miller Health Occupational Health and Fitness

Index

139. SCARD_SEPTEMBER_2009

USEFUL LINKS

NEWSLETTER

FACT SHEETS

John Miller conducted a Health Management program for The Group in August 2009.

15 people, 10 and 5 women men 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 poor. The average score was 75. Anyone scoring more than 80 is putting up with a lot of 'background noise'. This is not a healthy group.

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.

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

Symptoms/ issues / concerns	% of people scoring over 5
Crook back, sore shoulders ...	60
Reflux, unsettled stomach	40
Overweight	40
Under appreciated at work	40
Poor sleep	33
Low level of fitness	33
Alcohol intake	33
Wrong job	33
Lack of energy	27
Chest pain, palpitations	27
Elevated cholesterol	27
Anxious	27
Work-life balance	27
Snoring, sleep apnoea	20
Frequent colds, flu, sinus	20
Irritable bowel, constipation etc	20
Itchy, rashes, psoriasis	20
Elevated blood pressure	13	2
Elevated glucose	13
Shakes, nervous mannerisms	13
Grinding teeth	13
Caffeine	13
Depressed	13	1
Financial status	13
Poor sleep	7
Shortness of breath from asthma	7
Smoking	7	1
Unhappy family life	7
Furry tongue, thrush, tinea,	0
Mouth ulcers	0

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

	Musculo-skeletal dysfunction 60% of people said they had some sort of musculo-skeletal dysfunction. This is an inordinately high percentage. There is an urgent need to implement a daily 10 minute strength and stretch program, and a general strength conditioning program three times a week. 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. There is big risk for the organisations these people work for.

	Reflux and digestive complaints 40% of people complained of digestive complaints - due, I suspect to putting the wrong things down their5 throat and trying to live on a diet that's high in fat, flour, sugar, carbonated beverages and alcohol.

	Obesity 40% 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 is that people need to get more exercise (at lunch time) and eat from the top of the Hourglass.

	Under-appreciation at work 40% of people said they were under-appreciated at work. This is an exceptionally poor result.

	Poor sleep 33% said they didn't sleep well. The first casualty of anxiety is sleep. Or people may not be physically tired. Or they may be trying to get more sleep than they need. Get up! Nathan Pritiken said, 'If you don't have time for exercise take an hour off your sleep. You'll need less sleep and you'll sleep better.

	Fitness 33% said they were unfit. There's one way to fix that, train. Fitness has a significant bearing on the scores for low levels of energy, poor sleep, snoring, depression and headaches.

	Alcohol intake 33% said they drank too much. It's pretty easy to fix that. Limit yourself to 7 drinks a week 9 or less.) The people who score lowest on this profile have 1 0r 2 drinks a week - if that.

	Being in the wrong job 33% of people said they were in the wrong job. There is usually a high and positive correlation between people being in the wrong job and people saying they are under-appreciated at work. This is the case in this survey. If you're in the wrong job there is a high likelihood you'll feel under-appreciated.

	Anxiety 27% of people said they were anxious. 1 person was on anti-depressant medication. Anxiety is the difference between what you're getting and what you want. The scores on this item suggest that these people are a long way from getting what they want.

So, all in all this is not a particularly rosy picture. Strange really because when you looked around the room people seemed in pretty good shape. Looks must be deceptive.

RECOMMENDATIONS

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