Index

Results ABSM November 2006

John Miller conducted a series of one day Seven Habits of Fit and Healthy People seminars for The Organisation in October and November 2006.

Participants completed several profiles

■ Mind and Body

■ Fitness

■ Musculo-skeletal risk

■ Diet

■ Chemical intake

■ Stress

■ Career Satisfaction

The results are presented in graphic format, with commentary.

CONTEXT

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

Within the Australian community, there is currently an epidemic of body system dysfunction 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 immune from this epidemic.

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) that there are very few things stopping people of working age from being in good physical condition. It's not so much that we have an aging population but a sedentary population. We know this is the case because people are getting older younger!

Theoretically, as people get older they should be able to maintain a good standard 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. Whilst this may be the case for people over the age of 75, it need not necessarily be the case for people of working age.

As a general rule, poor health and body system dysfunction goes hand in hand with low levels of physical activity, junk food diets, over-consumption of alcohol, an inability to handle the normal stresses of life and a job that does not suit their personality, intelligence strengths or interests.

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 them.

Remember, it is not what happens, but how we deal with what happens that determines our level of stress. 

This profile is described as poor. The average score was 66. Too many people are putting up with a lot of background noise. From my assessment this is not a very fit and health group.

How well people score on the Mind and Body profile provides them with a good indication of how fit and healthy they really are.

I read somewhere that we don't see full blown body system dysfunction until the particular system is 70% dysfunctional. What the Mind and Body profile does is pick up the dysfunctions at an early stage - (you know something's wrong and you feel dreadful but you can't put your finger on the particular system that's causing it. It doesn't matter that you don't know the precise system involved. What you are aware of is that one or more of your systems isn't working at full pitch. The good news is that you can restore function to normal by getting fitter, eating wisely, meditating getting the job you'd love to do ...) Very few people became fitter and healthier in a doctor's surgery!

Being vigorously physically active on a regular and systematic basis is the most powerful symbol of your ability to give back to your Self. On top of that it protects the body from a wide range of dysfunctions and contributes to an enhancement of the body's own recuperative powers.

There is an epidemic of body system dysfunction in our community and it is certainly not caused by a lack of Panadol, Avpro, Diabex, Lipitor, Ventolin, Milantin, Celebrex, Valium, Ritalin, Zoloft, Viagra or Anusol!

The mind/body relationship

The body is an ecosystem of which the mind is an integral part. Major body systems are frequently negatively affected by stress generated in the mind. The body is incapable of dishonesty!

By the same token, the mind is effected by the healthy working order of other body systems. Certainly it is affected by physical activity, diet, meditation, acupuncture and a low-toxic environment.

People who are physically fit are less likely to become depressed. They are also more likely to have a strong immune system and an autonomic nervous system that is balanced and healthy in its management of key physiological responses. They are healthy and happy. They have normal blood pressure, they sleep like logs, are about their ideal weighty, rarely, if ever get a headache and don't have a crook back.

As your fitness level improves you can be certain that your score on the Mind and Body profile will also. 

MUSCULO-SKELETAL RISK FACTOR

Our musculo-skeletal risk factor profile looked at a range of parameters including mobility, strength and flexibility and whether people are training to keep themselves strong and flexible.

The musculo-skeletal risk factor profile is comprised of a mix of 9 objective and 3 subjective assessments.

•     

Current musculo-skeletal condition

•   Age

•   Closeness to ideal weight

•   Abdominal strength test

•   Upper body strength test

•   Flexibility

•   Functional mobility – the ability to sit down and stand up with ease.

•   Shoulder function

•   Dominant hand grip

•   Non-dominant hand grip

A score of 70% is attainable by those who have a regular and systematic training program.

Those scoring less than 70 are not doing sufficient in the way of strength and flexibility exercises. They are therefore exposing themselves to a high risk of musculo-skeletal dysfunction. (It would be bizarre for a workplace to offer to pay the rehabilitation costs of people who were not keeping themselves strong enough or flexible enough to do their job without succumbing to musculo-skeletal dysfunction, wouldn't it?)

Lack of strength and flexibility is something that The Organisation needs to take seriously and monitor carefully and put in place an organisation-wide strategy to improve musculo-skeletal function. By far and away a high proportion of people do not have a strength and flexibility program. As a result they are getting weaker and tighter by the week, thereby exposing themselves and the organisation to risk.

When push comes to shove and people become dysfunctional, it will be The Organisation that ends up paying the high cost of an avoidable musculo-skeletal complaint. Click here to read the article from injury to dysfunction. Click here to read about swifties and fallacies.

In our opinion musculo-skeletal dysfunction caused by lack of a regular and systematic strength and flexibility program cannot be classified as an injury. Responsibility for musculo-skeletal dysfunction needs to be sheeted home to individual employees, though it’s unlikely to happen without the establishment of a culture within the organisation that supports, values and understands the place of strength and flexibility in good health.

We recommend a range of strength and flexibility classes that are readily available Australia: -

The Organisation  would place itself in the forefront of OH&S practice if it took the musculo-skeletal risk seriously and moved heaven and earth to educate all staff about this risk and encourage them to take part in a regular strength and flexibility program. Maybe The Organisation  and its worker's compensation insurer could invest in a pilot program to increase staff strength and flexibility!

Whilst we rate the score as 'average', the lack of strength and flexibility training and the results of the people who scored poorly in abdominal and upper body strength is a cause for concern and needs the attention of individual staff and managers. 

DIET

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 ...

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

Australia is in a grip of an epidemic of general metabolic dysfunction generated by too much of the wrong food on the one hand, and too little of the right food on the other. It is our opinion that diets high in refined, cereal-based carbohydrates and sugar (the garbohydrates), mixed with too much fat are the reason for this epidemic. 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 now takes equal billing with the high fat diet as the major causes of obesity.

One thing that we observed was that not many people are aware 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.

CHEMICAL INTAKE

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?

We saw a number of people who were on anti-depressants. More and more people are being prescribed anti-depressants. 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, live stressful lives and/or live lives devoid of meaning and purpose, we can expect rates of anxiety and depression to increase along with the epidemic of a whole range of body-system dysfunctions.

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’.

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.

STRESS 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's 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.'

Depression

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’.

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.

CAREER SATISFACTION

The parameters in the profile relate to a mix of factors influenced 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 making a job or career change.

A word on management

It is usually the case that the question on feedback is the worst answered question in the book.  In this group this was definitely not the case.

RECOMMENDATIONS

See the generic list of recommendations.