Health conditions that disrupt your career and how to prevent these health issues from bursting your career growth are the focus of this article. If you are healthy, productivity is high. Similarly, a healthier workforce means fewer compensation claims and absenteeism. But health conditions, both physical and mental, can affect your performance and eventually disrupt your career if unchecked. Read on to find out how effective self-help and workplace prevention tips guide against disruptive health conditions.
Physical Health Conditions
According to 2020 research, the health conditions most strongly linked to increased health-related productive loss are:
- Infertility treatment (30.6%)
- Osteoporosis (25.9%)
- Cancer (25.3%)
- Gastric ulcer or duodenal ulcer (25.0%)
- Anaemia (23.9%)
Other major important health conditions in order of their level of induced burden of productivity loss are:
- High blood pressure
- Diabetes, and obesity
- Fatigue
- Neck, back, knee, or shoulder pain
- Poor sleep and insomnia
- Headache
- Common cold and flu
- Diarrhoea or constipation
Mental Health Conditions
Mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression, also affect employees’ careers. Although these are usually hidden at work. Consequently, most of these issues go undetected, and untreated, and may damage your career and productivity at work.
Self-Help Prevention Tips
What health issues affect your ability to work? Are the health issues physical or mental? So, having identified health conditions that disrupt your career, how do you prevent these health issues? The answer is healthy living. A healthy lifestyle can prevent these medical conditions. For instance cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and lung diseases are preventable diseases. Hence, you can reduce your risk of these long-term chronic diseases by changing the way you live to a healthier one.
How to Get the Benefits of Healthy Living
And since these health conditions share risk factors that relate to daily choices, making healthier choices will help you reduce your risk of health conditions that disrupt your career. Also, you will feel much better, and your overall quality of life will improve. Find below 7 healthy choices you can make to reduce your risk for disease.
Avoid smoking and limit alcohol
Smoking is the major cause of lung cancer, as well as a major risk factor for heart attack and stroke. So don’t smoke. And if you smoke, get help to quit. Additionally, moderate drinking of one drink for women or two drinks for men per day may offer some health benefits. However, too much alcohol is unhealthy and can put you at risk for many kinds of cancer.
Exercise daily
You need regular exercise to stay healthy which makes it easier to maintain healthy body weight. Exercise can be as simple as taking 30 minutes to walk, or going up and down the stairs. Besides, dancing or just stretching throughout your day is good too. So find an exercise activity you like and get moving.
Eat healthy foods
Following a healthy and balanced diet will help lower your cholesterol and reduce your risk for disease. Therefore eat clean, high-fibre, and low-fat foods. Equally, eat 5-10 servings of fruits and vegetables every day.
Maintain a healthy weight
Being overweight increases your risk for diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers. For instance, the risk of a heart attack is three times higher in women who are overweight than in those who have a healthy weight. Talk to your healthcare provider to determine your personal healthy weight. Then work out a plan to achieve or maintain it.
Control your blood pressure.
Keeping your blood pressure in check can help prevent damage and hardening to the walls of your arteries. As such, have your blood pressure checked regularly and follow your management directions.
Reduce your stress
Take time to relax. Watch a movie on your laptop. Stress can raise your cholesterol level and blood pressure leading to heart attack and stroke. Stress is also a trigger for mental health problems like depression.
Get regular medical checkups
It’s vital to know your body. So get into the habit of getting regular medical checkups to measure your blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels.
Work Place Prevention Tips
Research has demonstrated that workplace health initiatives can help reduce sick leave absenteeism by 27% and health-care costs for companies by 26%.
CDC, Workplace Health Program, 2020
While it’s important to prevent medical conditions bursting your careers through self-help. Similarly, your employers need to put some programs in place to complement your efforts. The following are effective intervention tips to prevent occupational diseases and for good health in the workplace.
Prevent occupational diseases
There are effective interventions to prevent occupational diseases. For example review pollution sources, ventilation, noise control, dangerous chemicals, furniture arrangement, and work plan.
Design a workplace health program
Plan a broad workplace health program that addresses many risk factors and health conditions at the same time. This program will include policies, benefits, and environmental support to keep all employees healthy and safe. For example, education classes, access to local fitness facilities, policies that promote healthy foods, or smoke-free workplaces. And insurance coverage for preventive screenings.
Prioritise health conditions
Prioritise health conditions linked to health-related productive loss when implementing health promotion programs. In addition, focus on effective strategies to increase work productivity and safety, especially among workers in manual or semi-manual labour.
Photo Credit: Creative Commons
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/protecting-workers’-health
