40 Habits Doctors Don’t Recommend Doing After 40

1. You like using bar soap

Once you hit 40, using one bar of soap to clean every inch of your body is not quite a good idea, even if you always did so. One soap to cleanse everything just doesn’t seem to work anymore.

First of all, bar soap is usually full of bacteria, says Bobbi Del Balzo, a medical aesthetician at Deep Blue Med Spa in New York. Secondly, by using a soap bar, you imbalance your skin’s natural pH, so your skin will probably feel dehydrated and dry.

Also, cleansing your skin with a bar soap doesn’t exfoliate your skin like it should, resulting in dry skin build-ups. Therefore, let go of the bar soap and you’ll see your skin looking better than ever.

2. You’re cleaning your ears by using cotton swabs

According to Dominique Malinowski, a hearing instrument specialist at Robillard Hearing Centres in Canada, adults often damage their ears by not cleaning them properly. Most people still use cotton swabs for cleaning their ears and removing wax, even though it’s definitely not the right way to do it.

I think most people don’t realize that you can cause serious damage to the eardrum, and in some cases, it could lead to permanent hearing loss. And no, I wasn’t suggesting that you shouldn’t clean your ears at all, just use other methods.

According to Malinowski, the best option would be going to the doctors and let them remove the earwax, this way you won’t damage your eardrum. Or you can buy your own ear was removal aid and do it yourself at home.

3. Complaining about the signs of aging

Donna Matthezing, RN, founder of Compassionate Care in the Air urges people to love every wrinkle on their skin, every grey hair, and all the laugh lines. While the idea of getting old doesn’t appeal to anybody, your wrinkles should remind you all the great times you had in your life, all the happy moments you shared with your loved ones.

Additionally, adults who viewed aging as a beautiful, natural and positive process had 50 percent fewer chances to develop dementia as they got older, compared who those who’ve seen aging as something negative, a 2018 study published in the journal PLOS One showed.

4. You let negative people be part of your life

I think 40 is the perfect age to let go of toxic people. You’ve had enough and now is the time to move on. According to a 2020 study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society, just one negative person in your life, like a family member or a friend, can double your chances of being unhappy and depressed.

While you can’t eliminate family members from your life even if they’re toxic, Matthezing suggests setting some boundaries and trying to spend as little time as possible in their presence.

5. You’re always comparing yourself to others

“Comparison is the thief of all joy,” Matthezing said, invoking Eleanor Roosevelt. You should never compare yourself to others, you’re you and you followed your own path. No one is like you, and that is your power.

“When we can get honest and truthful about how we are limited by our own ideas of what a 40-plus-year-old should look like, we can commit to how we want to look and feel for ourselves, not someone else’s version of us,” Matthezing explains.

6. You don’t protect your eardrums

As you get older, you start to understand how important it is to protect your eardrums and take care of your ear canals. According to Malinowski, you can start by simply using earplugs when there are loud noises, like concerts and loud pubs, for example.

If you’re using earplugs and still begin experiencing hearing loss, you should make a doctor’s appointment as soon as possible and make sure there are no underlying conditions, Malinowski suggests.

7. Be thankful

Youngsters tend to neglect to say “thank you” as often as they should, and it’s an indicator of immaturity. But as you get older, is not about immaturity anymore, it’s about manners and health.
As data from a 2013 study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences showed, verbal gratitude has a major psychological effect on older people.

8. You allow negative thoughts to torture you

If you didn’t know, negative thoughts affect your health more than you’d think. And by the time you reach 40, you need to be very careful with your health and wellbeing.
Allowing negative thoughts to get to you is linked to the development of chronic illnesses like heart disease, according to a 2019 study from the American Heart Association.