Monday, May 27, 2013 C7
HEALTH When stress takes a toll, spring clean your spleen
Professor Carol Black is an expert on health in the workplace. Photo: May Tse
.............................................. Wynnie Chan life@scmp.com
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Hong Kong could learn a lot from Britain about how to keep its ageing workforce fit, happy and productive, a visiting expert tells Jeanette Wang
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hat’s the cost of poor health? For EDF Energy, one of Britain’s largest energy companies, ill health among employees costs £13 million (HK$164.4 million) a year. In 2006, the company decided to introduce several initiatives to improve workplace health by promoting good lifestyles and encouraging staff, their families and the wider community to boost their general well-being. As part of an employee support programme, psychological support (cognitive behavioural therapy) was offered to employees and more than 1,000 managers were trained to recognise psychological ill health among staff. A team of “health advocates”, made up of staff volunteers, started an engaging health and well-being programme, including physiotherapy services, ergonomic assessments, and stress and resilience training. Efforts were also made to enhance the workplace based on good work principles, such as strong relationships, fairness, flexible working arrangements and meaningful work. The result was a large reduction in sickness absence and a boost in productivity, which has saved EDF Energy about £4 million since 2006. Job satisfaction has risen from 36 to 68 per cent. Professor Carol Black, expert adviser on work and health at Britain’s Department of Health, cited EDF Energy as a positive example during a recent presentation on workplace health to representatives from about 25 local organisations at Hong Kong’s British Council. “There are basic principles about how you can keep people healthy and well and in work, and I think they apply to Hong Kong as much as they apply to Britain,” says Black, 73, who is also the principal of Newnham College at Cambridge. With sickness absence and worklessness
that provided departments in 2001 case managed, found that the staff multicost of sick leave disciplinary amounted to support for HK$718 million. SME The 682,000 days of employees in associated with ill health costing sick leave were The amount, in HK dollars, the early Britain more than £100 billion a equivalent to 1.3 per lost to sick leave in 2001 stages of year, Black says the key issue cent of the working across 79 government sickness absence facing the British workforce is time of the officers. departments (about four weeks) how to keep people who are fit With an ageing who were at risk of for employment at work, not population, spending long periods away taking sick leave, and how to keeping the from work with health enable them to work for a longer workforce healthy will become problems. The project, which period of time. ever more important. The ran from 2009 to March this There are 27.5 million people Census and Statistics year, is under review and could employed in Britain, 2.4 million Department has projected the be rolled out nationwide if found without jobs and nine million ratio of dependents to workers to be beneficial. inactive. People with common (age 15 to 64) will increase Black has also recommended health problems are 60 per cent from 333 per 1,000 in 2011 to that expenditure by employers less likely to be employed and 40 562 per 1,000 by 2031. Over targeted at keeping sick per cent more likely to be this period, the median age of employees in work (or speeding inactive, says Black. the population would also their return to work), such as The two most common increase from 37 to 51. medical treatments or causes of sickness absence in Britain faces a similar vocational rehabilitation, should Britain and in many other challenge. Black, a countries, such as Australia, rheumatologist, was handpicked attract tax relief. “We estimate that this will cost around £150 New Zealand and the US, are for her current role in 2006 by million a year, but will result in mental health (stress, anxiety, the government to improve gains to employers of up to £250 mild depression) and Britain’s workplace health and million,” she says. musculoskeletal conditions. reduce the burden and costs of The promotion of health in Poor health – sickness sickness absence. She has absence, disability and workers’ published two review reports: on the workplace, Black says, should be a team effort between compensation – costs the US the health of the working-age the government (through verbal economy US$576 billion a population in 2008, and on and visible support), health year, according to research sickness absence in 2011. professionals and employers. published last year by the nonA key point in her reports: “At the moment in Britain, profit organisation Integrated work is compatible with less we have a great interest in Benefits Institute. than perfect health. “For most improving people’s resilience Hong Kong people of working age, work – and mental health – proactively, statistics are the right work – is good for their rather than waiting until people sparse. A health and well-being. For most become sick.” government people, worklessness is Often, the best medicine for audit of 141,000 harmful,” says Black. “Much productivity is simply support civil servants sickness absence and inactivity from the manager or employer. from 79 follows common health “It’s all about people being in government problems which, given the right good work; work in which you bureaus and support, are compatible with feel you have a sense of control work – although sometimes it and autonomy, where the means a different kind of work.” leadership is empowering and The first step in stemming you feel appreciated,” she says. sickness absence and inactivity “The biggest thing is knowing was by