Half of the workforce in Indian industries overweight

Health News : 20 May, 2008, 0950 hrs IST, PTI

NEW DELHI: Nearly half of the workforce in Indian industries, especially in urban areas, is overweight, and 27 per cent suffer from hypertension.

These revelations came across in a study conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to gauge workplace health problems.

The survey showed that 27 per cent of the workforce suffered from hypertension, 10.1 per cent suffer from diabetes and 47 per cent were overweight.

This was particularly evident in industries located in highly urbanised areas, the study said.

The study recommends imparting health education for preventing Cardio Vascular Diseases (CVD) and assess the impact of health education on controlling these diseases.

The surveillance started with a baseline survey of more than 35,000 employees and their family members in 10 different industries in India in the age group of 10-69 years and a detailed risk factor survey of 20,000 randomly-selected individuals.

The survey was part of a report "Preventing Communicable Diseases in the Workplace through Diet and Physical Activity" which was presented to the World Health Assembly in Geneva yesterday.

The document was the outcome of an event jointly organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Economic Forum and summarises the current evidence available in addressing different dimensions of the workplace as a key setting for interventions designed to prevent Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) through diet and physical activity.

Lifestyle diseases could cause huge losses to India

HEALTH NEWS 19 May, 2008, 1638 hrs IST, PTI NEW DELHI:

India could incur losses to the tune of $237 billion by 2015 due to a rise in lifestyle diseases like diabetes, stroke and cancer because of unhealthy workplaces, a new WHO report has said.

The economic loss in India, which was $8.7 billion in 2005, is projected to rise to $54 billion in 2015, according to the report "Preventing Communicable Diseases in the Workplace through Diet and Physical Activity".

The projected loss for China -- the other fast developing country -- is a massive $558 billion, while the estimated figure for Russia and the UK is $33 billion.

The estimated income loss in Brazil in 2015 would be $9.3 billion, while in Pakistan $6.7 billion, Nigeria $1.5 billion and Canada $1.5 billion.

Promoting the concept of a healthy workplace, the report has said targeting physical inactivity and unhealthy dietary habits are effective in improving health-related outcomes such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease risk factors.

the report was presented to the World Health Assembly in Geneva today.

This report, the outcome of an event jointly organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Economic Forum, summarises the current evidence available in addressing the different dimensions of the workplace as a key setting for interventions designed to prevent Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) through diet and physical activity.

Enhancing employee productivity, improving corporate image and moderating medical care costs are some of the arguments that might foster senior management to initiate and invest in programmes prompting healthy workplaces.

In 2005, an estimated 35 million people died of non- communicable diseases such as heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes.

Around 80 per cent of these deaths occur in low and middle-income countries that also have to deal with the burden of infectious diseases, maternal and perinatal conditions and nutritional deficiencies.

Key elements of successful Workplace Health Programme (WHP) programmes include establishing clear goals and objectives, linking programmes to business objectives, strong management support, effective communication with and involvement of employees at all levels of development and implementation of the WHP programme.

The document goes in to say that addressing diet and physical activity in the workplace has the potential to improve the health status of workers, contribute to a positive and caring image of the company, improve staff morale; reduce staff turnover and absenteeism, enhance productivity and reduce sick leave, health plan costs and workers' compensation and disability payments.

“See yourself in your Mirror”

Several years ago a great teacher and thinker after a powerful talk said to the audience

“See yourself in your Mirror”.

I was one among the audience. Though it was a simple sentence it was like a thunder, an electric shock to me.

It made me think. Am I really seeing me in my mirror?

Ask this question. Are we really seeing ourselves in our mirror?

Imagine you are in front of your bathroom mirror, brushing your teeth, shaving or putting lip stick on your lips.

What are you seeing on the mirror?

Are you seeing yourself there?
What a question; you may wonder.

But in reality most of us are not seeing ourselves there.

You may be staring at the mirror; but you may be missing you.
Eyes on your mirror, but thoughts wandering awry.
Your yesterdays may be haunting you, to morrows may be scaring you.
Things to do, things not completed, people, feelings and emotions bothering you and following like a shadow.

Mind travels beyond boundaries.
Your thoughts may take you to a place where you wish to go or where your son stays.
Or the traffic jams you experienced yesterday on your way to the airport and where you lost your cool!
Or you may be with your arrogant, critical boss.
May be you are in a meeting where you meet the same people who don’t understand you.

