miller Health Occupational Health and Fitness

Index

101. DSRCP MAY 2008

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NEWSLETTER

FACT SHEETS

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

12 people, 4 men and 8 women participants completed the following profiles: -

■ Health, Fitness and Wellbeing

■ Fitness

■ Diet

■ Chemical intake

■ Stress risk

■ Career satisfaction

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 57. Anyone scoring more than 80 is putting up with a lot of 'background noise'. Whilst I've rated the score as 'fair' we see many average scores that are more than 80.

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
Under appreciated at work	42
Poor sleep	33
Crook back, sore shoulders	33
Overweight	33
Wrong job	33
Caffeine	25
Headaches	17
Lack of Energy	17
Elevated blood pressure	17	2
Financial status	17
Furry tongue, thrush, tinea,	8
Snoring, sleep apnoea	8
Frequent colds, flu, sinus	8
Reflux, unsettled stomach	8
Shortness of breath from asthma	8
Low level of fitness	8
Itchy, rashes, psoriasis	8
Mouth ulcers	8
Elevated cholesterol	8
Grinding teeth	8
Anxious	8
Depressed	8	0
Work-life balance	8
Irritable bowel, constipation etc	0
Chest pain, palpitations	0
Elevated glucose	0
Shakes, nervous mannerisms	0
Alcohol	0
Smoking	0	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.

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 33% 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, 33% 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 33% of staff have some sort of musculo-skeletal dysfunction that they have to put up with constantly. 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 42% of people said they were under-appreciated 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 33% of people said they were 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. Only 1 person gave themselves a score higher than 5 on the depression question. No people were on anti-depressant medication. There is an epidemic of depression in our community. This epidemic relates to poor health general 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 2 people were on medication. Blood pressure is a symptom of body system dysfunction relating directly to - lack of aerobic fitness - being over weight - being stressed.

	Smoking Nobody smoked. This is a pleasing result

FITNESS

The fitness profile is comprised of a mix of 10 objective and subjective assessments.

• Are you keeping yourself fit and healthy to the best of your ability?

• What was your score on the Health, Fitness and Wellbeing profile?

• Are you about your ideal weight?

• Aerobic fitness test

• Abdominal strength test

• Upper body strength test

• Flexibility test

• Mobility test

• Aerobic activity training behaviour

• Level of energy and vitality.

A reasonable score is over 70%.

Those receiving less than 70 are not training with sufficient vigour or intensity on a regular and systematic basis to keep themselves fit and healthy.


As a group this is a poor profile. Most people confess to not keeping themselves fit and healthy.		As a group, the health, fitness and wellbeing Profile scores were mediocre.

This is quite a good score. Looking around the room most people looked in reasonable shape.		Not a bad score. In the main people were fitter than they thought.

Very mediocre.		A poor result. Too many people couldn't do 1 situp. Abdominal strength is one of the key drivers of back health.

A mediocre result. 7/10 is 17 pressups in 30 seconds.		4 people couldn't touch their toes leaving them at risk of musculo-skeletal dysfunction.

A good result, but those scoring less than 7 have a mobility problem.		This is a pretty good result.

As a group overall fitness - aerobic, strength and flexibility was mediocre.

Overall the fitness scores was 55.

DIET PROFILE

The diet profile is designed to assist participants to check out whether they are eating wisely and also one which has appropriate amounts of carbohydrate, protein and fat. It also looks at various eating habits, eg eating too much, eating for comfort ...

• Closeness to ideal weight?

• Do you eat a decent breakfast?

• Do you eat a high fat diet?

• Do you eat a high starch diet?

• Do you eat from the top of the Diet Hourglass?

• How much water do you during each day?

• Do you supplement your diet with essential micro-nutrients – vitamins,

minerals, essential fats (omega 3) and glyco-proteins - and

nutraceuticals - ginko, aloe vera, Echinacea ...?

• Do you eat too much?

• Are you ruled by your addictions to fat, sugar and starch?

• Does the back end of your system work like a charm?

We use the Hourglass Diet as out eating model.

Low scores are usually symptomatic of high fat, high starch, low fibre diets. The results: - people become over fat and constipated.


