This weekend, while watching the NFL games - watching Trevor Lawrence's head hit the turf after an illegal hit, watching Christian McCaffrey's knee fail again - I found myself wondering all over again about human health and the factors that affect it. Professional sports are incredibly risky in terms of health, but at least athletes are well paid.
However, there are also many factors that gradually affect our bodies in a negative way, year after year, continuing this destructive process - until we finally realize how much we have undermined our health. There is a special online thread dedicated to such factors, and we, Bored Panda, are making a selection of the most relevant opinions from there.
More info: Reddit
#1
I was a college athlete. We were told that pain was temporary but pride was forever.
I've had three orthopedic surgeries, one of which wasn't successful and from which I went septic. I was diagnosed with arthritis before I was 20. My knees are shot. I have more cracks, pops, and stiffness than people 10+ years older than me.
As it turns out, the pain is forever and comes with compounding interest.
Image credits: OptmstcExstntlst
#2
Getting bitten by a tick. Now I have chronic fatigue and nerve damage as a result of a Lyme infection.
Image credits: Onironaute
#3
Pregnancy.
I had twins. I got HUGE in the tummy. I had the babies, and it left this pot belly that wouldn't go away.
Fast forward; the twins are 8 years old. I am 7 weeks post op of having my diastisis recti corrected. You know that centre line down the abs? Mine had split. There was a 6 to 8 inch gap down the middle THE WHOLE WAY DOWN. the pot belly that I kept punishing myself for, the baby fat i couldnt lose? Those were my organs. My digestive organs were all herniated.
I now have to forgive myself for 8 years of unjustified self hatred. It isn't always just fat.
Image credits: LucidianQuill
The original thread, which appeared in the AskReddit community 10 days ago, already has 12K upvotes so far, and over 8.5K comments with folks giving their ideas on what permanently alters one's body without them even realizing. Among the listed factors are both very common ones, like stress, lack of sleep or poor nutrition, and quite unexpected ones - such that we would hardly have suspected them, at least before reading this selection.
#4
Being kept 100% out of the sun as a kid. I wasn’t given vitamin D supplements either, so my bones are pretty fragile and break easily and my enamel is delicate and shears off if my teeth close too hard. My body never sequestered calcium properly as a kid and there’s nothing I can do about it as an adult.
My mom thought she was protecting me from skin cancer but she was really dooming me to a life of bone fractures and bad teeth.
Image credits: kyreannightblood
#5
I been having various health issues for years turns out I have a brain tumor that's been trying to [end] me , the f****r that he is .
Image credits: bigjbg1969
#6
Listening to music WAY too loud with headphones on when younger.
Definitely lead to hearing loss and hearing aids.
Image credits: plytime18
For example, sports. Sports are traditionally considered an opportunity to improve your health, strengthen your body - but in the list of opinions given here, sports ranks high. So what’s the reason? Most likely, there are two factors. The first is that sports at a professional or semi-professional level are really fraught with serious health problems.
Let's take football, for example. A large-scale study conducted by American universities in 2024 showed that out of about 2 thousand former NFL players, about a third believe they have chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), associated with repeated head trauma, and which in modern medicine can, unfortunately, only be confirmed through a postmortem exam of the brain.
And the entire evolution of football helmets, which today are real works of engineering art, still has not able to cope with this problem. And this is not to mention the countless injuries to other parts of the body that not only football players, but also representatives of other sports face.
#7
Dentist had to yank out a wisdom tooth. The yank, somehow, damaged my jaw. The jaw is now permanently pressed upwards and had pushed stuff around so it impacts most of the right side of my face.
My jaw now pops on that side. I've lost about 60% of hearing in that ear. And I get massive dizzy spells now.
That was 25 years ago.
Image credits: OgreMk5
#8
My parents had the kids do a lot of manual labor, starting when I was only 5 or 6. Not just helping in the yard, but actual landscaping work. My brother and I once had to haul rocks in those 10lbs buckets from a dumpster to the egress windows 300 yards away. Being so little, we had no idea about posture, lifting with your legs, etc. We both have chronic back, shoulder, knee, and neck pain and have the beginning symptoms of arthritis. We're only 21 and 26 now. Makes me mad that I hurt myself when I was so little, doing work that the adults should have been doing.
Image credits: blackberriespastries
#9
Depression is one hell of thing.
Image credits: secretwar8
The second factor associated with sports is that even people who are not professionally involved in physical activity often neglect the advice of doctors and trainers when drawing up a plan for their training. As a result, for example, a person with a chronically sore back or knees can do numerous barbell lifts. With all the ensuing consequences.
A detailed medical examination before starting to exercise could help - but not all people are ready to do this. Unfortunately...
#10
Turns out a stint of bulimia in your teenage years can really f**k up your teeth.
Image credits: pumpkinn00ds
#11
Casual drinking. I’m 7 months pregnant and it’s amazing how much weight I’ve lost and how drastically different my face looks in pictures. I’m not going back to drinking after giving birth.
