Tag: wellness

What are the health consequences of overweight and obesity for adults?

Body-Mass-Index-Calculator-2Body Mass Index (BMI) is a number calculated from a person’s weight and height. BMI is a fairly reliable indicator of body fatness for most people.

The BMI ranges are based on the relationship between body weight and disease and death. Overweight and obese individuals are at increased risk for many diseases and health conditions, including the following:

  • Hypertension
  • Dyslipidemia (for example, high LDL cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol, or high levels of triglycerides)
  • Type 2 diabetes
  • Coronary heart disease
  • Stroke
  • Gallbladder disease
  • Osteoarthritis
  • Sleep apnea and respiratory problems
  • Some cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon)

via Healthy Weight: Assessing Your Weight: BMI: About Adult BMI | DNPAO | CDC.

Risk Management 365

RM365 LogoThis is post number 365 since I launched this blog a year ago. To date we have had over 8000 views and growing every day.

So what is Risk Management 365 anyway? It’s following a 5 step process of managing risk 365 days a year not just buying insurance once a year. Insurance is NOT risk management ! There is no amount of insurance that can reverse a serious injury or death of a father, grandmother, son or grandchild. We live in a dangerous unhealthy world but though education and support from committed employers and engaged employees and their families we are making a difference. How many people quit texting while driving or began a regular exercise program after reading about it in this blog? How many children now wear a helmet when riding their bike? How many people recognized the signs off a heart attack and got treatment? If you have I would love to hear from you.

Our mission is “Keeping employees and their families healthy and safe at home and at work.”

Learn more about  Ottawa Kent and the Risk Management 365 process at www.ottawakent.com

Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking

Smoking_killsThe adverse health effects from cigarette smoking account for an estimated 443,000 deaths, or nearly one of every five deaths, each year in the United States.

More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by all deaths from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined.

Smoking causes an estimated 90% of all lung cancer deaths in men and 80% of all lung cancer deaths in women.

An estimated 90% of all deaths from chronic obstructive lung disease are caused by smoking.

via CDC – Fact Sheet – Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking – Smoking & Tobacco Use.

What Are The Benefits Of A Health Risk Assessment?

HRAConducting a health risk assessment has several potential benefits including identifying health risk factors, controlling health care costs, predicting employee absenteeism, encouraging individuals to take a proactive stance when it comes to personal health care and monitoring the health status of the general population. Each of these factors can contribute to preventing future health problems. Health risk assessments are used by a wide range of groups and for a variety of reasons.

via What Are The Benefits Of A Health Risk Assessment? | LIVESTRONG.COM.

Blood Pressure: Key to Heart Health

High-Blood-pressureYour doctor tells you your blood pressure numbers, or you hear the doctors on ER shout “pressure’s dropping!” Do you actually know what that means?

Blood pressure consists of two numbers. Your systolic pressure measures the pressure of blood against artery walls when the heart pumps blood out during a heartbeat, while the diastolic pressure measures the same pressure between heartbeats, when the heart fills with blood. “Both of these numbers are important, just because one is normal doesn’t mean you’re off the hook.”

Normal blood pressure is below 120/80.

Pre-hypertension is 120 to 139 (systolic) and/or 80 to 89 (diastolic).

Hypertension – also known as high blood pressure — is 140 or higher (systolic) and 90 or higher (diastolic).

One in three adults in the U.S. — about 74 million people — has high blood pressure or pre-hypertension. Between 1996 and 2006, the number of deaths from high blood pressure rose by more than 48%.

via Key Numbers for Heart Health: Cholesterol, Blood Pressure, Waist Size.

How to Relieve Stress at Work

  • stress-e1347025475899Take a few deep breaths, allowing your rib cage and belly to expand as you inhale. Exhale slowly.
  • Seek a change in venue. Getting away from your work station, even for a walk to the water cooler, can help you collect your thoughts and refocus on the task at hand.
  • Laugh! Read one of your favorite jokes or simply laugh aloud.
  • Play with a stress-relieving toy or game like a mini-basketball hoop, dart board, foam stress ball or punching bag.
  • Close your eyes and listen to soothing music.
  • Visualize yourself relaxing at your favorite vacation spot or completing the big presentation with ease.

via How to Relieve Stress at Work | eHow.com.

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.