Employee Health Screening

If you are suffering from Type 2 diabetes and would like to lower your glucose levels without taking too much medications, the following steps may be followed –

Exercise –  For diabetic patients, regular exercise is a must. Exercise burns the excess fat and excess sugar from your system. It burns the sugar as energy and also helps to store it in the muscles in the form of glycogen. This glycogen is used during increased exercise and stress.  Walking is a very good exercise. Twenty to thirty minutes brisk walk per day, for at least five days a week is necessary to decrease your glucose levels. Doing regular household work or gardening is also beneficial.

Diet –  Diet plays a major role in controlling diabetes. The main thing is to control the intake of carbohydrates. The diet ought to contain foods which have a high fiber content. Fiber helps to reduce weight and cures constipation. Make certain to eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables. Avoid bakery products and fast foods. The fat intake should be between 15 to 30 grams per day. Instead of two or three heavy meals, eat a number of small meal throughout the day. Try to eat at a fixed time.

Green tea –  Drinking green tea has a lot of benefits. It is full of antioxidants in addition to it helps to reduce sugar.

Decaffeinated coffee –  There are some compounds present in decaffeinated coffee which help to control blood sugar. But don’t add sugar to it.

Prevent stress –  an increase in stress levels leads to an excess secretion of stress hormones like adrenaline which increases glucose levels. You must attempt to avoid stress as much as possible. Attempt yoga or other relaxation techniques.

Sleep well –  A good sleep helps to reduce stress. It also helps to control your glucose levels. For  instance, if somebody suffers from ’sleep apnea’ which is caused due to a lack in the supply of oxygen, it may lead to an increase in glucose levels.

The best worker recognition practices are often the simplest.

Here’s one that’s lately been adopted at the publishing organization where I work –  a progam called “See something good, say something good.”  It’s a way for staff members to bring positive attention to things that their coworkers, managers and the company’s different departments do well.

Just how it works –  the business provides colorful index cards, placing them conspicuously in a few commonly traveled areas in the building. When workforce and supervisors want to publically recognize someone else’s efforts, they are able to grab a card and fill it out. It takes very little time.

When the index card is filled out, the employee drops it into a wrapped box (there are two in the building).  The boxes are later collected and the cards displayed in a room the business uses periodically for meetings, presentations and quarterly employee appreciation events.

In order to build awareness and participation in “Say Something Good,” management put up fliers around the building, so individuals  from every department can see them, as well as visitors and job applicants who’ve come in for interviews.

The health promotion program, which was originally thought up by the head of our product advertising and marketing division, does not cost anything apart from the cost of the index cards and paper. There’s minimal administration time, and it takes employees only a moment or two to fill out a card on a fellow employee’s behalf.

But the return is a lot of, and the recognition possibilities are endless. It’s a good way to boost morale, encourage productivity and differentiate the corporation culture from work environments where the negative things seem to get the lion’s share of the attention.

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic illness in which patients present with absolute or relative insulin deficiency. It affects about 6% of western populations and is a major factor for heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure and peripheral vascular disease. Diabetes mellitus is also the leading cause of new blindness without a cure.

1. Types of Diabetes

There are four forms of the disease, classified as: types 1 and 2, gestational and other specific kinds.

a. Type 1 Diabetes

In people with type 1 diabetes the pancreas is not producing insulin, so blood blood sugar levels are higher than normal. People with this form of diabetes require daily insulin therapy to survive. This form is further split into idiopathic diabetes and immune mediated diabetes.

Type 1 accounts for around 10% to 15% of all people with diabetes. It is one of the most serious and common chronic diseases of childhood, with about half of the people with this form of diabetes developing the disease before age 18. It is also known as insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) or juvenile-onset diabetes.

b. Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes is marked by reduced levels of insulin (insulin deficiency) and/or the inability of the body to use insulin properly (insulin resistance). This form of the disease is most common among people aged 40 years and over and accounts for 85% to 90% of all people with diabetes. Most people with type 2 diabetes are obese.

c. Gestational Diabetes

Gestational diabetes occurs during pregnancy in about 3% to 8% of females not previously diagnosed with diabetes. It’s a temporary form of diabetes and usually disappears after the baby is born. However, it is a marker of much greater risk of developing Type 2 diabetes later in life. Screening tests for gestational diabetes are usually performed around the 24th-28th week of pregnancy.

d. Other Specific Diabetes Types

This includes people who have diabetes as a result of a genetic defect, or exposure to certain drugs or chemicals.

