Categories
Health

Negative effects of dieting

Everyone wants to lose the extra calories they are carrying around, that’s a given – and this is exactly why select companies have gone into a diet overdrive by hyping their products as the perfect dieting product. The sheer variety of diet pills, diet plans and even changes to lifestyle can indeed be overwhelming to the lay consumer and chances are, so would you be. But the question as to the effectiveness of such diets and long-term effects on health are generally glossed over by these companies which is why we need to take a closer look at some of the negative aspects of dieting.

Negative effects of dieting

Metabolism: Often, most diet programs from the various diet plans to pills target your body’s metabolic rate; your metabolic rate is the rate at which your body burns through the various calories you had stored. The problem though is that most of these diets are short-term plans, designed to cut your calorie intake drastically. As a result, your metabolism does not slow down as hyped by these companies and instead it goes into an overdrive as it recognizes that you are in the starvation mode. The end result is that you may even put on a few pounds after your dieting period is over since your metabolism starts to store all the calories you have consumed.

Nutritional deficiencies: If you have been on a diet plan recently, then you would have noticed the prolonged periods where you feel extremely fatigued. Well, that’s your body’s way of telling you that you are not getting enough nutritional value. This is what happens when you go on a diet, you either cut back on carbs or those trans-fats but in the process, you also cut out essential nutrients that your body requires to function seamlessly.

High stress: Dieting is never easy and going prolonged periods without food or adequate nourishment is bound to leave you feeling completely stressed out. As a result, you are irritable, moody and feel extremely stressed. It is important that you take adequate measures to help deal with the stress since it can result in various other health conditions if left unchecked. High-stress levels are often quoted as one of the causative factors behind heart attacks and strokes.

Self-esteem: Your self-esteem often goes for a toss as you get into dieting; everyone has the perfect idea of what they should be like and try to conform to this perfect look is often one of the reasons why you opted to diet in the first place. The problem though is that dieting may cause you to experience everything from feeling guilty to thinking less of yourself as a person because you happen to be a little heavy. And dieting, on top of this, will only serve to cause your self-esteem to dip further.

These are some of the associated side effects that come with dieting and whether you choose to target the carbs or something else or opt or the Atkins diet. The fact remains that dieting comes with its own negative side effects.

Categories
Health

Negative effects of Molly

With rampant drug abuse being on the increase, it is no wonder that MDMA or Molly as it is more commonly called is now fast turning out to be one of the most abused recreational drugs of late if current trends hold. It is more commonly known as Ecstasy and it can help you to experience a psychedelic high within half hour of ingestion. MDMA causes you to experience various side effects from experiencing an immediate high, a rush, to hallucinations, time dilation effects and much more. What makes this worse is that ecstasy which is often the homemade variant is often made from various substances like methamphetamine, cocaine and Ketamine which makes it all the more harder to gauge the potency of the drug as well as estimating its side effects. This is why it is important to take a closer look at some of the negative effects associated with Molly.

Negative effects of Molly

Some of the negative effects of Molly

MDMA is today one of the most widely used recreational drugs and is known as a party drug for a good reason; the drug causes you to experience euphoric and energizing effects as it has a direct impact on three central brain chemicals such as Serotonin, Dopamine and Norepinephrine. While initially the effects of Molly were thought to be harmless it soon became evident that this drug came with its own brand of side effects with some of them being potentially life-threatening.

Short-term effects

These effects are short-term and can cause you to experience the same on ingesting the drug in question. It depends on the end user as they may have a heightened sensitivity to the drug in question.  You may experience the following side effects on immediately swallowing the drug – nausea, teeth clenching, mild to severe muscle cramps, excessive sweating, chills, body shakes, high body temperature and more. One of the most dangerous side effects of MDMA happens to be the rapid increase in body temperature and without immediate medical attention; this can directly impact all your major body organs and even cause organ failure.

Long-term damage

Prolonged exposure to this drug can help alter the chemical makeup of your brain itself; several studies have shown how long-term exposure to Molly had caused neuronal damage in rats. The extended neuronal damage can help explain some of the symptoms that users face, despite using molly on a regular basis – effects such as depression, sleep problems, increased anxiety, decreased appetite and lowered sexual appetite. It is assumed that most, if not all of these effects are but a direct result of long term use of Molly and the resulting neuronal damage to the brain. A few studies have even shown that heavy usage of Molly over prolonged periods can even impact your cognitive abilities.

These are some of the associated negative effects of consuming Molly as a party drug. The issue has assumed troubling proportions as current trends have shown that more teens are taking to this drug than ever before.

Categories
Society

Negative effects of 50-50 custody

When it comes to shared custody, it is the young children who are most impacted by it as they are caught in the crossfire between their parents. Divorce is hard, both emotionally and financially on both the husband and the wife. Once both the parties agree to separate, they can contest for sole custody but unless one party or the other can present concrete evidence of an unsafe environment, most courts would usually award the custody of children to both the parents; in other words, unless concrete evidence can be presented most courts opt for shared custody. But several studies by child specialists have shown that this form of shared custody is not normal and as a result, the young child may even suffer from identity disorder as a result. Here’s to taking a closer look at some of the negative effects of shared custody.

