January 2012
9 posts
Meet WCI Member Johanna Determan from Drake... →
2012 Healthy Iowa Webinar: Help Wanted!...
Everyone can use an extra set of hands! Watch this webinar about using wellness interns effectively.
Watch live streaming video from healthyiowatv at livestream.com
Worth all the Sweat
Just why exercise is so good for people is, at last, being understood - especially by University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre’s Dr. Beth Levine.
Dr Levine and her team have tested a theory that exercise works its magic, at least in part, by promoting autophagy. This process, whose name is derived from the Greek for “self-eating”, is a mechanism where surplus, worn-out or malformed...
“…We live in a “food carnival” where just about any craving we have can be...”
– [ Washington Post ]
“A study, which tracked 15,000 people over a period of 14 years, from high school...”
– http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/09/economic-toll-of-diabetes-begins-early/
Wellness Training Calendar Set!
Looking for wellness program training. Then look no further!
Check out the Wellness Council’s comprehensive listing of webinars and Tweetchats.
Visit www.wellnessiowa.org today!
“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
– ~ Albert Einstein
December 2011
8 posts
Tweetchat Recap: Employee Financial Wellness
If you missed the CoHealth Tweetchat about employee financial wellness initiatives you’re in luck. Take a look through this overview of the event.
»Read Here.
Big thanks to @franmelmed and @carolharnett for the opportunity to participate!
Don't let the flu get your employees down!
It’s estimated 1 out of 5 Americans will suffer from influenza this year resulting in 226,000 hospitalizations.
Have you protected your workforce? Don’t know how? Visit the Healthy Iowa Wellness Vendor Directory and search “flu shots”.
Brought to you by the Wellness Council of Iowa!
Burlington Medical Center Makes Wellness Simple...
When it comes to building a well workplace Burlington’s Great River Health Center makes extra efforts to lead the way. “Often times employees feel overwhelmed by the idea of living healthy and don’t know where to start. We want to help our employees and their families realize the simple steps they can take towards living a healthier life.”
»Learn more here.
“Feedback is the one thing organizations can commit to, long term, that will have...”
– Tim Sackett - The Tim Sackett Project
WatchJoin the healthiest businesses in Iowa, and across the United States, by applying for the Well Workplace Award certification. Learn how … here.
“If we add our personal responsibility to resist food cues to the collective...”
– From the article, “Free Will and the Obesity Epidemic,” written by D. Levitsky and C. Pacanowski, published in an upcoming print edition of the journal Public Health Nutrition.
November 2011
10 posts
Plug into the Power of Self-Care
Like it or not, people get sick.
Even the healthiest employees, and their families, are likely to experience some health issue this year. In fact, it’s estimated 1 out 5 Americans will suffer from influenza this year resulting in 226,000 hospitalizations.
According to the Wellness Council of America, a cursory review of workplace-based medical self-care initiatives, employers have...
“We hear over and over that the key to ensuring real health improvement is...”
– Helen Darling, president and CEO of the National Business Group on Health
Keep it Simple Stupid (KISS)
During a meeting yesterday with member Joy Schiller from Des Moines University, I was reminded of one of my college professor’s mantras - Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS). We’ve built a world full of distractions - in fact - some researchers show distractions cost business nearly $650 billion in 2007.
Use these simple bullets to build an effective wellness program that doesn’t get...
How Biking Can Save Cities Billions
Last week, the journal Environmental Health Perspectives published findings from a study by scientists at the University of Wisconsin on the economic and health benefits of switching from a car to a bike for trips shorter than five miles long in 11 metropolitan areas around the upper Midwest. Combining data on air pollution, medical costs, mortality rates, car accidents, and physical fitness,...
Why You Hatin' Bacon?
Big news Monday was that one of Iowa’s signature meat products took a hit when advocacy group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, based in Washington, D.C., planned to put up a billboard equating eating bacon with smoking. Don’t get me wrong - bacon is one of those “not so healthy choices” everyone makes from time to time, but excuse me, aren’t they point...
Fall back from daylight savings time may be good...
