose your ability to hear. There is no way to prevent this from happening, but people can understand the consequences from playing loud music and they can prevent it for themselves by listening to music at a lower volume or limiting their time being exposed to loud music.

        This may be a big shocker, but everyone does it and seems not to notice that they are doing it: slouching when you are sitting or even when you are standing. Not having good body posture can take a toll on your body in the long run. Basically, what a straight posture does is neutralize the natural force that keeps you on the ground: gravity. It’s the same principle that keeps every object standing: balance of forces. If you’re not standing straight, you’re forcing some parts of your body to make this great effort, while making others useless. Thus, when you have bad posture, the structure of your body suffers certain changes that start to damage it.  Ask someone who doesn’t stand up straight, and they’ll tell you they’re used to the aching caused by back pain. This happens due to the negative effects that gravity has on the spine when it’s not neutralized. Long term effects of bad posture are digestion problems, breathing difficulties, muscles being weakened, joint and ligament pain and low body performance such as exhaustion, moody, and headaches.

        Everyone loves junk food and fast food. It all tastes great, so why not eat it? Eating junk food regularly can have a serious impact on your health, including low energy, weight gain and other illnesses. Most junk food is high in sugar, salt and saturated fat, so it hardly provides the body with much needed nutrients. The lack of nutrients can cause you to lose concentration, effect your mood and even cause depression. The funny thing is that when most people are depressed they eat their "comfort" food, which is usually a junk food; this does not help you at all. The health consequences are too great to be ignored, but it's very difficult to quit eating junk food. Portions and moderation are the key and, if you can do that, then you can enjoy that burger or bag of chips once in a while without worrying.