	Being over weight is a symptom of metabolic dysfunction.	Not good. Too many people filling themselves up on flour and sugar at breakfast time. This is due to the Kellogification of our diets. The 'fat police' have just about stripped a cooked breakfast out of existence.

	If you're over weight you've either got a fat guts ...	or a starch guts, or a sugar guts.

	The nature of our culture is that it's too easy to eat junk food.	Some people are not drinking enough water. We're too affluent - we can afford to drink coffee, fruit juice and carbonated drinks to slake our thirst. Every thing but water. Keep an eye on the colour of your urine.

	There is a good case for supplementing one's diet. Our food lacks vitamins minerals and essential fats.	Not only do I fail to eat from the top of the Hourglass, I also eat too much. It's hard to satisfy the inner hunger by eating.

	There's and epidemic of food addiction, particularly to chocolate, cola drinks, cake, biscuits, ice-cream ...	Back end function depends on eating less fat, flour and sugar and more fruit. vegetables and fibre. Psyllium husk works like a treat.
Patchy. Total score 56. Very FAQ. It's too easy to eat a high energy dense diet of manufactured food - particularly foods containing large amounts of fat, flour and sugar - food that comes in packets, tins, cans, bottles, cardboard boxes and plastic bags. This is a group that needs to design strategies to get more fruit and vegetables down their throat.

Australia is in a grip of an obesity and body system dysfunction epidemic generated by too much of the wrong food on the one hand, and too little of the right food on the other. It is my opinion that diets high in refined, cereal-based carbohydrates and sugar (the garbohydrates) are the suspects. Too few people seem to be aware that their level of body fat is affected by the amount of flour and sugar they take in each day. The high starch diet has replaced the high fat diet, with the same consequences. The garbohydrate diet stimulates insulin production which leads to fat gain, and all manner of metabolic dysfunctions.

Many people are unaware that they may be allergic or intolerant of some foods, particularly wheat flour, milk, deadly nightshades, chocolate, alcohol, caffeine, preservatives ...

Most people have a flour and sugar breakfast, attributed to the kelloggification of the Australian diet. You don't eat biscuits for lunch and dinner so why are you eating them for breakfast? The breakfast eating behaviour of Australians is dreadful. Few people have fruit. Even fewer have vegetables, or adequate protein and fat.

Few people take vitamin and mineral supplements. I believe there are good reasons to do so. If you don't believe me, I recommend you buy the book, What Your Doctor Doesn't Know About Nutrition May Be Killing You, by Ray Strand, MD.

By their own recognition a small number of people said they over-ate and were ruled by their addictions to junk food.

The operation of the back end of the system was only fair – low scores being reflective of a diet that lacks sufficient fibre.

CHEMICAL INTAKE PROFILE

The chemical profile focuses principally on the mix of culturally acceptable stimulants and depressants.

• Do you smoke?

• How many alcoholic drinks do you have a week?

• How much caffeine do you drink each day?

• Do you persistently feed a sweet tooth?

• Do you persistently feed a salt tooth?

• How many hours a week do you spend watching TV?

• Do you have a high intake of food additives?

• How do you rate your reliance on headache and pain-killing tablets?

• Are you on sleeping tablets or anti-depressants?

• Are you on diabetes or blood pressure mediation?


	Nobody smoked. Hallelujah!	Overall a good result. As people become fitter the need for alcohol declines.

	Reasonable. Less is good.	A few addicts. Time to stop putting it in tea and coffee.

	No need to have extra salt on your food. We're getting enough out of packaged food as it is.	Hmmmmm. TV is robbing people of their time, their sleep and their vitality.

	A good result.	Work out why you have headaches - tiredness, metabolic dysfunction, dehydration, resistance ...

	A good result.	Elevated blood pressure is another indication of metabolic dysfunction. 2 people are on blood pressure medication.

Average score: 78. Compared with other groups, this is a fair result.

Most people moderate drinkers. It is usually the case that fit and healthy people don’t drink to any great degree. In fact they only have one or two drinks per week.

However, we’ve well and truly entered the junk medical age when the medical priesthood is encouraging their clients to wash down an Aspro each day with a couple of glasses of claret, all in the name of good health! The people we see who are fittest and healthiest have very low, or zero intakes of alcohol and coffee.

