[Amazing] 25 Things That Are A Lot More Serious Than People Think

Whether it’s a health issue, an environmental issue, or a geopolitical issue, there are a lot of things out there that are more serious than people realize. The problem is that quite often we are focused on the wrong ones. Everybody thinks that terrorism is the biggest threat facing their well-being when in reality it’s the sugar drink in their hand! These are 25 things that are a lot more serious than people think.

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Stress

Source: wikipedia, Image: http://ift.tt/1VlJjtB

Since it kicks your body into the biological equivalent of overdrive, you’re basically wearing out your system. What does this mean? Well, like a car you won’t last as long (aka decreased life expectancy). You’re also more prone to get heart disease, diabetes, and depression.

Concussions

Source: wikipedia, Image: http://ift.tt/2igVRJY

Second impact syndrome is when you get a second concussion before the first one has fully “healed”. The sudden swelling of the brain is usually fatal

Arthritis

Source: wikipedia, Image: http://ift.tt/2igK3aF

Particularly rheumatoid arthritis. It’s not something you can just take Tylenol for, it really changes your life. The reason for this is that rheumatoid arthritis can affect more than just your joints. It has the potential to also damage your skin, eyes, heart, lungs, and even blood vessels.

Power tools

Source: webmd, Image: http://ift.tt/2igPF4F

There’s a reason the professionals wear glasses/gloves/etc. Just because you’re doing stuff in your backyard doesn’t mean you should skimp on the safety. A lot of emergency room traumas boil down to carelessness. In fact, according to the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, power tools cause an average of 124,126 injuries in the United States every year.

Group think

Source: wikipedia, Image: http://ift.tt/2bwq05j

More colloquially known as herd mentality, this is the phenomenon that people in large groups are actually quite dumb, impulsive, and really bad at making decisions. As Kay said in Men in Black, “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.”

Psychological abuse

Source: wikipedia, Image: http://ift.tt/2ih1ZSv

There is a common stigma that if you weren’t being beaten then you don’t have anything to complain about. The crazy thing is that psychological and emotional abuse can sometimes be worse than physical abuse. From PTSD to suicide, a lot of these things can be traced back to mental abuse. Whether it’s bullying, parental neglect, or emotional bribery, it can all be quite damaging to a person.

Antibiotic resistance

Source: wikipedia, Image: http://ift.tt/2igLAO0

There are now strains of bacteria that are resistant to every single antibiotic we have. That is not good and can largely be chalked up to our overuse of the drugs, and not just in medicine but in fields as far ranging as agriculture.

Owning dogs

Source: nytimes, Image: http://ift.tt/2igTwPo

The amount of people that drop dogs off at shelters because they “aren’t cute anymore” or “they require too much attention” can be disheartening. According to the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), 3.9 million dogs enter shelters every year and 1.2 million of them are euthanized.

Diabetes

Source: webmd, Image: http://ift.tt/24NXazC

No, it doesn’t just mean that you can’t eat any more sugar. It means that you’ll go blind, your fingers wills start to rot and fall off, and you’ll have to get all the blood in your body constantly replaced by a machine. And then it will kill you. So if you’re lucky enough to not have type 1 diabetes, get out and exercise.

Dental hygiene

Source: webmd, Image: http://ift.tt/1SJoI2D

A few minutes every morning and evening is the difference between keeping your teeth and having to get fake ones. And fake teeth aren’t fun.

Depression

Source: wikipedia, Image: http://ift.tt/2igTkiQ

It’s not about being sad. It’s much worse than that. It’s the biochemistry in your brain getting all messed up. If you’ve never been clinically depressed then it’s hard to describe but it is biologically and chemically impossible to just “brighten up”

Being alone

Source: webmd, Image: http://ift.tt/2igUyL2

You think that it’s calming and to an extent it is. But being alone for too long will start to have some crazy effects on your brain. This is why solitary confinement is in fact quite brutal as far as punishments are concerned.

Sleep

Source: webmd, Image: http://ift.tt/2igQXfZ

Especially in modern society, people even brag about how little sleep they get. Unfortunately though, lack of sleep can lead to numerous illnesses and even lower your life expectancy

Texting while driving

Source: wikipedia, Image: http://ift.tt/1R7pODc

It’s one of the most dangerous things that the average person does on a daily basis. In fact, a good bit of car accidents can be chalked up to text messages. Imagine that…there are tens of thousands of people that are dead today because somebody had to send a “k”.

Ocean acidification

Source: wikipedia, Image: http://ift.tt/1LMqg8m

We’re on track for one of the most complex ecosystems on our planet to break down into nothingness. First to go? Coral reefs. The reason for this is that the oceans are absorbing high levels of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere which has been constantly decreasing the pH. To get a little technical, this is bad because marine calcifying organisms (like coral) have a hard time forming calcium carbonate. Put simply, coral has trouble forming in such conditions.

The number of prisoners in America

Source: wikipedia, Image: http://ift.tt/1M79gHe

The US has 5% of the world’s population but 25% of the world’s prison population. There are even for-profit prisons now. And most of those people are in for minor infractions. This hurts everybody, including taxpayers.

The bee die-off

Source: wikipedia, Image: http://ift.tt/29C5OJg

Thanks to insecticides and human caused climate disruption, a large number of bees are disappearing. This is not good considering that they are the primary pollinator for most forms of plant life. The UN has even warned that this could lead to food production problems considering that roughly 1/3 of our food supply is pollinated by bees.

Mass paranoia

Source: bbc, Image: http://ift.tt/2igPFlb

The idea that the world is getting more dangerous is patently false but very widespread. From crime to war, there is significantly less violence and death than there was even 50 years ago. In fact, in spite of “terrorism”, every single year has seen a significant drop in violence all around the world. We are living in the most peaceful and prosperous time in human history. It’s just that with the internet we now have all the bad things thrown in our face every day. Nevermind that those things were always there and there was much, much more of them.

Human trafficking

Source: wikipedia, Image: http://ift.tt/2igONgF

There are nearly 30 million slaves in the world today. Of course the world population is higher than it has ever been, but that is also more slaves than there have ever been in history. And slavery has been outlawed by almost every country.

OCD

Source: webmd, Image: http://ift.tt/2igWHGT

Although people who like to have things in order always talk about their “OCD”, it’s actually a quite serious disorder that can mess up your entire life. What’s more it has a lot of comorbidity with anxiety disorders and depression. If you really have OCD, medications and therapy may be the only thing that can give you your life back.

Added sugar

Source: webmd, Image: http://ift.tt/2igOMZY

If you drink anything that isn’t water, you are almost certainly consuming far more sugar than you should. And that isn’t good. In case you’re wondering why, go back and re-read what we wrote about diabetes

Sitting

Source: webmd, Image: http://ift.tt/2igOMcB

Yes, sitting. Many jobs today don’t involve much activity. And to add on to that, we sit in the car, we sit at home. Our society is very immobile. The fact is that sitting for more than even a few hours has some really negative consequences if it is done everyday for a really long time. Pro-tip: every hour get up and walk around for 5 minutes.

Suicide

Source: wikipedia, Image: http://ift.tt/2igONx0

This is especially a problem in the armed forces. In fact, more soldiers die these days from suicide than they do from actual conflicts

Diet

Source: webmd, Image: http://ift.tt/1EdLuMI

Most people don’t realize that most of their post-age-30 lives will be a direct consequence of their diet and lifestyle. If you don’t at least make an attempt to eat healthy you can fully expect every year to be worse than the last.