Negative effects of 50-50 custody

Loss of home: With shared custody children often have to shuffle between their mom’s home and their dad’s home. As a result, they feel the loss of their home, since all this constant shuffling between two homes leaves them disconnected and a loss of permanence.  Thanks to the shared custody, it is the kids who have to deal with the mess; all the constant moving between two homes leaves them feeling like the odd one out and makes them feel like a stranger out of place. This feeling is further enhanced with any changes to the current set up with either of their parents or both, remarrying again. As a result, most kids who have been tagged to suffer shared custody often grow up with this feeling of never belonging anywhere.

Lack of consistency: The period between 5 years of age until the kid attains maturity is often considered to be the most important one in a child’s development. It is around this time that the young child picks up his values, knows his preferences, including his likes and dislikes.  Sentencing such kids who are poised at an important stage of their development, to shared custody, only put them through additional stress. Moreover, kids need a certain amount of consistency and rules to build their lives around and with this shared custody and different rules around each place with new regulations, the child in question may find all of this overwhelming.

Extra expenditure: Often parents who share custody tend to spend more money on their kids than they had before. While it could be argued that the parents who do this, do so out of a sense of feeling guilty, but the fact remains that nearly 50% of the kids who had to put up with shared custody rarely go to college. This is mainly on account of the fact that they often overspend on their kids and no longer have the requisite funds to send them to a good college.

Depression: Some of the kids who experience shared custody often become depressed as a result. Unless corrective measures including counseling are taken, the depression may turn out to be a chronic health condition.

These are some of the negative effects of shared custody which is why we need to do all we can to better protect our children.

Categories
Business General

Negative effects of free trade

Free trade is meant to encourage trade and commerce by removing the various trade tariffs and making it possible for traders from all over the world to become more competitive. It is but natural for various countries to become more protective of their own products and hence the need for a centralized agency to monitor, regulate and to arbitrate in all trade-related disputes. That’s the reason why the world trade organization was created in the first place. But despite several free trade agreements being inked between several nations under the aegis of WTO, the negative effects of such agreements became more apparent over the decades.

Negative effects of free trade

Lowered wages:  Free trade agreements essentially imply that two or more nations are willing to remove various trade barriers, adjust or remove various trade tariffs so as to enable traders from these nations to be able to compete more effectively with each other. As a result, most free trade agreements are often viewed as a race to the bottom, where companies slash prices all across the board in order to compete effectively with others. As a result, most of these companies offset the basement prices by slashing wages and even forcing their workers to work in unhealthy and unsanitary conditions. Even a few US companies had recently been fined for the same, case in example, the Maquiladoras.

Illegal immigration: A few companies have started to employ illegal immigrants since they would not have any legal protection and that the company in question can pay them below the legal minimum wage. Hiring illegal migrants also means that the company would not have to pay any tax either. Surprisingly most companies attempt to hire illegal migrants and utilize the various benefits in order to compete more effectively on the global market.

Child labor: As local companies slash wages in order to make their products more competitive in the global market, one of the unexpected byproducts of such a move was the renewed focus on child labor with more children being hired than ever before. Child labor is illegal but local governments often lack the adequate manpower to prevent the same. One reason why children are hired in place of adults is that they are nimble and are only paid half of what an adult worker earns.

Environmental damage: As local farmers attempt to compete effectively with their counterparts across the world, there is a renewed focus to increase the production yield. As a result, more tracts of forested land and natural habitats are being cleared across the world at an alarming rate. A recent study highlighted the fact that several species, both flora and fauna face an immediate threat of extinction as a result of the loss of their natural habitats. And if this continues the same way, then our environment and even our way of life would be in immediate danger.

These are some of the negative effects of free trade and more often than not, it is the underdeveloped nations that had to pay the price of entering into a free trade agreement with a developed nation.

Categories
General

Negative effects of procrastination

All of us have procrastinated at one point or the other, and chances are that you have done the same. Procrastination is the act of delaying a certain action until later but the problem is that the ‘later’ in question never arrives.  And while this is not a character trait that you should seek to emulate the fact remains that procrastination comes with its own negative effects that can have lifelong consequences for you as an individual.

Negative effects of procrastination

  • Loss of opportunities: As a result of procrastination, you are bound to lose out on several opportunities that come across your way. While at that point it may have seemed like a great idea to shelve the opportunity for later, the problem is that the ‘later’ never comes and you are bound to blow out a precious opportunity, one that could have helped to set your career on a new trajectory altogether.
  • Loss of time: Often, you are bound to become aware that you are procrastinating and as a result, you realize that you have lost valuable time that you could have better utilized for something else altogether. While it is a good thing to become aware of when you are procrastinating, the fact remains that you cannot go back in time and any time you have lost as a result of your procrastination, is lost forever.
  • Shoddy time management: If you happen to procrastinate regularly, then chances are that you would suck at time management or any activity that requires you to finish tasks in a given period.
  • Goal setting: As a result of your tendency to procrastinate often, you would not be able to accomplish most of your goals. As a result of this action on your part, you would not be able to achieve your complete potential and would have to make do with what you can, for the moment.
  • Career: If you continue to procrastinate regularly, then chances are that your career will take a hit. NO company likes to retain employees who cannot manage the most simple of tasks or schedules, and are not motivated enough to improve themselves or their career. A proven ability to meet deadlines on time or even monthly targets can result in your termination and soon it will only be a matter of time before you find it hard to land a job anywhere.
  • Lowered self-esteem: Often when you procrastinate, you are bound to ask yourself why you feel that you cannot do a certain task and as a result, both desperation and lowered self-esteem sets in. And if you are a habitual procrastinator, then this can result in chronic depression and total lack of self-esteem.

