5 UPGRADES TO CORPORATE WELLNESS PROGRAMS

Human Asset maintenance programs

Corprate wellness programs produce a significant ROI but many do not realize their full potential.   Underfunding is an obvious contributor, but there are other factors that will improve bottom line contribution  without funding increases.

by LSI contributor Dr. Charles Bens

1. Diagnostic testing

Blood tests for heart disease should focus on C‐reactive protein and homocysteine and much less on cholesterol, which causes few heart attacks. Tests for diabetes should focus on insulin and post‐meal glucose levels, which increase before fasting glucose levels do.

2. The Food Pyramid

TheUSDA Food Pyramid is not based on current scientific evidence. Better food pyramids include one from Harvard and others known as the Mediterranean and Asian Pyramids.

3. Weight Loss

Popular weight loss programs fail 97% of the time because they do not address significant factors such as metabolism, brain chemistry or the body’s predisposition to store fat when calories are reduced .

4. Disease reversal

Wellness programs often focus on disease management when disease reversal is a more productive option (i.e. Diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome and depression). Disease management programs save money but not in the longer‐term because   employees often suffer side effects from medications that cause aditional health challenges.

5. Education programs

Management often uses the least expensive health educators (i.e. local doctors or health insurance nurses). This investment has a high probability of  becoming more costly because employees fail to embrace necessary lifestyle changes. Facilitators who are not professional wellness educators often lack in‐depth knowledge about state of the art nutrition and disease prevention. Employers who take wellness seriously know that finding a qualified wellness resource will help them achieve a significant return on their investment.