miller Health Occupational Health and Fitness

Index

130. ERMF FEBRUARY 2009

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NEWSLETTER

FACT SHEETS

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

36 people, 21 men and 15 women completed the Health, Fitness and Wellbeing profile.

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 good. The average score was 55. Anyone scoring more than 80 is putting up with a lot of 'background noise'.

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	# scoring 10
Low level of fitness	56
Overweight	53	7
Reflux, unsettled stomach	36	4
Lack of energy	31
Poor sleep	31
Crook back, sore shoulders ...	28
Snoring, sleep apnoea	25
Smoking	25
Irritable bowel, constipation etc	22
Anxious	22
Financial status	22
Work-life balance	19
Alcohol intake	17
Elevated blood pressure	14	2
Wrong job	14
Under appreciated at work	14
Headaches	11
Frequent colds, flu, sinus	11
Itchy, rashes, psoriasis	8
Caffeine	8
Candida	6
Chest pain, palpitations	6
Elevated cholesterol	6
Depressed	6
Mouth ulcers	3
Shakes, nervous mannerisms	3
Grinding teeth	3
Shortness of breath from asthma	0
Elevated glucose	0
Unhappy family life	0

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

Overall it's not a bad set of numbers.

This audit report indicates that the organisation could be more proactive in encouraging staff to be fitter. See below our recommendation about the local gym.

People could be fitter. This is something most people knew and were keen to do something about, particularly when on their time off.

I encouraged people to spend more time at the swimming pool - though some people said the opening hours after their day shift made this difficult.

I recommend the organisation mount a smoking cessation program. At 25% too many people are smoking. Those I spoke to express a desire to give it up. Enforcing the no smoking rule in company vehicles would be a useful thing to do.

The organisation also needs to implement a musculo-skeletal prehab program of 10 minutes of strength and flexibility exercises each day. This would dramatically lower the incidence of musculo-skeletal dysfunction and the risk of workers compensation claims.

Town fitness centre

The fitness centre at the swimming pool is not conducive to attracting people to train. It's in a tin shed, not air conditioned and the equipment is old, shoddy and much of it not of commercial quality.

It needs a major revamp to attract patrons. It would be in the interests of the organisation to make a major contribution to upgrading the facility.

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 53% 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 and eat from the top of the Hourglass.

•	Snoring 25% 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 31% 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 56% said they were unfit. Fitness has a significant bearing on the scores for low levels of energy, poor sleep, snoring, depression and headaches.

•	Musculo-skeletal dysfunction 28% 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.

•	Under-appreciation at work Very few people said they were under-appreciated at work. This was a pleasing result. In other workplaces it can be 40% of people are under-appreciated. Managers and staff - take a bow.

•	Being in the wrong job Very few people said they were in the wrong job. This was 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.

	Depression and anxiety There is an epidemic of depression in our community and we encourage all organisations to target depression. Only 2 people gave themselves a score of 5 or more on the depression question, indicating a low level of risk within the organisation. No people were on anti-depressant medication. This was a pleasing result. Generally speaking 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 25% of people smoked. Most wanted to give up. Now lets move heaven and earth to assist these people to give it away.

•	Alcohol intake Very few people indicated a higher than acceptable level of alcohol consumption. This was a pleasing result. Many don't drink when in Jabiru. I don't agree with the medical charities that you should have a drink every night. The people score lowest in the Health, Fitness and Wellbeing profile only have a couple of drinks a week, if that. The problem with alcohol is that will power dissolves in it. Once you've had one, you're more likely to have another, and another ... Then out come the chips and cashews, finishing off with a couple rounds of Tim Tams. You know there is something wrong when the junk medical industry is telling you to have a drink and take an Aspro every day.

RECOMMENDATIONS

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