Symptom

None

Not much

A fair bit

A lot

1.

Headaches including migraines

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

2.

Lack of energy and vitality

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

3.

Candida - jock itch, thrush, tinea ...

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

4.

Poor sleep. If on tablets score 10

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

5.

Snoring &/or sleep apnoea. Score 10 if using a mask

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

6.

Crook back, stiff neck, sore shoulders, dicky knee RSI ...

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

7.

Frequent colds, flu, sinus

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

8.

Unsettled stomach, reflux (Score 10 if on medication)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

9.

Overweight - 1 point for every 2Kg

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

10.

Irritable bowel, constipation

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11.

Asthma

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

12.

Low level of aerobic fitness

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

13.

Chest pain, palpitations

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

14.

Rashes, itchiness, skin outbreaks, psoriasis ...

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

15.

Mouth ulcers, cold sores

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

16.

Elevated blood pressure. Score 0 on pills

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

17.

Elevated blood cholesterol. Score o if on pills

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

18.

Elevated blood glucose. Score 0 if on medication

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

19.

Shakes, nervous ticks, mannerisms

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

20.

Grinding teeth

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

21.

Alcoholic drinks per day (2 pts/drink)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

22.

Smoking. (1 pt/cigarette/day)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

23.

Caffeine (1 pt/cup per day)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

24.

Anxious about life, insecure, apprehensive

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

25.

Sad or depressed (On medication, score 0)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

26.

In wrong job for now

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

27.

Under-appreciated at work

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

28.

Have poor work/life balance

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

29.

Unhappy with family life

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

30.

Unhappy with financial status

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

  Score

Symptoms/ issues / concerns

% of people scoring

over 5

Crook back, sore shoulders

56

Poor sleep

53

Lack of energy

49

Under appreciated at work

42

Work-life balance

39

Overweight

36

Low level of fitness

36

Wrong job

36

Headaches

34

Anxious

33

Financial status

32

Depressed

26

Reflux, unsettled stomach

24

Unhappy family life

23

Grinding teeth

22

Itchy, rashes, psoriasis

20

Frequent colds, flu, sinus

19

Irritable bowel, constipation etc

19

Alcohol

18

Snoring, sleep apnoea

16

Shortness of breath from asthma

15

Elevated blood pressure

15

Caffeine

15

Elevated cholesterol

13

Shakes, nervous mannerisms

10

Mouth ulcers

9

Furry tongue, thrush, tinea,

8

Chest pain, palpitations

6

Elevated glucose

4

Smoking

4

•

Obesity

36% of people said they were more than 10Kg over weight. It's a symptom of metabolic dysfunction and relates to high energy diets and low energy lifestyles. It's suggestive of elevated levels of insulin floating around the body, which is a precursor of all manner of body system dysfunctions - elevated blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, elevated blood glucose.

The recommendation, 50% of people need to get out and exercise at lunch time and eat from the top of the Hourglass.

•

Lack of energy

Low levels of energy come from many sources, including: -

-  lack of a good aerobic fitness training program

-  a diet high in wheat flour and sugar

-  dullness

-  ...

•

Fitness

A very high proportion of staff indicated they weren't particularly fit. We recommend staff be given the greatest encouragement to leave the office at lunch time and get in some physical activity. One organisation we work for gives staff an hour and a half off for lunch, providing people exercise during that time.

Fitness has a significant bearing on the scores for low levels of energy, poor sleep, snoring, depression and headaches.

•

Musculo-skeletal dysfunction

Some staff are groaning and travailing in pain. Musculo-skeletal dysfunction goes with low levels of strength and flexibility. Those are greatest risk need encouragement to attend a strength and flexibility training program several times a week.

•

Rashes and itchiness

Can be caused by a range of things: -

-  a body that's stressed producing too much cortisol

-  a toxic diet

-  a sluggish elimination system

-  itching to get away from something

-  ...

•

Headaches

Caused by

-  a diet high in wheat flour and sugar

-  caffeine withdrawal

-  lack of oxygen getting to the head

-  a sluggish elimination system

-  a head out of alignment due to tight and weak muscles

-  beating your head against a brick wall

-  ...

•

Colds and flu

Symptom of a depressed immune system, one which can be strengthened by eating from the top of the Hourglass and getting plenty of aerobic exercise.

•

Under-appreciation at work

This is a course for concern and managers need to take note and put in train a series of measures to improve this score in say, 3 months time. This factor certainly needs addressing in more detail and re-evaluation.

•

Being in the wrong job

There is a high and positive correlation between people being in the wrong job and people saying they are under-appreciated at work. There is evidence that a career development program may be needed in this workplace and/or people given strong encouragement to have a few sessions with the employee assistance program people - or me!

•

Diet

A diet high in flour and sugar and low in fruit, vegetables and fibre leads to irritable and bowel, reflux.

