The Holidays are upon us!
That often means good friends and family gathering, good food, good memories, and so much more. Read on to find out some holiday tips and tricks that can help you stay on top of your game as we push towards a new year and a new opportunity to uplift and empower ourselves and our coworkers to make the healthier choice the easiest choice!
Holiday Heart Health: The American Heart Association
Did you know that The American Heart Association research has found that heart attack deaths were at their highest rate throughout the year, during the last week of December?
Though the direct cause is still uncertain, American Heart Association Chief Clinical Science Officer Mitchell S.V. Elkind, M.D., M.S., FAHA attributes multiple reasons for this increase.
- A change in routine, adding stress to the holidays.
- Increase food and alcohol consumption.
- Ignoring symptoms and postponing doctors visits.
- Stressful travel and other stressors associated with the holiday (ie. family, friends, weather, etc.).
When combined, the risk factor for a cardiac event during the holiday greatly increases, meaning that ignoring these factors and symptoms can lead to a deadly cardiac event.
How can we reach staff before the holidays?
As we move throughout the holiday season, we see an increase in time taken off, time spent traveling, and time spent away from work. With lots of staff taking time off from the office, it can be hard to reach them on a day to day basis, but we can still empower our employees with tools to live and stay healthy, even when away from the Workplace Wellness program.
We are happy to share these resources with you, your organization, and community to help increase their access to health resources accessible from their desk or home!
Onsite Screenings
Scheduling health providers to host health fairs, screenings, and educational sessions are great ways to reach our staff, while they are at work.
By giving staff the access to onsite health screening, you can remove barriers like transportation and time, allowing them to focus on their own health, while preparing for the holidays at work!
Prevention is the key!
When we help our staff to focus on preventative versus reactive healthcare, we not only show employees that we care about them, but we give them the access and tools to increase their organization buy in, decrease absenteeism, and increase job retention. If workers know they can put their health needs first, they can stay and grow with the organization for a life time.
Systems: Creating Equity and Sustainability
Each and every workplace has systems in place to help the organization run smoothly and efficiently. For Workplace Wellness, systems include resources and initiatives that:
- Increase educational resources around Workplace Wellness.
- Bring coworkers together to participate in a minimum of 3 scheduled activities per year focused on physical activity, nutrition, or lactation support. This can include step challenges, lunch and learns, and many other tools to increase your staff’s knowledge of available resources for Workplace Wellness.
- Connections with health providers to educate or expand partnerships and connections.
A great pre holiday Lunch and Learn idea is hosting a mindfulness training session. Mindfulness is the practice of meditation focused on being aware of your feelings and surroundings, in the present moment, without deeper thought or judgement. Mindfulness has many different techniques from breathing, and eating, to walking, and sitting. When we practice mindfulness, we can slow down our thoughts and emotions in the moment, which is a great technique for managing stress throughout the entire holiday season!
You can find more examples of a system level changes, as well as policy and environment changes that can increase employee health here.
Factors we may overlook:
Running into Moth Man in the woods might raise your heart rate and get the blood pumping a bit this holiday season, but there are plenty of other activities that may increase our blood pressure and heart rate too! While these activities can be great forms of physical activity, they can also increase risk factors for those who are already at risk for a cardiac event.
- Shoveling snow – Close to 16,000 heart attacks per year, can be caused by the exertion of shoveling snow. Especially during the work day, take your time and drink plenty of fluids when shoveling or cleaning walkways.
- Holiday travel – There is roughly a 40% increase in heart attacks during the holiday season. With 55 million predicted holiday travelers during Thanksgiving alone in 2023, take your time. Take breaks when needed. Stay hydrated. If your job requires large amounts of driving, find times when you can still travel for work while the roads may be less crowded.
- A lack of sleep and rest – During the holidays, we can extend and stretch our days into the early morning hours. It is important to get plenty of rest and take breaks when necessary to avoid the holiday fatigue build up!
- Sweet and Salty treats – Holiday foods are usually delicious, based in tradition, and one of the few times each year we make some of our saltiest and sweetest favorites! Make sure to create colorful plates full of your favorite foods, and healthier options like salads, fresh fruit, and fresh veggies.