Depression

STRESS RISK PROFILE

Participants completed a simple stress and relaxation profile designed to assist them in making an assessment of how they were affected by stress. It is based on the habits of unstressed people.

If you do what unstressed people do you are less at risk of becoming stressed. I’m yet to see someone who said they were highly stressed or depressed who got a high score on this profile. A good score is over 70.

• How would you rate your current stress level

• Do you get a good night’s sleep?

• Do you take your holidays?

• Are you keeping yourself fit and healthy?

• Is there balance in your life?

• Do you take time off at lunch time?

• How many hours a week do you work?

• Are you good at giving back to your Self?

• Do you meditate?

• Are you happy with your family (and romantic) life?

The matter of stress always needs to be addressed by organisations as part of a personal development thrust, and aimed at all staff. If stress management type programs are to be conducted, all staff need to be involved, otherwise those at most risk and those who are currently most stressed (and too wrapped up in their own busyness) will not attend.

For those who spend long hours at work, I often wonder whether the behaviour is externally or internally driven. I suspect the latter. No body on their death bed ever said 'I wish I'd spent more time at the office.'

A few people are struggling with their family life. This is another fertile area for personal development and counseling programs. It's hard to concentrate at work when your home life is in turmoil

SCORING GUIDELINES

Excellent, scoring 8 or more

Good, scoring 7 or more

Fair, scoring 5 or 6

Poor, scoring less than 5

‘Pass mark’ on all parameters 7/10.


	This is a good result.	This is a reasonable result. The first casualty of anxiety and low levels of fitness is sleep.

	Reasonable. 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 good result.	A patchy result. Too many people don't take time off to switch off and get outside in the fresh air. This is a reflection of poor management - personal and organisational

	This is a reasonable result. No one on their death bed ever said 'I wish I'd spent more time at the office.'	A few 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 so-so for most people, but not for some. The tail suggests the organisation could encourage staff with family problems to go to the employee assistance program for advice and support.

Average score: 63. 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 - start doing the things unstressed people do to avoid becoming stressed.

CAREER SATISFACTION PROFILE

The parameters in the profile relate to a mix of factors influences by the participant, management and their colleagues.

• How close are you to doing the job you’d really like to be doing?

• Are you in the right job for now?

• Is work giving you life or sucking life out of you?

• Are you focused on your career options?

• Do you get good feedback from your manager?

• Do you receive an appropriate financial reward?

• Do you feel you and your work are valued and appreciated?

• Do you work for an organisation that cares about people?

• Do you enjoy the company of the people you work with?

• What’s the level of morale like in your work group?

Normally, when results on the overall career profile are less than 70/100, people agree that they’re not in the right job. Certainly those scoring less than 60 have sufficient issues relating to career management as to seriously consider going somewhere else.

SCORING GUIDELINES

Excellent, scoring 8 or more

Good, scoring 7 or more

Fair, scoring 5 or 6

Poor, scoring less than 5

‘Pass mark’ on all parameters 7/10.


	This is an amazing score. 6 people out of 12 didn't know what they wanted to do when they grew up. The average age of the group was 44. 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 poor result. Good managers can find out who the people scoring less than 7/10 are and assist them to move to the job they'd really like to have. It could be within the organisation or somewhere else. OR the current job could become transformed with a vitality transplant.

	Patchy. Work is probably about as stressful as you want it to be. Walk away. Make appointments for your Self that allow you to get on with your work unhindered by interruptions.	Not a good result. Too many people are not focused. A score of 7/10 is the code for 'it doesn't matter'. But judging from the scores in the first two questions, it does matter. If you keep doing what you're doing you'll get more of the same.

	This is a poor result. 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 2 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 poor result. With only a couple of exceptions, work is valued and appreciated.	This is a poor result. The aim is to have all staff recording a score of 7 or more.

	This is a good score. People like working with each other.	This is a fair to middling morale score. It's generally the case that our morale is good when my morale is good. looking at the scores generally there is some work to do to boost morale of this group.

Average score: 57. Compared with other groups, this is a poor result. 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.

The Buddha and Confucius both said ' Find the job you'd love to do and you don't have to do another days work in your life.'

RECOMMENDATIONS

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