Category: Wellness

Prevent Liver Failure

gary-reinbachLiver failure occurs when large parts of the liver become damaged beyond repair and the liver is no longer able to function.

Liver failure is a life-threatening condition that demands urgent medical care. Most often, liver failure occurs gradually and over many years. However, a more rare condition known as acute liver failure occurs rapidly (in as little as 48 hours) and can be difficult to detect initially.

What Causes Liver Failure?

The most common causes of chronic liver failure (where the liver fails over months to years) include:

  • Hepatitis B
  • Hepatitis C
  • Long term alcohol consumption
  • Cirrhosis
  • Hemochromatosis (an inherited disorder that causes the body to absorb and store too much iron)
  • Malnutrition

The causes of acute liver failure, when the liver fails rapidly, however, are often different. These include:

  • Acetaminophen (Tylenol) overdose.
  • Viruses including hepatitis A, B, and C (especially in children).
  • Reactions to certain prescription and herbal medications.
  • Ingestion of poisonous wild mushrooms.

via Liver Failure Causes, Symptoms, Treatments, Tests & More.

Safety and Health Add Value

Health & Safety_1Addressing safety and health issues in the workplace saves the employer money and adds value to the business. Recent estimates place the business costs associated with occupational injuries at close to $170 billion – expenditures that come straight out of company profits.

When workers stay whole and healthy, the direct cost-savings to businesses include:

  • lower workers’ compensation insurance costs;
  • reduced medical expenditures;
  • smaller expenditures for return-to-work programs;
  • fewer faulty products;
  • lower costs for job accommodations for injured workers;
  • less money spent for overtime benefits.

Safety and health also make big reductions in indirect costs, due to:

  • increased productivity;
  • higher quality products;
  • increased morale;
  • better labor/management relations;
  • reduced turnover;
  • better use of human resources.

Employees and their families benefit from safety and health because:

  • their incomes are protected;
  • their family lives are not hampered by injury;
  • they have less stress.

Simply put, protecting people on the job is in everyone’s best interest – our economy, our communities, our fellow workers and our families. Safety and health add value to businesses, workplaces and lives.

via Employee Health and Safety – SmallBusinessNotes.com.

Cancer Prevention

091216a-lung-cancer-cellsWhat Is Cancer?

Cancer is a term used for diseases in which abnormal cells divide without control and are able to invade other tissues. Cancer cells can spread to other parts of the body through the blood and lymph systems. Cancer is not just one disease, but many diseases. There are more than 100 different types of cancer.

How Can Cancer Be Prevented?

The number of new cancer cases can be reduced, and many cancer deaths can be prevented. Research shows that screening for cervical and colorectal cancers as recommended helps prevent these diseases by finding precancerous lesions so they can be treated before they become cancerous. Screening for cervical, colorectal, and breast cancers also helps find these diseases at an early, often highly treatable stage.

Vaccines also help reduce cancer risk. The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine helps prevent most cervical cancers and some vaginal and vulvar cancers, and the hepatitis B vaccine can help reduce liver cancer risk. Making cancer screening, information, and referral services available and accessible to all Americans can reduce cancer incidence and deaths.

A person’s cancer risk can be reduced in other ways by receiving regular medical care, avoiding tobacco, limiting alcohol use, avoiding excessive exposure to ultraviolet rays from the sun and tanning beds, eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, maintaining a healthy weight, and being physically active.

via CDC – Cancer – Prevention.

Why Get an Annual Physical?

Dr. David RiceEven though you may be feeling healthy, it’s important to get regular physical exams to help ensure that you stay that way.

The U.S. National Library of Medicine says regular physicals will allow your doctor to:

  • Check regularly for signs of disease. Early detection often helps improve the chances of recovery.
  • Determine your risk of future health problems, and possibly, to prevent them.
  • Talk with you about your lifestyle, and to recommend changes.
  • Give you any needed vaccinations.
  • Get to know your history, in the event that you become seriously ill.

via Health Tip: Why Get an Annual Physical? – Drugs.com MedNews.

2013 – the year of disease prevention and health promotion!

health-promotion-industryThe New Year holds much promise for Total Worker Health™. In fact, 2013 may well become the year of disease prevention and health promotion! This abundance of opportunity can be credited to the Affordable Care Act and its provisions related to wellness programs.

The provision that focuses on employer wellness programs has the most potential to directly affect the Total Worker Health™ community. This proposed rule will expand the ability of employers to reward workers who achieve health improvement goals. Beginning in 2014, the health care law will allow employers to increase incentives for participation in programs that require an employee to achieve an agreed-upon wellness goal (health-contingent wellness programs). Specifically, employers will be able to increase incentives from the currently allowable 20% to as much as 30% of an employee’s insurance costs, and in some cases as much as 50%. Examples of health-contingent wellness programs include: programs that provide a reward to those who do not use, or decrease their use of, tobacco; programs that provide a reward to those who achieve a specified cholesterol level or weight. To protect employees from unfair practices, the proposed regulations will require health-contingent wellness programs to follow rules designed for employees who need wellness-related accommodations. Employers may continue to support “participatory wellness programs” which generally are available without regard to an individual’s health status. These include, for example, programs that reimburse for the cost of membership in a fitness center; that provide a reward to employees for attending a monthly, no-cost health education seminar; or that provides a reward to employees who complete a health risk assessment without requiring them to take further action.

via CDC – NIOSH – Total Worker Health™ in Action – January 2013.

Leading Cause of Emphysema is Smoking

EmphysemaEmphysema occurs when the air sacs in your lungs are gradually destroyed, making you progressively more short of breath. Emphysema is one of several diseases known collectively as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Smoking is the leading cause of emphysema.

As it worsens, emphysema turns the spherical air sacs — clustered like bunches of grapes — into large, irregular pockets with gaping holes in their inner walls. This reduces the surface area of the lungs and, in turn, the amount of oxygen that reaches your bloodstream.

Emphysema also slowly destroys the elastic fibers that hold open the small airways leading to the air sacs. This allows these airways to collapse when you breathe out, so the air in your lungs can’t escape. Treatment may slow the progression of emphysema, but it can’t reverse the damage.

via Emphysema – MayoClinic.com.

What are the Symptoms of High Blood Pressure?

????????????????????????????????????????There’s a common misconception that people with high blood pressure, also called hypertension, will experience symptoms such as nervousness, sweating, difficulty sleeping or facial flushing. The truth is that HBP is largely a symptomless condition. If you ignore your blood pressure because you think symptoms will alert you to the problem, you are taking a dangerous chance with your life. Everybody needs to know their blood pressure numbers, and everyone needs to prevent high blood pressure from developing.

via What are the Symptoms of High Blood Pressure?.

What Is Heart Disease?

Bring up heart disease, and most people think of a heart attack. But there are many conditions that can undermine the heart’s ability to do its job. These include coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathy, arrhythmia, and heart failure. Keep reading to find out what these disorders do to the body and how to recognize the warning signs.

via Heart Disease Pictures Slideshow: A Visual Guide to Heart Disease on MedicineNet.com.

Don’t Ignore the Signs of Substance Abuse

substance-abuseSome of the most common signs of substance abuse are things that aren’t there -– namely, the employee and the employee’s work ethic.

Unexplained absences and a decline in productivity might indicate an employee has a problem with substance abuse, noted Gordon Hughes, director of the employee assistance program at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “The employee is probably missing Mondays or Fridays,” Hughes said. “There’s also a change in productivity. They were a good producer, they worked well, then there’s a sudden change. It may or may not be alcohol, but something is going on, and that’s a warning sign.”

via Don’t Ignore the Signs of Substance Abuse — Occupational Health & Safety.