Why health & wellness at work is more than just meditating.
Stress has a profound impact on our bodies and its impact on our internal processes can be a big factor in the genesis of many chronic conditions (1, 2). Work, home, finances, relationships, family, health can all be stressful. Lifestyle habits to help manage stress have become more accessible and more recognised, meditation apps, yoga, running, reading, even watching TV allows us to switch off and de-stress.
However, if you looked around at your team or your colleagues and considered what’s on their mind when it comes to their health and wellbeing would you know the answer? And even more importantly, would you know how to support them? Whilst stress management should be a core pillar of any wellbeing plan it shouldn’t be all we focus on when it comes to health and wellbeing.
Here’s 7 things to get you thinking more broadly.
Image credit: Patrick Hendry
1. What we eat affects our mood and our productivity.
High amounts of refined carbohydrates disrupt hormones, energy and psychological well being (3), lack of certain B vitamins affects mental functioning and fatigue (4), unrecognised intolerances can leave us with headaches and brain fog (5). Whereas well balanced whole foods give sustained energy and support mental health. So eating the wrong food really can impact our ability to function well at work.
2. Food allergies and intolerances play havoc with the health of our mind and body.
Food allergies are increasing, affecting 1-2% of adults and 5%-8% of children in the UK (8) and food intolerances affecting up to 20% of the population (9). Both allergies and intolerances have varied effects, short and long term, manifestations include bloating, changing bowel habits, fatigue, headaches, musculoskeletal aches and pains, mucus production (9). All of these affect our sense of health and wellbeing on daily basis, sometimes unknowingly, and can create many knock-on effects to how we might perform at work.
3. Screen time stimulates our neurons, affects our stress and impacts quality of sleep.
Most people know there’s a night-mode on the laptop and phone but how many use it? The blue light our screens emit suppress melatonin production (which we need for good quality sleep) (10), shifts our circadian rhythm and reduces the amount of REM we achieve (9). Evening screen time before bed reduces our alertness the next morning (9). We need our sleep for recovery, healing and cleansing. Without deep sleep our bodies struggle to do this effectively so working late has a profound effect on our sleep system and our body as a whole, beyond the hours someone is actually working. We don’t often consider the long-term impact of our decisions to work late and our extended hours on the screen but we should.
4. Food restrictions can make team lunches, client lunches or company celebrations stressful and uncomfortable.
I’ve worked at businesses where a team lunch or drinks after work were used for thank yous and celebrations, or suppliers bring donuts to get in favour. But, have you ever thought about how everyone in your team feels when these things happen? Its perilous ground for anyone with any kind of food restriction and what’s meant to cheer people up, can actually have a negative psychosocial impact (11).
Being vegan, gluten free, alcohol-free or avoiding certain foods due to culture, religion, values, allergies or intolerances are not considered as often as they should in our day-to-day working life. If you live with any of these it can make you feel awkward when talk of a lunch comes around or someone brings in birthday cakes. If someone is fasting for a religious event, having people around you stuffing their faces with donuts can be disrespectful and make the fasting experience more difficult.
Being the one to say “I can’t eat at that restaurant” in front of others can be soul destroying. Some may silently go along with it and suffer horrible consequences of what they eat because of the fear of being the “odd-one out”.
There’s so many layers to this that aren’t considered and I’ve not even touched on the impact of food in the workplace for those suffering any type of eating disorder, of which an estimated 1.25million people in the UK suffer on some level (12).
Are you aware of all the dietary or eating concerns your team might have? When you book your next lunch or dinner how can you make it a safe environment for people to share their needs and respond supportively?
5. Dehydration makes us tired, grumpy and groggy.
Research shows that even 2% dehydration impairs mental acuity and memory (6), and only 40% of men and 60% women comply with the European Food Agencies recommended daily fluid intake (7). A long task list, impending deadlines, sitting far away from the kitchen can all impact the amount someone drinks on a daily basis. Daily teas & coffee, alcohol the night before, poor sleep, salt intake, exercise and sugary drinks make us even more dehydrated, reducing our brain function further. Are you and your team drinking 2-litres of water a day?
6. Working from home can create a different type of isolation and lost connection.
We’ve spent 2 years living a life very different from pre-March 2020. Zoom/Teams/Skype became the way to communicate but it’s crucial to consider different personalities and online dynamics in the virtual world.
