Index

62. RESULTS DO JUNE 2007

John Miller conducted a Crookback Clinic for The Group in June 2007.

Participant profile

26 participants  - 16 men and 10 women.

The average age of participants was 48.

Participants completed two profiles

■ Mind and Body

■ Musculo-skeletal risk

The results are presented in graphic format, with commentary.

CONTEXT

The health assessment program conducted by Miller Health is based on the premise that the health of key body systems depends on

•      physical fitness

•      diet and

•      an ability to manage the stress of both life and work.

Within the Australian community, there is currently an epidemic of body system dysfunctions which when translated into the workplace are associated with increased absenteeism and workers compensation, and decreased work performance and productivity.

There are very few organisations that are not affected by this epidemic.

THE PROGRAM

The assessments took an holistic look at health, based on the premise that the major systems of the body maintain healthy function when they are supported by 

HEALTH PROFILES

The Mind and Body profile was used as a way of obtaining a snap shot of people’s health, fitness and stress levels. In the workplace it is also a good measure of the risk of absenteeism, presenteeism and workers’ compensation.

People in poor shape experience

•      headaches

•      poor sleep

•      lack of energy and vitality

•      musculo-skeletal dysfunction

•      frequent colds and flu

•      obesity

•      anxiety ...

The aging population

We believe (barring disability) there is nothing stopping anyone of working age from being in exceptionally good physical condition – except lack of training. It's not so much that we have an aging population but a lazy population. We know this is the case because according to the principle of increased dysfunction, people are getting older younger!

Theoretically, as people get older they should be able to maintain a high level of fitness – they’ve had longer to train!

The Governments of Australia base their medical system data on the fact that as people get older they become more dysfunctional. It's a poorly researched premise. What's actually happening is that people are getting older younger! They're unfit and unhealthy. Junk medicine is not contributing to an improvement in community standards of health, on the contrary.

Whilst we can expect people over the age of 70 to start slowing down, it is not necessarily the case for people of working age. As a general rule, poor health and body system dysfunction is not so much related to age as it is to

▪ low levels of physical activity

▪ junk food diets

▪ over-consumption of alcohol

▪ smoking

▪ an inability to handle the normal stresses of life

▪ a job that does not suit their personality, intelligence strengths or interests

▪ an over-reliance on junk medicine - medicine that is pharmaceutically based and which masks

   symptoms without stimulating the body's own recuperative power.

MIND AND BODY PROFILE

The Mind and Body 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.

On this profile, the lower the score the better.

To complete the profile, circle the number appropriate to the degree to which you experience the symptoms on the left hand side of the page. The greater the symptom, the higher the 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:  Not bad, 51 - 60: Poor, 61 - 70: Dreadful 70+

This profile is described as poor. The average score was 75. Too many people are putting up with a lot of 'background noise'. From my assessment this is not a very fit and healthy group. The risk of absenteeism, presenteeism and workers' compensation claims is considered high.

SCORES ON EACH ITEM, RANKED - the higher the score the worse the problem

26 people completed the profile. We added the scores for each item. The results appear in the table below.

* Fitness related

* Diet related

* Stress related

We would recommend the organisation focus on dealing with the top 3 items, plus the issues of lack of appreciation at work, family life dis-satisfaction and high blood pressure.

Perception

Based on people's perception (where they gave a particular symptom a score of 7 or more) the underlying issues are low levels of fitness, and anxiety.  For a relatively young group of people there was a high level of anxiety. Perhaps achievement comes at a price!

Fitness

This workplace, like all others has a fitness problem. Of the top 3 items, all 3 are directly related to low levels of fitness.

It's interesting that rarely do people have their aerobic fitness levels measured, when this is the key driver of poor health. We measure every thing but; blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar and fail to measure the key driver of metabolic health.

It would be good to conduct a measure of aerobic fitness on this group and run a program designed to inspire and motivate them to keep themselves fit and healthy.

Blood pressure

6 people indicated that they had high blood pressure. 5 were on medication. Elevated blood pressure levels are directly related to

-  lack of fitness

-  being over weight

-  stress

-  an inappropriate diet.

We recommend the Organisation put in train a program to enhance levels of fitness and assist staff to lose weight. The environment is such that people do have the opportunity to get outside and exercise or go to the gym at some time during the day. here is no reason why this behaviour could not become the norm. If managers were to take the lead on this matter, there is a good chance that group morale and productivity would improve dramatically.

Under-appreciation at work

All but 1 of the participants said they were in the right job. However 27% said they were under-appreciated. Management needs to take note of this dis-satisfaction and aim to improve the level of satisfaction.

Musculo-skeletal dysfunction

Like all organisations, the organisation has a musculo-skeletal dysfunction problem. 35% of people gave rated themselves as having musculo-skeletal dysfunction. Sooner or later these self-generated dysfunctions become labeled as 'injuries', at great cost to the organisation's workers compensation arrangements.

It is recommended that the organisation build a firewall between dysfunctions and injuries.

What this means is requiring staff at risk (and staff experiencing musculo-skeletal pain) to attend musculo-skeletal prehab sessions, in work time, to improve strength and flexibility and to get bones back into alignment - tracksuit therapy not white coat therapy.

Our survey showed that staff will overwhelmingly willing to participate in such a program.

A similar approach needs to be taken with people who've already been tipped into the workers compensation bucket. These people should attend daily rehab sessions, conducted by registered fitness practitioners that involve strength and flexibility exercises.

There is a good case for subsidizing fitness centre memberships, but only for people who go and only for people whose fitness is getting better, or has achieved an acceptable level. A lot of organisations pay by input, not output. They don't get good value for money.

Smoking

Only 1 person smoked. That's well below the community average of 18%.

Depression

Only 2 people scored highly on our depression scale. Only 1 person was on anti-depressant medication.

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.

This epidemic 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.

There is an epidemic of 'depression' in the community, and 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.

I believe it is appropriate for the Organisation to encourage those people with an unhappiness, anxiety or depression problem to make full use of the counselling services of the EAP and encourage them to do the things that unstressed people do - like keeping themselves fit, having a lunch hour outside, taking their holidays, eating wisely, not working too many hours and ‘getting a life’. There could be a high price of achievement for those who can't keep lives in balance.

It is frequently the case that those people on anti-depressants are not doing the things that unstressed people do to keep their bodies and minds in good shape.

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.

Health, fitness and wellbeing

I recommended that all organisations establish a health, fitness and wellbeing section and employ registered fitness practitioners to give oversight to a systematic health, fitness and wellbeing program. Those at risk need to be given the greatest encouragement to get themselves back into good shape, in their own and company time.

These fitness practitioners would also supervise musculo-skeletal prehab and rehab programs.

RECOMMENDATION

See the generic list of recommendations.