These are some of the negative effects of procrastination; the fact remains that no one is immune to this and everyone would have procrastinated at one point of time or the other. You need to do all you can to combat the insidious effects of procrastination and take effective measures at the earliest.

Categories
Education General Society

Negatives of extracurricular activities

Extra-curricular activities can help provide the student with a well-rounded education; often it can help the student to develop new activities, a new skill set and even help set his career on a new trajectory altogether. But often these activities come with their own baggage which is why you may want to take a closer look at some of the negative aspects of the same before you enroll your child in more extra-curricular activities.

Negatives of extracurricular activities

Stress: While most extra-curricular activities can be fun and help the student to better bond with their peers – the fact remains that most students are often over stressed as a result of their classes. And more to the point, most of these students are often loaded with lots of homework which leaves them with a little free time. And if you were to enroll your children in several extra-curricular activities, then this can have unintended consequences, such as over stressing your child.

Time management: Chances are that your kid already finds it hard to juggle his busy schedule and getting him into several activities outside of school can further cause him to miss classes, and even be late when submitting his homework. Time management is essential especially during school as the student often needs to set aside several hours to finish his projects, his homework and to revise his lessons. Extra-curricular activities can eat into this and impact his time management, and as a result, his school performance will take a hit.

Health: While extra-curricular activities can help your kid pick up new interests, ones that will stay with him for the rest of his life – it should also be pointed out that such activities can also lead to developing injuries on the field. There have been several instances of children getting hurt while taking part in extra-curricular activities and while the activities on their own do not pose any inherent danger; they can nevertheless put your kid at risk of getting hurt in accidents.

Studies: It is advisable not to enroll your kid in extracurricular activities during his final year of schooling as he needs to completely focus on his studies. Taking part in one too many extra-curricular activities will cause your kid to lose focus and concentration on his studies. Moreover, there is the danger of becoming too involved in a physical activity, which can further impact your child’s focus and concentration on his studies. The final year of schooling is the most important one in any kid’s life; it is this year that can help decide your kid’s career. His school grades assume significance since most colleges use this as well as the results of standardized tests to review the college application. In fact, he would have to maintain a GPA of 3.5 and above in order to get admission into a good college or university.  And concentrating on extra-curricular activities can impact your kids’ performance both in his school as well as when taking the standardized tests.

This is why it is important to understand the dangers that extra-curricular activities can pose so that you can take an informed decision on the same.

Categories
General

Negative effects of online dating

Online dating is the perfect way for shy and reserved people to meet their viable partners; the setup is fairly simple. All you would have to do is to register and upload a recent picture or video of yourself, enter relevant information and the dating site, will use its algorithm to pick out a viable partner for you. Once it does, both the users would receive notification of viable match and then they use the platform to further communicate with each other and even set up a date so that they can meet in person. All of that sounds like a dream and in most cases, such online dating sites do help provide an essential service by enabling extremely reclusive couples to meet their viable partners. But of late, the dangers of online dating seem to be on an increase as well.

Negative effects of online dating

One of the dangers of online dating is that most of these dating sites utilize little by way of account authentication and verification. So you never know who the other person is since most users lie on their dating profile. But a disturbing trend had shown up on these online dating sites, wherein certain criminal elements had taken to these sites to prey on the vulnerable and the young. In fact, a recent study highlighted the fact that many sexual predators have started moonlighting on these dating sites, in order to prey on the vulnerable. And the fact that the victim is either too young or not aware of her rights or is extremely reclusive often results in the crime going unreported for years on end. Such incidences sadly seem to be on the rise, more so in the last few decades despite the advanced account authentication protocols that the dating sites can use to protect their members.

This is why it is important that you take effective measures to both protect yourself and your loved ones when sharing information with someone through online dating sites like Tinder. You can always ask the other party to provide more information, of the verifiable kind that can help you authenticate his or her identity. And never choose to meet on a blind date, rather try to establish a rapport and discover what you can about the other person before you agree to meet up for a dinner or a movie and always take someone along with you on that first date.

It is important that you are aware of the dangers and limitations of online dating; it is not as if online dating is dangerous and that using such a site can cause you to be attacked. Rather, most online dating sites use little to verify the identity of its users and this can increase your risk of being attacked and taken advantage of, by predators. In the end, you are responsible for your actions and you will have to take additional measures to ensure that you are meeting a real person one who is just looking to connect with you and for a fun date, no more, no less.