Driving every day has become an inevitable habit, despite the traffic and the increasing number of accidents. You drive to work, to school, or any destination mostly for convenience. But how convenient is it, exactly?
Considering that everybody does it, we doubt you actually gain much time driving places. In fact, you lose a lot more than you can imagine. Let’s find out exactly what you have to lose driving every day and why you need to go for public transport.
7 Adverse Effects Of Driving Every Day
1. High Blood Pressure
Spending more time on the road causes a slowed circulation of blood in your body. This, along with having to face the stress factors, causes a temporary increase in bed pressure. This usually goes down as soon as you are done driving. But over the long term, high blood pressure can become a constant issue requiring medical attention.
2. Extreme Stress
You put yourself through a lot of stress driving every day, even if it’s for less than half an hour. This can due to the traffic, shitty fellow drivers, or just having to drive so much. Adding to it, you try to multitask, take calls, do a little bit of work, get some breakfast on the move, and what not. This increases your stress levels, sets an angry and tired mood for the rest of the day, and causes mental and physical fatigue.
3. Uncontrollable Anger
If you want to get to know a person, just get them to drive in the traffic for at least an hour! People are almost never calm when driving. With multiple things to keep track of, your brain is overworked, which results in a restlessness and anger that is hard to manage. And this anger will stay longer than you would want it to.
4. Ruined Posture And Body Pains
When driving, you concentrate on everything other than yourself. Doing so every day, along with having to sit at a desk for hours together, will completely wreck your posture. Your back, as a result, is slouched permanently, hardly ever straight, and results in chronic back pain issues.
And depending on your body’s constitution, even a few minutes’ worth of driving every day can slowly lead to joint pains.
5. Weight Gain And Obesity
This is more common in those who drive long hours. Driving for less than 2 hours a day might not directly lead to excessive weight gain, but it definitely is a contributing factor. Combined with the driving hours, most people tend to exercise less, eat in a hurry, eat junk, all of which lead to an increasing unhealthy weight gain.
6. Asthma And Lung Diseases
No matter how much it benefits you, there’s no justifying the poisonous gases you add to the atmosphere when you drive. You feel immune when inside your car. But on average, you inhale about 3400 gallons of this very polluted air every single day. So asthma and lung problems are just inevitable and you’re the cause of it.
7. Losing Precious Time
You lose out on time that could be used otherwise. Take public transport and learn something new, read that book you just haven’t been able to start, catch up on some sleep, or simply look out at the world passing by and give your thoughts a break.
Even if it takes a little more work, look for the easiest route to your destination every day via public transport. Increasing use of this would lead to improvement of the service as well. So take your life easy with no more stress than necessary, eat healthily and enjoy the process, and savor each moment of your life.
