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

Overweight

43

Lack of Energy

37

Crook back, sore shoulders

37

Low level of fitness

37

Poor sleep

33

Reflux, unsettled stomach

27

Snoring, sleep apnoea

23

Wrong job

23

Under appreciated at work

23

Headaches

20

Alcohol

20

Financial status

20

Irritable bowel, constipation etc

17

Caffeine

17

Frequent colds, flu, sinus

13

Grinding teeth

13

Work-life balance

13

Smoking

10

Depressed

10

Shortness of breath from asthma

7

Elevated cholesterol

7

Shakes, nervous mannerisms

7

Chest pain, palpitations

3

Itchy, rashes, psoriasis

3

Elevated glucose

3

Furry tongue, thrush, tinea,

0

Mouth ulcers

0

Elevated blood pressure

0

Anxious

0

Unhappy family life

0

•

Obesity

43% 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, 43% of people need to get out and exercise at lunch time and eat from the top of the Hourglass.

•

Lack of energy

37% p0of 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

37% 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

37% 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

23% of people said they were under-appreciated at work. Compared with other groups we have surveyed this is not a particularly high score. However,  people feeling under-appreciated at work is always a cause 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.

•

Being in the wrong job

23% 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 3 people gave themselves a score higher than 5 on the depression question. 1 person was 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

0 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

3 people smoked. Now lets move heaven and earth to assist those people to give it away altogether.

This is quite a good result.

This is a poor result. 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.

With one exception, this is a good looking graph.

This is a poor 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

With one exception, this is a reasonable result. No one on their death bed ever said 'I wish I'd spent more time at the office.'

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

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

With one exception, family life satisfaction is good. Organisations need to encourage staff with family problems to go to the employee assistance program for advice and support.

Average score: 57. 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.

On the whole, a good score - but the tail is a bit too long. 2 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.

Patchy. 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.

This is a pretty good result.

This is a very patchy result. The 3 people scoring 0 are making a bold statement. 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!

Patchy. 1 person definitely and absolutely feels they are under paid. 7 people scored 5/10 or 6/10. The rest are reasonably 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.

Patchy. The aim is to have all staff recording a score of 7 or more.

Average score: 68. Compared with other groups, this is a fair result.  Too many people scored less than 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.