Heart health and employee productivity
It is estimated that a person will spend 90,000 hours working for a living, which is approximately one-third of a person’s total life.
As this represents a significant part of a human’s lifespan, employers and employees must take care of their health. Today, we will cover one of the most critical aspects of health, namely heart health.
The organ known as the heart is located in the chest above the diaphragm, between the lungs. It works as a pump to transport oxygenated blood throughout the body and flushes out deoxygenated blood. The heart beats over 100,000 times daily and pumps about 1.5 gallons of blood every minute.
Other Functions of the Heart
Apart from pumping blood throughout the body, the heart again performs the following functions:
- maintaining normal blood pressure.
- working with other body systems to control bodily functions.
Diseases That Affect the Heart
Heart disease is the number one killer worldwide, responsible for 16 per cent of the world’s total deaths. Since 2000, the largest increase in deaths has been from this disease, rising by more than two million to 8.9 million deaths in 2019. The following are some of the diseases that may affect the heart:
- Heart Arrhythmias.
- Heart Failure
- Heart Valve Disease.
- Pericardial Disease.
- Cardiomyopathy (Heart Muscle Disease)
- Congenital Heart Disease.
- Vein and artery disease
- Coronary artery disease
Basic steps to Heart Health
1. DO NOT smoke and don’t inhale smoke from others.
2. Eat more fruits and vegetables (get the best you can).
3. Stay Active/Exercise – let your heart work to strengthen it
4. Eat Healthy.
– low in saturated fats such as full cream milk, animal fat
-low in refined carbohydrates such as white bread
-low in salt
– handful of nuts
5. Stay Happy! Self care is a must; hobbies, laugh, breathe
The 29th of September is World Heart Day, a day dedicated to spreading heart health awareness by reducing risk factors for heart disease through various initiatives.
Early prevention is the best way to avoid heart problems later in life, which is why it is so important to help your employees get heart-healthy. Here is some important information and initiatives you can take to promote heart health in your workplace. However, be sure to continue your company’s heart health initiatives throughout the year to have a true impact on your employees’ health and output.
- Offer healthy workplace snacks and food with reduced salt, sugar, and saturated fats.
- Provide easy access to annual medical examinations. Blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, and triglycerides which are indicators of possible heart disease that can be detected in routine screenings. Provide free annual screenings on-site or at a nearby clinic for employees.
- Promote exercise both on and off the work premises. Consider organising company fitness sessions if you cannot offer employees free or discounted memberships at a local gym. A monthly walk with incentives could be offered to boost morale.
- Help reduce employees stress. One is more likely to suffer from heart disease if you are stressed. Stress increases your risk of coronary artery disease and high blood pressure. Provide some of these services to employees to help them manage stress.
- Provide counselling programmes for employees.
- Offer free massage packages.
- Incorporate working-from-home days.
- Organise heart health education events. Educate employees about heart-healthy lifestyles. Health and exercise professionals can teach engaging classes covering a variety of topics, such as nutrition, exercise, stress reduction, and smoking cessation. These events do not have to be organised during heart health month, but can be incorporated throughout the year.
- Get employees wellness services from an experienced team. Health Essentials has a robust corporate wellness programme and an experienced team of professionals that can help with this. As part of our services, we provide on-site clinics, medical exams, virtual wellness programmes, health education, and training for corporate bodies and can boast of 17 years of experience in the corporate wellness sector.
The heart is an important organ that helps with our output. This is why protecting it is so important, as a healthy heart means great relationships, great work output, and, above all, great quality of life. It is important that all of us, but especially employers, promote employee health and wellness since this is the ONLY proven way to reduce healthcare expenditure.
TODAY SOMEONE WILL ACHIEVE HEART-HEALTH; WILL IT BE YOU?
Reference:
https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/about.htm
https://www.gettysburg.edu/news/stories?id=79db7b34-630c-4f49-ad32-4ab9ea48e72b
Put together by
Maureen Masopeh and Augustina Amarh
Content Creators
Health Essentials Ltd
