Is Your Corporation Well

Corporate Wellness can significantly reduce the cost of employer provided health benefits and improve overall employee productivity and moral.

Here are a few of the statistics that are out there for the average American worker:

Preventable Chronic Diseases like heart disease and diabetes account for over 75% of health care costs

Obesity costs over $33 billion a year in health care costs

Companies are spending 50% of their profits in health care costs

Companies that have Wellness Education have experienced positive physical changes for their employee's health and well being and positive fiscal changes for the company's health and bottom line. There is a great quote from PepsiCo, Inc management that states "You cannot run a successful company with half well people". At each of the PepsiCo headquarters facilities, employees have access to full-service fitness and wellness centers at no charge to them. They are given flex time to attend health education classes. The leaders of PepsiCo, Inc know that for them to stay ahead of their competition they need to provide their employees with programs that teach them how to maintain their health, fitness and productivity.

During a perceived stressor, the fear of similar experiences may cause havoc with the emotional stability of the mind and nervous system. Increased stress and emotional instability may contribute to further physical and emotional harm.

The ability to identify and immediately interrupt the pattern of emotions relating to high priority presenting issues in any situation and the subsequent cascade of deterioration manifested through increased stress and often times physical pain, has proven invaluable for rapid recovery of individual health and well being. High Priority Presenting Issues may include but are not limited to dealing with difficult people in the office, managing emotion under pressure, reduction in force, etc...

Geneticists have known for some time that "stress" can affect genes and cause mutations. In the 1940s, American geneticist Barbara McClintock made an astounding discovery that wasn't fully recognized until much later. In 1983, she won a Nobel Prize for her discovery that genes could change their position on a chromosome in response to STRESS. In her Nobel lecture, she said that "shocks" to genetic material (anything from accidents within the cell to viral infections to altered surroundings) "forced the genome to restructure itself" in order to overcome the threat. (A genome is the total genetic material of an organism.)

"The sensing devices and the signals that initiate these adjustments are beyond our present ability to fathom," said McClintock. She encouraged scientists to move forward to determine "the extent of knowledge the cell has of itself, and how it utilizes this knowledge in a 'thoughtful' manner when challenged." She called the genome "a highly sensitive organ of the cell" that is capable of "sensing the unusual and unexpected events, and responding to them."

The close of her Nobel lecture, McClintock noted, prophetically, that scientists in the future would undoubtedly focus on the genome "with greater appreciation of its significance." In making her discoveries, McClintock had initially worked with plants, but scientists later recognized that the mechanism she had identified - genes moving around on chromosomes in response to stressors - could very well contribute to human evolution by creating new mutations. Just as important, this research showed that our genetic code is not static but is affected by stressors in its environment.

As it turns out, new research is starting to prove that stressors in our environment do indeed alter our DNA. A landmark study released in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in December 2004 indicated that major life stressors can actually damage the telomeres (the sections of DNA at the tips of chromosomes) inside the body's immune cells, decreasing the cells' lives. The study compared a group of women caring for children suffering from serious chronic conditions to a group of women with healthy children. An interesting feature of the study is that the results were strongly related to the perception of emotional stress. Women in both groups who felt they were undergoing the highest stress levels had telomeres comparable to someone ten years older than they were.

The objective of a Corporate Wellness can be:

Reduction in medical claims costs in the short and long term

To recognize Fight or Flight in the office when triggered by difficult employee behavior

A thorough understanding of Stress and the effects on the body, mind, spirit

Tips and Tools to let go of Stress in the office

How to deal with difficult people in the office and the effects on your health

Improve employee productivity, reduce absenteeism and decrease impact of disability on the organization bottom line

Improve moral

Improve self image of striving to be the best at your position

Improve performance of employees

Help employees identify their health risks and encourage them to lead healthier lives

Engage employees by addressing their desire to take control of their health and benefits

Motivate the employees to proactively manage his/her health

For more information about Corporate Wellness click here or contact Mary T. Bowen, MRET May 2008

Corporate Wellness ; Mary T. Bowen, MRET

Barbara Marciniak
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