Everything flashes like a film in front of you. A theatre experience!
Your thoughts make you some time happy, sometimes angry, some times anxious, some time sad, different emotions.

So what are you seeing? Are you seeing you in your Mirror?

Thoughts, Thoughts and Thoughts

Wise men say on an average, a human being allows nearly 60,000 thoughts to run through the mind, every day. We may not be remembering all the sixty thousand, of course, which we can’t.
That is the beauty of the great creator, to make you remember only what you want to remember.
But in reality for us, most of these thoughts are tired, impoverished thoughts which we think over and over again, adding with various emotions. Mind you, most of these thoughts are negative and defeatist.

Science behind Thought

Every thought we have has an “idea” verbal component, an “image” or conceptual component and an “emotional” or feeling component and each plays a specific role. It is a 3 dimensional format.

Just say a word “Temple”

Observe what is happening in your mind. The word “Temple “triggers a picture of a temple, (may be of your personal God) followed by a feeling, a feeling of reverence. You feel more poised and pious.

The same is with any thought. Try it out.

So if most of our thoughts are negative and unhealthy what the outcome would be in our day to day life?

You mind is filled up with negative pictures and negative feelings.

Stimulants & Activating Events

You agree that we do not want negative pictures and negative feelings. But how do these thoughts enter our mind to create this experience.

To understand that we need to understand what our Mind is?
In simple terms Mind is where you have your thoughts, or where thoughts flow. Thoughts come and thoughts go.
And you know what thought is.

You have been thinking from the day you have born.
No one needs to teach any one “HOW” to think. It is like breathing.
Has any one taught you ‘How’ to breathe?
You may not know perhaps about the ‘Right’ breathing. That is Okay.
We shall see that later, not now. We shall also study How to Breath Right.

These 3 dimensional formats and these information collected by us through our five senses, becomes our ‘Personal Belief System’ or our understanding of the world around us. This may vary from person to person. This information from our birth on wards are collected and stored as in a library, as internal memory files or neurons in our brain! Scientists estimate that there are about one hundred billion cells known as neurons in the average human cortex and they are capable of storing more than one hundred trillion bits of information!
All of our memory elements are recorded in 3 dimension of everything you have ever thought or experienced.

If that is the case and if most of these thought are unwanted, unhealthy and negative, it is no wonder why we feel worn out, worried and stressful most of the time. When you have all these emotions unmanageable, you end up with something called ‘Illnesses’

Feeling Healthy and Being Healthy are two totally different things. You may be the proud owner of a beautiful body, a powerful muscular body that of a film actor, or your favorite hero. But if your mind is filled with worry, tension, anxiety and distress, do you think you are in total good health? You are not.


”As You Think So Shall You Be”

This is an age old saying which has a great truth buried in it. Please understand it doesn’t say ‘As you be so shall you think’. It doesn’t say the circumstances of your life will create the inner turmoil of the world you experience. It is the other way round.

The ancestor to every action is a thought. And what you think about expands. The thought you think or entertain, just expands. It get linked or connected to similar thoughts and emotions.
Observe your thoughts. You understand it better.

So what we are and where most of us are today is because of the thoughts we had in the past.


Your Belief System

What is Belief?
In a very simple term ‘what you think and accept consciously or unconsciously as true’ are your beliefs. Whether these beliefs are true or not, once we accept it, then they are true to us and then that is what your life will be about and those ultimately becomes our limitation.

We live with a set of beliefs called – religion, politics, ourselves, likes, dislikes, right, wrong etc.

Many of these beliefs are not true; they are garnered from our past experiences, groups of people, individuals etc or social conditioning. But we imagine it to be true. Both our Positive thinking and negative thinking are filtered through our belief systems.

Researchers say 50% of your belief systems are already established by the age you are two.
By the age of 6 – 60% of your belief systems are established and by the age of 8, 80% and when you are in the age of 14 years 90% of your belief system is established. Regardless of your age, who you think you are to day is decided primarily by the time you were 14!

In other words we have already been programmed!

Ok, if we have been programmed that way, and feel we couldn’t do much that time, but at the same time, wish to change who we are today and would be to morrow, is there a way out?

That is an excellent question and Psychologists say “YOU CAN”.

You can Reprogram Yourself.

More on that later.