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Perfect wheel of health for a successful, stress-free life

Perfect wheel of health for a successful, stress-free life  

A team of health practitioners argue that a healthy environment is necessary for workers to achieve optimal performance. Speaking to human resources managers at a wellness summit focusing on healthy living in Nairobi, a health expert urged the professionals to allow good health to prevail as only a healthy person can perform and deliver good results.

Health, according to Dr Jacqueline Kitulu of Jamko Health Clinic and Laboratory Services, is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

However, she pointed out that health is only one sector of wellness, which she described as a process of becoming aware of and making choices towards a successful life.

“The life balance wheel describes different facets of a holistically healthy person,” she pointed out. “Work is only one arm of the wheel, which contains eight variables that account for the different engagements the modern person grapples with.”

Kitulu, a family physician, advises her patients that they have to keep a perfectly round wheel to consider themselves completely healthy.

“As long as your plans for life, level of spirituality, health, state of work, social life, family situation; as well as if you take time off for unwinding, and the progress you are charting in your life, are misplaced, you are likely to suffer upheavals. The imbalance is not good for living,” she explained.

Of fundamental concern is the trend of non-communicable diseases creeping into lives as oblivious Kenyans “style” into unhealthy situations.

Lifestyle diseases, it appears, are slowly replacing communicable diseases that have hitherto been synonymous in the Kenyan population.

At the forum organised by Resolution Health Insurance, a study done on its members’ portfolios indicated that diseases of the respiratory system — such as tuberculosis, asthma, bronchitis, common cold, cystic fibrosis, influenza and pneumonia — accounted for the largest share of hospital bills last year. Nineteen per cent of the insurer’s users cumulatively spent over Sh317 million for treatment and related therapies.

Diseases of the digestive system and infectious and parasitic diseases came in second and third respectively.

The survey further found out that employees between 31 and 40 years old are developing chronic conditions as a result of poor diets and sedentary lifestyles that can be correlated with changing socioeconomic demographics.

Kirindi Odindo, a clinical psychologist, adds that stress (among employees) is slowly dismantling lives, leaving many with illnesses and generally lacking good health.

“Stress is synonymous with irritability, alcohol and drug abuse, carefree approach to sex, withdrawal and making wrong decisions,” says Kirindi.

To avoid this scenario, employers should avail wellness programmes at workplaces to assist their employees lead a healthy life; devoid of physical, mental, or social distress. Kitulu recommended introduction of screening services to detect problems early enough, preventive care, and health promotional activities.

“We ought to exercise well all the time. On a normal basis, one should have about 30 minutes of physical activity every day.

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