Image credits: Deliciouscheesyrolup
#12
Not getting enough sleep.
Image credits: 84OrcButtholes
By and large, each of the problems listed here could be discussed for hours, giving one evident example after another, but the main thing here is that a person should treat their health more responsibly from the very beginning. In the end, we can change almost anything in our lives, but the body in which we came into this world remains with us until the very end.
In fact, this is the only non-renewable resource that is at our disposal, so all we can do is try to use this resource as rationally as possible. Not to the detriment of all the joys of life, of course, but also not to waste our health thoughtlessly and on trifles.
#13
Bad posture/rounding shoulders to minimize my chest. Now I have neck pain, shoulder pain, lower back pain - ugh.
Image credits: Sufficient-Berry-827
#14
Stress.
Image credits: redstonez
#15
Acting like you’ll never feel the dumb s**t you did when you were younger.
I’m about to turn 30. Years of motocross, motorcycle accidents, lifting s**t improperly, smoking/vaping, welding with limited ventilation, poor diet, moderate alcohol use, etc. I’ve had so many “new” pains or issues pop up just this year I’m legitimately worried I might joke make it to 60. Or if I somehow hold together I won’t hold up mentally and check out.
Image credits: bosshawg502
In any case, we’re almost sure that this selection will be useful for you. So please feel free to scroll and read it to the very end, every word and every story cited here. Who knows, maybe this list will really help you avoid some serious health problems in the future? After all, learning from someone else's experience can be helpful and wholesome.
#16
Grief. 4 years ago I lost someone i loved. I went from attractive and fit to overweight and obvious signs of aging. I don't even look like the same person anymore. Like the happy version of me died that day and this is all that is left.
Image credits: weewillyboo
#17
Had breast implants removed after decades. Left a slightly concave space because over time the ribs get deformed from the pressure of the implants.
Image credits: SnooFloofs9030
#18
Dating the wrong person.
Image credits: ophulsian
#19
Burn out. I was so afraid of losing everything that i stretched myself to my actual collapse. Five years later I can still feel the damage my brain sustained from that period of my life and I still lost everything and had to start over.
If I could give any advice to people out there. If you are burning out with no projected relief in sight, do yourself a favor and know when to cut your losses so you can use your Tim and energy restrategizing.
Image credits: AlpharoTheUnlimited
#20
Obstructive Sleep Apnoea. When you already know you have some mental troubles, you think that explain your drowsiness & low mood and don't look for more issues. It does not only hurt your cardio-vascular system, it may slowly destroy your life.
If your are overweighted/obese, snore at night and/or feel sleepy all day, go see your doctor.
Edit : Added and/OR because as many of you relevantly said, weight is an important factor but not always necessary.
Image credits: cyb_30
#21
I know this sounds stupid, but being fat. I recently lost 160 lbs, and I never truly appreciated its effect on my body, from not having to buy shoes as much due to the pressure on my feet to my body posture to how tired I would be from walking up a flight of stairs. When you are overweight, you don't fully appreciate that until after you lose the weight, I found.
Image credits: Nickorl7318
#22
Wearing tight shoes every day gave me bunions, but I didn’t realize the cause until years later.
Image credits: Pitiful-Bake5470
#23
A few years of Crossfit have left me with permanent knee and shoulder pain. Heavy weights shouldn't be lifted for time, your form inevitably goes to hell and you set yourself up for joint injuries.
Image credits: Mr_Lumbergh
#24
Untreated sprain. My ankle is still bad.
Image credits: Moho_braccatus_
#25
First girlfriend dying. Permanent irreversible damage to my emotional systems lol. I was just a boy , ain't felt truly happy/ content for an extended period of time since. It'll be a decade in January 2025.
Image credits: unsupervisedwerewolf
#26
Waxing my eyebrows to the same thin shape for 20 years.
Image credits: LV4Q
#27
Covid. I developed long covid 2 months after recovering from acute infection. It’s more common than most people think.
Image credits: kitty60s
#28
Barely eating anything at all for 1-2 years. Now I have skin issues due to f*****g up my hormones, stomach and digestion problems and an unhealthy relationship with food. I also have been having random pains since then and have developed body image issues which I didn't have prior to that. Wouldn't say it's permanent, but it has been over a year and it's physically not getting much better. Also, d***s (illicit and psychiatric) f*****g up my brain chemistry.
Image credits: pleaselobotomiseme
#29
I have nerve damage in my hand from cuddling my wife and falling asleep with my arm under her head. It doesn't affect my range of motion at all anymore, but for a while it hurt to move my hand in a certain way. The only lasting effect right now is numbness/no feeling on my hand in-between the knuckles of my pointer and middle finger.
Image credits: SrHuevos94
#30
Not taking care of my skin when I was younger. And playing catcher for softball screwed up my knees.
Image credits: PuzzleheadedPitch420
#31
Hormonal birth control.
Image credits: eliz1bef