If you’re introverted or not the loudest person in the room, 4 people or more on a virtual meeting can make it tough to be part of the conversation. People find it hard to come forward and ask for help because it feels like a big thing to book a meeting when everyone’s diaries are full. Managers can’t see when people are stressed like they could in the office or if they are working late and need support. People can sit at home struggling with an issue for hours, even days, and how would anyone know??
What worked in the office, doesn’t often translate online. There’s no coffee machine chat or dropping by someone's desk so we need to think smartly about how to create alternatives in the virtual world and support everyone in a way that suits their personality. What’s your method for connecting across the team? How do you catch stress and discontent before it bubbles for too long?
7. Working environment encompasses many factors and impacts our wellbeing.
Our working environment dramatically affects the way we think, perform and interact with others. In fact, people's physical activity and sedentary behaviour are influenced by the physical environment in and around the workplace (13). A negative environment can create bad feelings, resentment and impacts employee productivity and turnover; psychosocial work factors and work scheduling can directly impact sleep (14).
Whereas a great environment has the opposite effect. A healthy environment values people, treats everyone with respect and supports them in personal and professional growth. It champions communication and collaboration and facilitates decision-making (12). Workstation reviews are commonplace in the office but how often are some of these other factors considered, measured and reviewed in your workplace?
References:
Marlotti, A (2015). The effects of chronic stress on health: new insights into the molecular mechanisms of brain–body communication, Future Sci OA. Nov; 1(3): FSO23
Black PH (2003). The inflammatory response is an integral part of the stress response: Implications for atherosclerosis, insulin resistance, type II diabetes and metabolic syndrome X. Brain Behav Immun. Oct;17(5), pp.350-64.
Firth, J., Gangwisch, J. E., Borisini, A., Wootton, R. E., & Mayer, E. A. (2020). Food and mood: how do diet and nutrition affect mental wellbeing?. BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 369, m2382.
Kennedy D. O. (2016). B Vitamins and the Brain: Mechanisms, Dose and Efficacy--A Review. Nutrients, 8(2), pp.68.
Croall ID, Hoggard N, Aziz I, Hadjivassiliou M, Sanders DS. (2020). Brain fog and non-coeliac gluten sensitivity: Proof of concept brain MRI pilot study. PLoS One. Aug 28;15(8):e0238283.
Adan, A. (2012). Cognitive performance and dehydration. Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 31(2), pp.71-78.
Ferreira-Pêgo, C., Guelinckx, I., Moreno, L. A., Kavouras, S. A., Gandy, J., Martinez, H., Bardosono, S., Abdollahi, M., Nasseri, E., Jarosz, A., Babio, N., & Salas-Salvadó, J. (2015). Total fluid intake and its determinants: cross-sectional surveys among adults in 13 countries worldwide. European journal of nutrition, 54, Suppl 2, pp.35–43.
Soon JM. Food allergen knowledge, attitude and practices among UK consumers: A structural modelling approach. (2019 ) Food Res Int. Jun;120, pp.375-381.
Lomer MC. Review article: the aetiology, diagnosis, mechanisms and clinical evidence for food intolerance. (2015). Aliment Pharmacol Ther. Feb;41(3), pp.262-75.
Chang AM, Aeschbach D, Duffy JF, Czeisler CA. (2015). Evening use of light-emitting eReaders negatively affects sleep, circadian timing, and next-morning alertness. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. Jan 27;112(4), pp.1232-7.
Feng C, Kim JH. Beyond Avoidance: the Psychosocial Impact of Food Allergies. (2019). Clin Rev Allergy Immunol. Aug;57(1), pp.74-82.
BEAT Eating Disorders [Online] Accessed May 9, 2022. https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/get-information-and-support/about-eating-disorders/how-many-people-eating-disorder-uk/
Donley J. (2021). The Impact of Work Environment on Job Satisfaction: Pre-COVID Research to Inform the Future. Nurse leader, 19(6), pp.585–589.
Xuemei Zhu, Aya Yoshikawa, Lingyi Qiu, Zhipeng Lu, Chanam Lee, Marcia Ory. (2020). Healthy workplaces, active employees: A systematic literature review on impacts of workplace environments on employees’ physical activity and sedentary behaviour. Building and Environment, 168, pp.106455.