Posted November 04, 2011, 8:30 am
Lloyd Resnick, Editor, Harvard Heart Letter For most Americans, the clock giveth an extra hour this Sunday morning (November 6) at 2 am.
This “fall back” from daylight savings time can be discombobulating, but our hearts like it better than springing ahead. Three years ago, Swedish researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that the rate of...
WatchPsychologist Barry Schwartz explains the paradox of choice: plenty of times, less is more.
October 2011
10 posts
How to Crush an Employee's Enthusiasm →
Successful leadership does not require company camping trips or casual Fridays. It does, however, demand a basic grasp of human psychology. As a leader, you’re striving to achieve grand goals.
Wellness Program's "Deep-Seated" Problem →
According to the American Journal of Epidemiology, American workers average 7.7 hours a day being sedentary. Here’s a great article on putting a dent in the statistic.
What Burns More Calories - Walking or Running? →
Watch
Nudge cafeteria design, part III →
Easy ideas on making the healthier choice the easier one.
“Technology is amazing. It can lower the cost and improve the efficacy of care....”
– Fast Company
“Managers work to get their employees to do what they did yesterday, but a little...”
– Seth Godin
May 2011
1 post
Prevention wins momentum via health care law
Some aspects of the health care reform law, including the wellness and prevention provisions, have gained traction and will continue as scheduled in part because employers are taking up the cause by recognizing the importance of implementing prevention and wellness programs to enhance the health of their employees as well as the bottom line.
Read More»
April 2011
3 posts
Working long hours? Watch out for your heart...
From Mother Nature Network - www.mnn.com
Researchers said a long-term study showed that working more than 11 hours a day increased the risk of heart disease by 67 percent.
LONDON - People who regularly work long hours may be significantly increasing their risk of developing heart disease, the world’s biggest killer, British scientists said Monday.
Researchers said a long-term study...
4 tags
12 Reasons to Start Using a Bicycle for...
Economic instability and ever-increasing climate change are just two of the many reasons riding a bike is an excellent alternative to driving.
Photo: Lighter Footstep
We’re continuing our look at smart ways to start saddling up and using bicycles for real transportation. We’ve always taken the greenness of bike transport as a given. But if you’re just getting started — or...
March 2011
9 posts
2 tags
Using "Anti-Incentives"
Ian Ayres has coined the term “anti-incentives” to describe incentives that “can help you learn how much you really care about something.” The classic example of an anti-incentive is the offer e-retailer Zappos makes to its employees: A week into an intensive training program, the company offers $1,000 to employees to quit. With such a generous offer, employees usually think about their...
2 tags
Register Reports "Big Disparity Found in Health of...
The Register has finally published information from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on the health of Iowans county by county. The report earmarks Delaware County as the healthiest in the state - and Appanoose County as the least healthy.
Graham Dameron, executive director of the Iowa Counties Public Health Association, which represents local public health agencies, said the county-by-county...
“Senior management’s support of improving employee health jumped to 42% in 2010,...”
– EmployeeBenefitNews.com
Health Care Reform Resource: Kaiser Family... →
A leader in health policy and communications, the Kaiser Family Foundation is a non-profit, private operating foundation focusing on the major health care issues facing the U.S., as well as the U.S. role in global health policy. Unlike grant-making foundations, Kaiser develops and runs its own research and communications programs, sometimes in partnership with other non-profit research...
“Individuals who eat right and exercise throughout their lives live longer. They...”
– Dr. Steve Aldana
Author, The Culprit & The Cure
Recency Trumps Quality
From Newsweek’s “The Science of Decision Making.”
The brain is wired to notice change over stasis. An arriving email that pops to the top of your BlackBerry qualifies as a change; so does a new Facebook post. We are conditioned to give greater weight in our decision-making machinery to what is latest, not what is more important or more interesting. “There is a powerful ‘recency’ effect in...
“The greatest wealth is health.”
– Virgil
Light of Wellness Awards
Light of Wellness Awards are a simple way to recognize your employees for the hard work they’ve accomplished in making healthful choices in their lives.
For more information visit here.