Index

125. AQTICD DECEMBER 2008

 

USEFUL LINKS

 

 

NEWSLETTER

 

 

FACT SHEETS

 

 

 

John Miller conducted a Health Management program for The Group in December 2008.

 

21 people completed the following profiles: -

 

Health, Fitness and Wellbeing

 

The results are presented in graphic format, with commentary.

 

Click here to read what the assessments are all about  

 

HEALTH, FITNESS AND WELLBEING PROFILE

The Health, Fitness and Wellbeing profile provides people with a very good idea of how well the various systems of the body are functioning, particularly the

 

•      the mind

•      autonomic nervous system

•      immune system

•      digestive system

•      circulatory system

•      elimination system

•      musculo-skeletal system.

 

 

 

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

   

 

The score of a normal, fit and healthy human being is less than 20        

 

Higher scores are symptomatic of dysfunction of one or more body systems.

 

People with high levels of stress usually score well over 100.

 

For people with a score of more than 80, the ‘background noise’ of their life is becoming louder and louder. It is hard to concentrate on your work when body systems are dysfunctional.

 

We know a fit and healthy group when we see the majority of scores below 40. This was not the case with this group. By and large higher scores are usually a reflection of

 

•      low levels of fitness

•      an inability to deal with what life and work are serving up to people.

 

Remember, it is not what happens, but how we deal with what happens that determines our level of stress. 

 

 

Classification of average scores: Excellent - less than 40. Good - 41 - 50. Fair 51-60. Poor - over 60.

 

This profile is described as fair. The average score was 76. Anyone scoring more than 80 is putting up with a lot of 'background noise'. There was one person who was particularly stressed. It's certainly not the profile of a fit and healthy group of people.

 

HEALTH CLIMATE SURVEY

Based on scores received in the Health, Fitness and Wellbeing profile we've compiled a Health Climate Survey. Scores on each item have ranked - the higher the score the worse the problem. We added the scores for each item. The results appear in the table below.

 

 

Symptoms/ issues / concerns

% of people scoring over 5

 

Overweight

62

 

Low level of fitness

62

 

Snoring, sleep apnoea

52

 

Musculo-skeletal dysfunction

48

 

Frequent colds, flu, sinus

48

 

Financial status

43

 

Poor sleep

38

 

Lack of Energy

33

 

Reflux, unsettled stomach

33

 

Headaches

29

 

Shortness of breath from asthma

29

 

Elevated cholesterol

29

 

Elevated blood glucose

29

6

Alcohol

29

 

Smoking

24

5

Caffeine

24

 

Chest pain, palpitations

19

 

Itchy, rashes, psoriasis

14

 

Elevated blood pressure

14

1

Anxious

14

 

Depressed

14

2/1

Irritable bowel, constipation etc

10

 

Under appreciated at work

10

 

Furry tongue, thrush, tinea, 

5

 

Mouth ulcers

5

 

Shakes, nervous mannerisms

5

 

Grinding teeth

5

 

Wrong job

5

 

Work-life balance

5

 

Unhappy family life

5

 

 

We registered those scores of 5 and over as being a symptom, issue or concern, the most pressing of which have been highlighted.

 

Perception

Based on people's perception (where they gave a particular symptom a score of 5 or more, and backed up by objective scores) the key issues are

 

 

Obesity

62% 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, that people need to get more exercise (at lunch time) and eat from the top of the Hourglass.

 

 

Snoring

52% of people said they snored loudly enough for it to be a problem.

 

The recipe for a good snore is to be male, be unfit and at least 20Kg over weight, to have high blood pressure, have a few drinks every night, be stressed out of their brain and sleep on their back.

   

 

Lack of energy

33% of people said they lacked 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

35% said they were unfit. We recommend staff be given the greatest encouragement to leave the workplace 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

48% of people said they had some sort of musculo-skeletal dysfunction.

 

Musculo-skeletal dysfunction goes with low levels of strength and flexibility. Those at 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

29% of people said they regularly get headaches. Headaches are 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

Only 10% said they were under-appreciated at work. This is a good result.

 

Managers need to take note and put in train a series of measures to improve this score in say, 3 months time.

 

 

Being in the wrong job

 

Only 1 person said they were in the wrong job. This too is a pleasing result.

 

There is usually a high and positive correlation between people being in the wrong job and people saying they are under-appreciated at work.

 

 

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. 2 people gave themselves a score of 5 or more on the depression question, indicating risk that needs to be dealt with.

 

1 person was on anti-depressant medication.

 

There is a significant core of depression that relates to poor health generally.

 

All body systems are connected. The epidemic of depression will continue to escalate at the same rate as the epidemic of all other body system dysfunctions. People need to be given encouragement to exercise regularly and vigorous, eat less flour and sugar and imbibe less of the culturally chemicals - particularly nicotine, caffeine and alcohol.

 

Because of the relationship of depression to fitness and diet there is a chance that some people have been misdiagnosed.

 

Some aspects of depression relate to psychologically generated issues. It is important that these people be encouraged to have regular counselling - through the EAP or other counsellors -

 

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

2 people indicated they were on blood pressure medication.

 

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

 

- lack of aerobic fitness

- being over weight

- being stressed.

 

 

Smoking

There were 5 confirmed smokers. Now lets move heaven and earth to assist these people to give it away altogether.

   

Alcohol intake

29% of people indicated a higher than acceptable level of alcohol consumption. For too many people it is culturally acceptable to drink half a dozen cans of beer a night. Not only does willpower dissolve in alcohol but it increases the size of the waist.

 

RECOMMENDATIONS

See the generic list of recommendations that cover all our profiles.