2. Causes of Diabetes Mellitus

Diabetes is caused by resistance to, or deficient production of, the hormone insulin, which helps glucose move from the blood into the cells.

In type 1 immune mediated diabetes, pancreatic beta cell destruction results in failure to release insulin and ineffective transport of glucose. There is no known cause for idiopathic diabetes.

In type 2 diabetes, the beta cells release insulin but, receptors are insulin resistant and glucose transport is variable and inefficient. Some people may have conditions that can cause diabetes, such as Cushing’s syndrome, pancreatitis or liver disease.

Risk factors for type 2 diabetes include;

a. Obesity

b. History of Gestational diabetes

c. Lack of physical activity

d. Hypertension

e. Age 45+

f. Ethnic groupings other than anglo-saxon

g. Low HDL cholesterol levels

h. Impaired glucose tolerance

i. Family history

3. Signs and Symptoms of Diabetes

Symptoms of diabetes include; dehydration, unexplained weight loss, excessive thirst, frequent need to urinate, fatigue, lethargy, severe irritation and itching, excessive hunger, blurred vision, skin and urinary infections and vaginitis.

4. Diagnosis

Diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance may be detected on routine blood tests as part of a general health check up or evaluation for other symptoms or diseases. Diabetes tests check blood blood sugar levels. Somebody with a random non fasting blood glucose level greater than 200mg/dl accompanied by other symptoms, or someone with a fasting blood glucose level greater than 126mg/dl can be diagnosed with diabetes.

Because symptoms can be mild, diabetes is often detected when a person suffers a problem that is caused by diabetes, such as a heart attack, stroke, neuropathy, poor wound healing or a foot ulcer, certain eye problems, certain fungal infections, or delivering a baby with macrosomia or hypoglycemia.

5. Diabetes Treatment

Effective treatment endeavors to normalize blood glucose and reduce complications using insulin replacement, diet and exercise. For those with very mild diabetes, diet plus weight loss plus exercise may be enough to keep blood glucose within reasonable levels.

Dietary changes should focus on the ideas of weight loss and blood sugar regulation by keeping the blood sugar levels relatively stable throughout the day, avoiding big peaks or troughs.

The principal treatment of type 1 diabetes, even from its earliest stages, is replacement of insulin combined with careful monitoring of blood blood sugar levels using blood testing monitors.

Type 2 diabetes may require oral anti-diabetic drugs to stimulate the body’s insulin production and increase insulin sensitivity. Various forms of natural supplements for diabetes treatment have also been postulated as effective.

People with unstable diabetes, or those requiring many injections a day, may benefit from an insulin pump which is worn on the body and delivers a continuous infusion of insulin via a needle implanted into the body.

Gestational diabetes is fully treatable but requires careful medical supervision throughout the pregnancy. Even though it may be transient, untreated gestational diabetes can damage the health of the fetus or the mother.

Treatment for all forms of diabetes need not significantly impair normal activities, if sufficient patient training, awareness, appropriate care, discipline in testing and dosing of insulin is taken

6. Complications

Diabetes mellitus is the most common cause of adult kidney failure worldwide in the created world. If undetected or poorly controlled, diabetes can lead to blindness, kidney failure, lower limb amputation, heart attack, stroke and impotence.

If you have diabetes, you must monitor your glucose levels every day. Often, testing once a day is fine, while other times, your doctor will recommend testing more often throughout the day, at particular times.

To test your glucose levels, you will need a glucose monitor, testing strips, a lancing device, lancets, and alcohol wipes. Of these supplies, you will spend the greatest amount of money on testing strips.

Read the instructions for your glucose monitor, and the test strips, to ensure that you know how to use it properly, and how to read the results of the test properly. You can use the lancing device, with the lancet installed, anywhere on your body — but it is simplest to use it on the tip of one of your fingers. You then allow drops of blood to drop onto the testing strip, which should already be inserted in the glucose meter, to the appropriate place on the strip, and the results will be measured.