Depression and anxiety

There is an epidemic of depression in our community and we encourage all organisations to target depression. 26% people gave themselves a score higher than 5 on the depression question, indicating risk that needs to be dealt with. 6 people were on anti-depressant medication.

There is an epidemic of depression in our community. This epidemic relates to poor health generally and will, of course increase at the same rate as the epidemic of all other body system dysfunctions. The mind is just another part of the human ecosystem - an ecosystem under threat from low levels of health, fitness and wellbeing. It is important that people who are depressed or a risk of becoming depressed be encouraged to have regular counseling - through the EAP or other counselors - and be given encouragement to do the things that unstressed people. In particular it means encouraging people to exercise at lunch time. It means taking their holidays, eating wisely, not working too many hours and ‘getting a life’. Stress, anxiety and depression can be a high price to pay for achievement.

As the population becomes less physically active, eats diets high in flour and sugar and low in omega 3 fats, selenium and B group vitamins, lacks resilience, drinks too much alcohol and caffeine, has difficulty managing the internal and external conversations going on inside their head and/or live lives devoid of meaning and purpose, we can expect rates of anxiety and depression to increase.

Whilst not wishing to make light of the true ‘black dog’ of clinical depression, for some people the symptoms of stress, unhappiness, sadness, grief, hopelessness, disappointment, despair, vacuity, anger and anxiety are being treated as if they were the symptoms of clinical depression.

The best book about depression I've read, and what you can do about it, and one that I recommend highly is by psychiatrist, David Servan-Schreiber, Healing Without Freud or Prozac.

Blood pressure

11 people were on medication. Something is stressing them out!

Blood pressure is a symptom of body system dysfunction relating directly to

- lack of aerobic fitness

- being over weight

- being stressed.

Smoking

4 people smoked. It's a very low percentage of people well below the community average of about 20%. Now lets move heaven and earth to assist those 4 people to give it away altogether.

Poor Sleep

A lot of people in our community don't sleep well. Some are anxious - the first casualty of anxiety is poor sleep. Some aren't physically tired. Some want to sleep too long. Some need to 'wake up to themselves', get up and get on with life... To read more about it click here.

This is a patchy result.

Not good at all. Paul Pearsal in his book Superimmunity' said you need a 21 day away from home holiday every year.

Not particularly good. A lot of people are not keeping themselves in the shape they'd like to be in.

This is a moderately good looking graph.

A patchy result. More people could take time off to switch off and get outside in the fresh air.

This is a good result. No one on their death bed ever said 'I wish I'd spent more time at the office.'

Too many people are too busy to look after and nurture their Self.

Very few people meditate. The reasons to do so are compelling.

Family life satisfaction is good for most people, but not for a few. The tail suggests the organisation could encourage staff with family problems to go to the employee assistance program for advice and support.

Average score: 58. This is indeed an average sort of a score.  People could do more to look after their Self. I recommend that people scoring less that 50 spend time with a counselor or life coach, or go to a personal development weekend to get themselves centred and grounded on looking after their Self.

A patchy score, the tail is too long. 6 people didn't know what they wanted to do when they grew up! My encouragement to people who scored less than 6 is to move heaven and earth to work out what it is they really want to do - and develop a plan to get there as soon as they can.

This is a high stress score. Work is probably about as stressful as you want it to be. Walk away. Each morning when you get to work, set an alarm clock for 30 minutes before you want to leave. Make appointments for your Self that allow you to get on with your work unhindered by interruptions.

A poor result. Too many people are not focused on their careers. No wonder 36% said they were in the wrong job and 42% said they were under-appreciated at work. If you're not focused, you're going to have to put up with whatever comes your way; it could be a tsunami!

This is a fair to middling result. Those scoring 5 or less are the worry. Of all our profile questions, this one is usually the worst answered. In this organisation there's some extra work for managers. For staff our recommendation is always to manage up. A lot of managers are too busy getting on with their work to spend time managing down. So, take your manager out for morning tea once a month and talk about yourself and your work. Get some regular feedback. Don't wait for the big one at the end of the year. If you manager doesn't have time for you, get another one!

With only a few exceptions, these people are pretty satisfied with what they sell themselves for. If you're not happy, you're selling yourself short. Log onto Seek and get your suit dry cleaned!

This is a fair result. 30% scored 5/10 or less. With these exceptions, work is valued and appreciated.

It's a pretty good score but the aim is to have all staff recording a score of 7 or more. Plus it's every manager's job to find out who the people are who really think the organisation is uncaring - and do something about it.

Average score: 63. Compared with other groups, this is an average sort of a result. Ideally the score should be over 70.  For people who score less than 70, there is the whiff of a suggestion they're not in the right job. The situation is certainly redeemable. For people scoring less than 60 the smell is becoming distinctly stronger and below 50 it is very strong.  Being in the wrong job sucks all vitality out of you. 37% of people scored less than 60/100. There's work to do here.