Celebrity Health Changers

Celebrity Health Changers

Celebrity Health Changers, President Obama & Portia de Rossi are among the celebs who made healthy moves. Take this quiz to see how much you know about the benefits of seven behavior changes. The lifestyles of the rich and famous aren’t always the healthiest ones. Late-night parties, drug and alcohol binges, smoking and bad eating habits can all be harmful to your health and take years off your life. Here, some behaviors that are common among the stars, and how changing them can result in dramatic health improvements and increased longevity.

Smoking

According to the American Lung Association, 90 percent of lung cancer deaths can be directly linked to cigarette smoking. Cigarette addiction can also a host of other conditions — such as emphysema, heart disease, stroke, infertility, throat, stomach and pancreatic cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The good news? Kicking the habit can radically change that outcome.

Eating a vegetarian or vegan diet

Former President Bill Clinton had a legendary appetite — and a famously omnivorous diet that included extra helpings of fast food, barbecue, french fries and doughnuts. But after being diagnosed with heart disease and undergoing a quadruple bypass operation in 2004, Clinton committed to completely revamping his diet. Now he eats an essentially vegan diet — with no meat, no dairy and no eggs. And that could literally be a lifesaver for him:

Studies have shown that eliminating animal protein can lead to improvements in health. How? What is the recommended amount of protein in the daily diet?

Drug addiction

While celebrities with high-profile drug habits have their addictions — and related transgressions—tirelessly chronicled in the press, their struggles and health risks are really no different from any other drug users. Take cocaine, for example. This popular recreational drug is responsible for more visits to the ER than any other illegal drug. And that’s not surprising when you consider the drug’s effect on nervous system:

It increases heart rate and blood pressure and constricts the arteries that pump blood to the heart. What can this result in? It also constricts blood vessels to the brain. What can this cause?

Snorting it damages nasal passages, and it can also contribute to stomach ulcers and cause sudden kidney failure. Quitting successfully is tough because it’s so highly addictive, but doing so will reverse many of its negative health impacts.

Tanning

Even the notoriously golden browned stars of “Jersey Shore” have wised up to the dangers of ultraviolet (UV) rays. After a dermatologist from The Skin Cancer Foundation visited the cast, former tanning bed addict Snooki renounced her UV habit and now claims to get her glow exclusively from much-safer spray-on tans. Among the scary facts that encouraged the change:

Frequent tanners have an increased risk of deadly melanoma, and some high-pressure sunlamps can emit as much as 12 times the UVA radiation of the sun. Check out this staggering factoid on the yearly incidents of new skin cancer cases.

Staying up all night

It’s one thing when late nights are a partying celebs choice, but for some stars—as well as many regular folks — lack of sleep is due to insomnia, not after-hours clubbing. But no matter what the cause, not logging a full night of zzz’s can contribute to numerous health issues:

According to the National Sleep Foundation, getting too few hours increases your risk of obesity, diabetes, heart problems, depression and substance abuse. And then there are the more obvious side effects of being chronically exhausted — like an increased risk of getting in a car accident, trouble dealing with distractions and difficulty learning.

Excessive drinking

Alcohol fuels many a Hollywood party, but dozens of celebs have also renounced the hard stuff—many after much-publicized trips to posh rehab facilities. And while moderate drinking has been linked to some positive health benefits, chronic alcohol abuse is nothing but trouble:

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 79,000 deaths each year in the U.S. can be attributed to excessive alcohol consumption.

Starving yourself

The pressure to be stick thin is everywhere, but no one feels it more than celebrities — whose most microscopic bulges are under the constant focus of the papparazzi’s zoom lens. But when mere dieting turns into a full-blown eating disorder, that unhealthy obsession can take a serious toll.

According to the National Association of Anorexia and Associated Disorders, a sizeable percentage of anorexics die from complications related to their disease.