In most cases, your doctor will have told you the normal range for your blood sugar. You will know what is and is not acceptable. The key is to track the foods that you eat, and the activities that you do, and then test to see how those foods and activities affect your blood sugar level. With that information, you can easily make better choices for the management of your diabetes.

In most cases, your doctor will want you to call him/her if the blood sugar level rises above a certain number, or drops below a certain number, as this is an indication of a problem that requires medical treatment. Make sure that you write those numbers down!

Be certain to keep a log of your test results, and bring that log with you to your next doctor’s appointment. This is information that your doctor will find useful in the treatment of your diabetes.

When it comes to wellness programs, it could be tough to get past all the hype. Here’s how to avoid the three most common traps companys fall into.

Trap #1.  The “one-size-fits-all” approach

For good reason, your organization does not simply copy other firms’ 401(k) plans or compensation designs. Yet, all too often, firms adopt ill-fitting health promotion programs based on things that have worked elsewhere.

Your CFO might have seen data on the cost savings other companys have achieved via certain wellness incentives. Or an old coworker of your Chief Executive Officer (CEO) swears by the health promotion program at his or her own firm.

In response, the top brass pushes for a copycat wellness program â.” for example, offering use of tobacco cessation incentives.

That may  be a good idea, if smoking-related diseases are a key driver of your company’s health costs. But how can you be sure? is it good enough to have your workers undergo a health risk assessment?

Typically, the answer is no.

Health risk assessments are a excellent starting place, but it’s often a mistake to stop there.  The assessments help you get a feel for what your employees’ baseline physical problems are before you try to design a wellness program around them.

This creates rough outlines of what your wellness program goals must be and where to target staff member initiatives. If you want the maximum bang for your wellness buck, you’ll have to dig a little deeper for information. Key places to look -

o  your organization’s medical-claims breakdown for the last three years

o  prescription-drug claims

o  worker absence information

o  employee assistance program (EAP) use

o  disability claims, and

o  worker demographics (workers’ ethnic, gender, age and dependent coverage status points to greater â.” and lesser â.” health risks associated with each category).

Trap #2. Leaving the wellness program on autopilot

A lot of wellness programs often get off to a good start and then fizzle out. Companys are left wondering what went wrong. Their mistake –  They failed to revisit the wellness program on an ongoing basis â.” at least every other year.

Why it’s vital –  Your cost-drivers can easily shift as workforce come and go from the company.

Example –  This year, emphysema and other tobacco use diseases may  be your largest cost driver. But two years from now, it may be obesity and diabetes.

Unless you continuously track the health promotion program and adjust your goals as necessary, you could not be prepared to meet those new challenges.

Trap #3. Unrealistic expectations

Ordinarily, it takes at least a year and a half for corporations to break even on the cost of a wellness program.  As a rule of thumb, the typical program cost per staff member per month to the corporation is about $3 to $5.

If, after three years, you still aren’t seeing results, something went wrong. Currently, the benchmark Return On Investment after the third year of a wellness program is $4 to $5 saved for every dollar spent.

Just how can you manage the cost in the short-term? In many cases, companys pass the cost of the wellness program on to the workers. for example, let’s say you want to roll out a wellness program effective January 1 (or whatever your first day is of the new plan year).

You can roll that $3 to $5 per worker per month cost directly into the employee’s monthly share of their healthcare premium. That makes the health promotion program a budget-neutral expense for your organization.

But remember –  You get what you pay for â.” both in time and money invested.  The less guesswork that’s involved in the planning and execution, the better the chance for success.

One of the necessary evils of diabetes is monitoring and controlling your glucose levels. By continually keeping a close eye on your levels of glucose or blood sugar, you will come to understand just how not only your medication affects your levels, but also stress, activity, and foods. Monitoring your levels of sugar within the blood is necessary and could help in avoidance or delay of severe complications commonly associated with diabetes such as kidney failure or blindness.

To accurately and properly monitor your blood sugar levels you will have to obtain some supplies. Supplies needed will include test strips, sterile lancets, alcohol pads, and a glucose meter. These are typically prescribed by your physician, obtain from your local drug store, and most often covered by your medical insurance. Your doctor will educate you on the proper use of this equipment. However, in general circumstances the following steps are taken to measure the levels of sugar within the blood.

