To Your Health Is your business killing you? How to break your bad habits and pick up better ones.

It's safe to assume that you're pretty fond of yourbusiness. It's the salt on your pretzel, the sand on yourbeach, the water in your garden. It's what makes you tick. Itought to make you tick; after all, you've likely thrownyourself into it, body and soul, just for the wonderful feeling ofbeing an entrepreneur and growing something from a mere seedlinginto a strong, healthy plant. What you might not realize is whileyour plant is busy getting strong and healthy, it could be killingyou.

"Entrepreneurs are at a very high risk of compromisingtheir health because of their jobs," says Gayle Reichler,founder and president of New York city wellness firm ActiveWellness. "A lot of us feel we're invincible; we work longhours and feel it, but we keep driving and driving, and pushing andpushing. But it's critical for entrepreneurs to work [wellness]into their routines."

Reichler ought to know. As she pursued her graduate studies andprepared to become a nutritionist and health counselor, she spentyears ignoring the effects of stress on her immune system, as wellas her family history of thyroid and heart diseases. So whenReichler was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 1991, it was like acold slap in the face.