Few medical studies have analyzed the relationship between sitting and total mortality. But a large (123,216 individuals) new study from the American Cancer Society found that women who sit for more than six hours/day were 37 percent more likely to die (over the 13-year study period)—and 10 percent more likely to get cancer—than those who sat less than three hours/day. Surprisingly, the “sitting risk” was lower for men: six-plus-hour-a-day male sitters were 18 percent more likely to die, but the cancer risk was not considerably higher.
Top Ways Workplace Wellness Must Evolve in the Future
Our current workplace wellness moment is dominated by negative media and unscientific “studies” that baldly conclude that “workplace wellness doesn’t work”—along with the “selling” of programs to companies as a pure profit-driver. But the roundtable concluded that, in the future, companies will shift from a narrow focus on ROI to a recognition of wider “return on value”: not just lower healthcare costs, but important gains in retention and productivity.
Economic Outlook Is Bullish for High-End Wellness Experiences
Globally, there are more millionaires (14.6 million) and billionaires (about 2,000) than ever before, but conspicuous consumption is on the wane. As J. Rupert, CEO of the Richemont Group, said: “In the future people with money will not wish to show it.”
Calling all who work! PLEASE TAKE AN IMPORTANT SURVEY
The Global Wellness Institute (GWI), in partnership with Everyday Health, is now fielding a global survey on the state of wellness in the workplace. Everyone who works, please take it—and give us your insight on the positive and less healthy aspects of your job, and whether your company offers any wellness programs.
A STRIKING STAT
A “heavy” reality: In the U.S., adults who are obese (67.6 million) now outnumber those who are overweight (65.2 million).
– Washington University School of Medicine, June 2015
Must-Reads from the Wellness World (Week of August 5, 2015)
We instinctually know that always-on technology is doing something very bad to our bodies and brains, but studies of how hyper-connectivity impacts human behavior are still taking baby steps. This article details what happened when 35 CEOs were taken out into the Moroccan desert and totally cut off from their devices. The neuroscientists who observed them saw “life-changing” transformations, from improved memory and more efficient sleep to deeper friendships and even better posture…
