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HOMES, COLD AND DAMP
Living in a cold, damp house can lead to premature death, physical and mental illness, and impaired quality of life. |
HOMES, NEW
Studies in the U.K. and Australia found that people in new homes were exposed to very high levels of carcinogenic chemicals such as formaldehyde and styrene leaking into the air out of carpets, floors, and paints. Real estate agents being what they are, they probably charged you extra for that new-house smell. |
HOMES, OLD
And guess what? That doesn't mean it's good news if you're too broke to buy a new house. Houses built before 1950 are likely to have lead-based paints that can give children lead poisoning. In America, 4.4 percent of children have dangerous levels of lead in their blood, often resulting in damage to the central nervous system, a decrease in IQ, attention deficit disorder, behavioral disturbances, and other problems. |
HOMES IN THE WOODS
People who built houses with large yards in wooded areas accounted for a sharp increase in cases of Lyme disease in the late 1990s. This probably wasn't included in your vision of your romantic woodland getaway. |
HOMOSEXUALITY
Even if you don't believe what the televangelists say (and you shouldn't), homosexuality is bad for you. Suicide rates for young lesbians and gay men are considerably higher than the rates for heterosexuals. |
HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY
Hormone replacement therapy is associated with an increased risk of asthma and recurrent major coronary events. Anyway, think about it: this is the hormone that once made you kiss a Donny Osmond poster good night. Why would you want it back? |
HORSEBACK RIDING
Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys: men can become impotent from riding horses. Like the song says, "they're always alone, even with someone they love." (So why were the women the ones who rode sidesaddle?) |
HOSPITALS
Now here's one you didn't expect: hospitals are bad for you. Medical errors in hospitals kill between forty-eight thousand and ninety-eight thousand people and injure a million more each year in the U.S. Errors in medications alone affect one patient in twenty. In addition, infections acquired in hospitals affect approximately two million people annually (a rate of infection up 36 percent in the past twenty years), and are among the leading causes of death in the United States. In the U.K., a study found that more than one patient in every ten admitted to a hospital suffered some sort of harm while there, from minor infections to death, as a result of drugs being injected in the wrong part of the body. And (figure this one out) patients who have a stroke while in a hospital are more likely to die than patients who are admitted following a stroke. |
HOSTILITY
Young adults who score high on measures of hostility are 2.5 times more likely than less hostile people to have heart disease ten years later. This is known as "karma." |
HOTEL CLERK, BEING A
Hotel clerks have unusually high rates of death from homicide and asthma. On convention days, these could feel like blessings. |