improving sickness how to look after people. certification in Britain – or the These things don’t cost money sicknote system. – they cost attitude and a bit Based on Black’s of time.” recommendations in her 2008 In a study published last review, the “fit note” was year in the European Journal of introduced to replace the old Work and Organisational sick note in April 2010. Psychology, researchers from the Instead of advising their University of Haifa in Israel patients that they were examined a group of 241 completely fit or completely workers at a manufacturing unfit for work, doctors now company in China. They found could advise that their patient that support from a supervisor – has some functional limitations for example, lightened work but could return to the load or stress management workplace – with appropriate training – when an employee is support. Possible support experiencing psychosomatic included changing roles or office location, symptoms of stress, such as stomach ache or headache, is reduced or flexible more likely to keep the worker hours or a phased from taking sick leave. return to work, The researchers say this is providing additional because the worker feels more training or inclined to reciprocate the supervision, arranging supportive treatment by keeping a mentor or work their work effort high. buddy, or More employers are taking arranging workplace health more for an occupational seriously, Black says. “Over the past five years, certainly in health Britain, I’ve seen many assessment. more companies understand the Another economic equation, what they initiative would gain financially and what Black they would gain in an engaged launched is workforce. The bottom line: a the Fit for healthier workforce is a more Work productive workforce.” Service, a PROFESSOR CAROL BLACK jeanette.wang@scmp.com pilot project
For most people, work – the right work – is good for their health and well-being
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Traditional Chinese medicine holds that emotional stress wreaks havoc on our health by affecting the flow of chi (energy) and blood in the abdomen. Imbalances in the spleen, in particular, can occur as a result of an unhealthy diet and lifestyle exacerbated by sustained levels of stress. “The majority of functional gastrointestinal disorders, such as poor appetite, dyspepsia, diarrhoea and constipation result from a weak spleen organ system,” says Professor Bian Zhaoxiang, a Chinese medicine expert and director of the clinical division of Baptist University’s School of Chinese Medicine. The spleen is considered by practitioners to be the main organ of digestion, responsible for transforming and extracting nutrients from the foods we eat into chi and blood. It is a yin (“cold”) organ system that prefers food and drink that are “warming” to the body temperature and temperament. Think of the spleen as being powered by heat. Frozen food, icy drinks, cucumber, bitter or winter melon, lettuce and grapefruit deplete the spleen’s “fire”. Foods that are “damp” – such as dairy products, refined sugars and sweets – can also smother the digestive process. In general, to nourish the spleen, foods must be cooked or brought to at least room temperature. Sesame, pumpkin or sunflower seeds, legumes, kidney beans, lightly cooked vegetables, small amounts of lean meats, figs, coconuts,
A range of herbs is recommended for treating the spleen. Photo: David Wong grapes, cherries, dates, potatoes, sweet potatoes, brown rice, oats, rice, ginger, spring onions and pu’er tea are among the best foods for the organ. Different types of herbs are also recommended for treating different types of spleen imbalances and particular gastrointestinal disorders. Bian advises codonopsis root (called dang shen) and astragalus root (huangqi) for deficient chi, and dried ginger and aconite root for
The spleen is a yin organ system that prefers food and drink to be ‘warming’ to the body
deficient yang. Specifically, Bian says, “the hemp seed pill [HSP] … has been used to treat functional constipation”. Bian cites a 41⁄2-year study by Baptist University, published last year in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, which found that high doses of HSP were more effective than low or medium doses in easing constipation among 96 patients. A subsequent placebo test – in which the patients were split into placebo and HSP groups – reinforced the strong effects of HSP. Results showed the efficacy of the pill was higher than those in the placebo group. The pill is a mixture of hemp seeds, rhubarb, apricot seeds, white peony root, magnolia bark and immature bitter orange. “Specific dietary advice and herbal formulations will depend on the individual patient’s constitution and imbalances,” Bian comments.
LAB REPORT ............................................... Jeanette Wang jeanette.wang@scmp.com
Great leap forward Traditional theory goes that our early ancestors took to two feet because they were forced out of trees when climate change reduced tree cover. Archaeologists from the University of York, in a new study published in the journal Antiquity, sugest hominins were attracted to the rocky outcrops and gorges of East and South Africa because it offered shelter and opportunities to trap prey. This required a more upright scrambling and climbing gait.
Hot and bothered Don’t doubt it when a woman bothered by hot flashes says she can’t remember things. Using objective tests of attention and recall, researchers from the University of Illinois and Northwestern University in Chicago have confirmed that these women are speaking the truth. The study, published online in Menopause, involved 68 women aged 44 to 62 who had at least 35 hot flashes a week. Women who had more trouble with hot flashes, or reported more negative emotions, did worse on the tests. Those with more hot flashes struggled longer with memory problems.
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