Can fixing certain everyday habits in your lifestyle lead to improved health? According to Dr Aida Taye, MD, a decade as a hormone gland (endocrine) surgeon taught her to avoid certain habits that she has seen her patients suffer from.
In a post shared on July 24, she listed 10 lifestyle habits she follows diligently to avoid future health complications. Dr Aida posted her list in reply to one of her followers’ questions: “Is there anything you avoid in your life that’s influenced by what you’ve seen in your work?” To which the expert replied, “Every item on this list, I learned the hard way, in someone else’s body first.”
1. Alcohol
According to the endocrinologist, she has quit drinking and has been sticking with her decision for eight years, even the occasional glass. Citing a 2025 Alcohol and Cancer Risk advisory issued by the US Surgeon General, Dr Aida stressed that drinking alcohol is linked to breast, oesophageal, and colon cancer, and it causes fatty liver, which messes with how your body clears estrogen.
2. Endocrine disruptors at home
Dr Aida underlined that she does not keep any endocrine disruptors at home: “No gel manicures with TPO (the ingredient is banned in Europe), barely any polish, nothing toxic under the sink, no PVC shower curtains, checking flame retardants in mattresses and couches.” Moreover, she stressed that anything that comes into her home or she uses gets run through the Environmental Working Group first. It is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organisation dedicated to helping people live their healthiest lives.
3. Letting cortisol run your off days
According to Dr Aida, she does not allow ‘cortisol to run her Saturdays’. “No more sprinting between parties and brunches to prove I showed up. Now it’s the forest house, family, meditation, and books,” she stressed.
4. Drama
According to the expert, she also avoids any drama in her life: “Gossip, complaining, toxic energy, I step aside.” She does this because all of these habits spike cortisol, and “elevated cortisol wrecks your hormones”.
5. Ignoring labs
Often, we get our labs done and, after receiving the results, we sit on them for a long time, either out of fear or for lack of time. However, Dr Aida stressed she has stopped doing that to herself, adding, “Low vitamin D and ferritin, I don’t let patients shrug those off, and I stopped doing it myself. Prescription strength vitamin D, watching my thyroid too.”
6. Skipping strength training
The endocrinologist does not skip strength training, either. Sharing her schedule, she wrote, “5 am, three to four times a week. I used to limit my diet and still gain weight. The fix wasn’t less food, it was muscle.”
7. Staying up late to ‘decompress’
Many of us, after a late shift or tiring day, stay up late to decompress ourselves. However, Dr Aida stressed that she has stopped doing that. Instead, she is in her bed, and it is lights out by 8:45 pm or 9 pm. “Traded Netflix for books,” she added.
8. Overbuilding my calendar and calling it community
“This job of overbuilding my calendar and calling it community costs me milestones. What’s left goes to whoever’s actually in front of me,” Dr Aida shared, expressing that it is okay to delegate some tasks to others and not do things at the cost of your health.
9. Skipping breakfast
Skipping breakfast is one of the worst habits you can pick up, and per Dr Aida, she now does not function on just ‘600-calorie lattes’. “Homemade almond milk with protein, collagen, flax, and fruit. Lifting days: Chicken sausage and eggs,” she added.
10. Processed food
According to the endocrinologist, she prefers ‘98 percent real food’ in her diet, and when she has any cravings, she picks up a bag of chips or a chocolate bar for the remaining 2 percent. “And I am not sorry,” she added.
“I work on the glands that run all of this every day. This isn’t a wellness routine; it’s what happens after you’ve seen the alternative,” Dr Aida stressed in the end.
Dr Aida Taye, MD, is a US board-certified general surgeon and director of the renal hyperparathyroidism surgery program. She specialises in the treatment of benign and malignant thyroid, parathyroid, and adrenal diseases using the latest surgical techniques.
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