First, you should make certain your hands are clean and completely dry before performing the tests. Then you will want to clean the area to be tested with the alcohol pad. In most cases this will be your fingertip; however, some meters will allow you to use other areas of the hand, thigh, or even the forearm. You will then take the sterile lancet and prick the area to be tested. A drop of blood will form and should be carefully placed on the testing strip. You will then place the strip into your glucose meter, following the instruction provided by the manufacture or your doctor. After the meter has completed its course, you will be provided with a number, which indicates your blood sugar level.

It’s necessary to document your test results, in addition to medications taken, times taken, and foods that have been eaten that day. In the beginning of your treatment your doctor will likely ask you to test and record your blood sugar levels two to three times each day. Do not forget to document foods eaten and activity as well. This will allow both of you to get a general idea of what affects your levels and why. After this initial period, you may only be required to perform tests two to three times weekly.

What should people know about cancer of the testis?

The testes are smooth, oval-shaped male sex glands located behind the penis in a pouch of skin called the scrotum. They produce male hormones and, after sexual maturity, sperm. Testicular cancer is relatively rare. Each year in New York State approximately 400 men are diagnosed with this disease.

Who gets cancer of the testis?

The incidence of testicular cancer has doubled in the past twenty years. Most of the increase is among young men ages 15-44. Cancer of the testis is the most common cancer among white males aged 20 to 34 years. It is the second most common cancer among white males aged 15 to 19 years and 35 to 39 years.

In the United States, the incidence of testicular cancer is six times higher among white males than African-American males. Among Hispanic, Native American and Asian males testicular cancer occurs less frequently than among whites but more frequently than among African-Americans.

Cancer of the testis occurs more frequently in men with higher income and education levels. Men who work as professionals and skilled non-manual workers have twice the risk of getting testicular cancer than blue-collar workers.

What causes cancer of the testis?

At this time, researchers don’t know exactly what causes testicular cancer. We do know that testicular cancer occurs more often in men with certain health conditions, including undescended testis. Research also indicates that men in white collar or professional occupations are at higher risk for testicular cancer, suggesting that socioeconomic status or lifestyle may be linked to risk factors for this cancer. Employment in the military, aviation equipment support, crude petroleum and natural gas extraction, printing and leather finishing industries has been associated with cancer of the testis. Occupational exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, solvents and dyes, metals, metal dust and quite possibly cutting oils may be associated with testicular cancer.

What does it mean when something “is associated with” cancer of the testis?

It means that there is a link between the two, but there is no proof of cause and effect. More research needs to be done before we know for certain.

What can I do to reduce my chances of getting cancer of the testis?

Currently testicular cancer can’t be prevented. Regular testicular self-examination and examination by your healthcare provider increase the chances that cancer of the testis will be diagnosed early, when it’s most treatable.

Cancer of the Testis Signs and Symptoms

o  Lump in either testicle

o  Enlargement of the testicle

o  Feeling of heaviness or collection of fluid in the scrotum

o  Pain or discomfort in a testicle or in the scrotum

o  Breast enlargement or tenderness.

Cancer of the Testis Terms

Incidence – The number of newly diagnosed cases of a disease. Here it refers to the number of newly diagnosed cases of cancer.

Risk Factor – A risk factor is something that has been associated with an increased chance of getting a disease. It’s not necessarily a direct cause of the disease.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons – a group of over 100 different chemicals formed during the incomplete burning of coal, oil, wood, garbage or other once-living substances such as tobacco or charbroiled meat.

Variable compensation could be a excellent way to satisfy demand for higher pay while addressing executive management’s need to improve productivity and keep base salaries under control.

But there are some major pitfalls.  Here are two proven ways to avoid the most common legal and return on investment risks.

Non-exempt employees

Beware when you use variable comp as a pay-for-performance strategy for hourly staff members. Reason –  It’s easy to inadvertently run afoul of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime rules.

Under FLSA, you must recalculate employees’ hourly wages to include all variable pay (such as individual or departmental bonuses) when figuring overtime compensation.

Failure to do so could cost your corporation more in penalties and back-wage payments than the variable comp plan saved on the front end.

So it’s a good idea to double-check with Payroll to be sure the department knows to make OT adjustments after hourly workers receive bonuses.

Reward the right things

In order to make the criteria for bonuses easier for workforce to understand and management to measure, many firms prefer using strictly objective measurements. Example –  the plan may pay out based on how much money workforce save their department in a year.

But what happens if staff members cut corners â.” on safety, service, quality, etc. â.” to reach the goal?

At some firms, staff are still rewarded with extra pay, even though their actions potentially did more harm than good to the bottom line. for best results -

o  set behavioral criteria for bonuses in addition to economic ones, and

o  consider using a mix of firm-wide, departmental and individual economic performance measures.

If you are diabetic then one thing you will need to keep track of is your salt intake. Salt helps contribute to high blood pressure that is one of the complications of diabetes, so it’s in your interests to monitor your salt intake when cooking.

In the shops there are many foods that advertise ‘reduced salt’ or ‘no salt’ as alternatives to regular brands. However, it is important to still check all food labels when shopping as it may be deceptive. It is best to stay away from ‘ready meals’, since in addition to containing high levels of salt they are also likely to include other foods that are not healthy for diabetics.

The very best way to keep track of your salt intake is to cook food from scratch yourself. You can use certain recipes that are specially modified for diabetics and will include lower levels of salt, making them a generally healthier option. This might seem like a daunting task but you ought to know that salt does not need to be cut out completely, and is in truth an important part of our diet. Specially modified diabetic recipes will take a lot of the worry out of cooking by working out salt levels for you. As a general rule, a teaspoon of salt is the recommended daily intake level.

A few tips you are able to remember when cooking is that there are certain foods that are naturally more salty than others, for instance canned tuna, soy sauce and so on. Many of these you might cut from your diet completely and find special diabetic recipes that do not use such salty ingredients.

At first, cooking specially altered low salt recipes may affect the flavour of your meals, yet in time you will become used to the lack of salt on your food. Finally it is certainly a worthwhile endeavour to cut salt from your meals, and it is not as hard as you may think when you find altered diabetic recipes.

What should people know about thyroid cancer?

The thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland in the neck. It is located underneath the Adam’s apple and makes hormones. These hormones help control blood pressure, body temperature, the rate at which the heart beats, and how fast food is converted into energy. Hormones from the thyroid gland also affect a child’s growth and development. The thyroid uses iodine, a mineral found in foods, to make some of its hormones.

Who gets thyroid cancer?

Thyroid cancer occurs two to three times more frequently in women than in men. Women between the ages of 35 and 65 are at highest risk of getting thyroid cancer, followed by older people (both men and women). Thyroid cancer also occurs more frequently in whites than in Blacks.

What causes thyroid cancer?

At this time, we do not know exactly what causes thyroid cancer. One known risk factor for getting cancer of the thyroid is exposure to ionizing radiation during childhood. In the past, before doctors were aware of the dangers, radiation was used to treat a variety of conditions including acne and swelling of the lymph nodes, tonsils and thymus gland. Individuals  who received radiation treatments to the head and neck in childhood are at higher risk of getting thyroid cancer.

Some studies also show that exposure to radioactive substances (such as radioactive iodine) during childhood may be associated with an increased risk of thyroid cancer. Scientists are also studying the relationship between cancer of the thyroid and exposure to radiation or radioactive substances in adulthood, having a non-cancerous thyroid condition, having a relative with a non-cancerous thyroid condition and diet (including eating foods with iodine).

Is the number of people with thyroid cancer increasing?

The incidence of thyroid cancer has been increasing nationally over the past 50 years. This is also true in New York State. Although some of this increase is most likely due to the use of radiation to treat some medical conditions, it does not account for all of the increase. Many thyroid tumors grow slowly and do not cause symptoms. Much of the increase in thyroid cancer appears to be small, slow growing tumors. This indicates that increased medical testing may be contributing to the increased rate of thyroid cancer. Mortality from thyroid cancer isn’t increasing.

What can I do to reduce my chances of getting thyroid cancer?

Avoiding unnecessary radiation is important for the prevention of many types of cancer. This is in particular important for children. Since thyroid cancer is easier to treat in early stages of the disease, people with known exposure to radiation during childhood, such as immigrants from the areas of Europe exposed to fall-out from Chernobyl, may want to talk to their doctors about early detection choices. Because table salt is supplemented with iodine in the United States, most people here have adequate iodine intake.