News Room | Centre Newsletter March/April 2007

Centre Newsletter March/April 2007 

Centre news update

Dr Arien van der Merwe’s Centre for Health & Wellbeing will be joining forces with Intercare in October 2007 when the new branch opens on the c/o Lynwood Rd and Silver Lakes Dr in Pretoria. In the interim, the Centre will move to 88D Tijger Valley Office Park, also at above address (opposite the new shopping centre being built), on 15 March. Tel 078 698 8535 / 012 460 0191. The focus will remain on medical screening, natural medicine, stress management and wellness solutions for identified health risks, disease prevention and natural remedies. The yoga and Nia technique dance classes will be held in a lovely new studio with a wooden floor. There will be regular health and wellness related talks and workshops every Thursday and scheduled Saturday mornings or afternoons. Please visit the web-site for an updated schedule on topics and dates. The studio is also available to rent.

Topics & Dates for March/April:

• 21 March 09h00-12h00: The Upside of Stress by Dr Arien van der Merwe. A lighter look at stress; the good, the bad and the ugly of it! Learn practical ways to manage everyday stresses and strains.
• 10 April 10h00-11h30: Eating as a Sensual Experience. This workshop will focus on food combination, colours, textures, enjoyment, food & mood, improved digestion though deep relaxation, yoga and mindfulness meditation
• 17 April 10h00-11h30: Good Digestion: The Key to Wellbeing by Carol Birch of Garden of Life. We explore probiotics, enzymes, detox, and explain extraordinary foods to improve digestion and general health & wellbeing.
• 21 April 9h00-12h00: Sexual Wellness Workshop by Dr Wilmé Steenkamp. Explore how your sexuality can improve your sense of joy, happiness and balance.

Bookings essential as groups are kept small to encourage practical experience & participation. Cost for 90 minutes workshops: R150 per person. Cost for 3 hour workshops: R300 per person.

Forthcoming topics for May:

• Heart health, yoga and nutrition workshop, for people with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, after heart attacks or any other heart health challenges.
• Nutrition, meditation, Nia technique dance and yoga for menopause

Dr van der Merwe will be working closely with marketing expert, Paula Brown on bringing stress and wellness solutions to the workplace. They will also run talks and workshops for business and interest groups, women and men’s groups and communities.

Stress Solutions: A good return on investment Main story in business paper: CEO dies suddenly of heart attack!

This is often the wake up call for a company to start implementing a wellness program that includes stress management and relaxation training, healthy eating and fitness programs. Why wait for a tragedy or catastrophe to happen? Do it now!

Results of a recent study published in the British Medical Journal show that work stress is associated with double the risk to die from heart disease. In promoting cardiovascular health, the traditional advice has always been for people to stop smoking, cut down drinking, eat less fat, and get moving through physical activity. These latest findings suggest that attention should also be paid to the prevention, mastering or management of work stress, according to the researchers.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in modern society. Employees with high job strain, a combination of high demands at work and low job control, have high stress levels and more than twice the risk of death form heart disease compared with employees who have low job strain. The stress levels and risk for employees with effort-reward imbalance (low salary, lack of social approval, and few career opportunities relative to efforts required at work) were 2.5 times higher. High job strain also showed an increased total cholesterol at the 5year follow up, while effort-reward imbalance showed an increase in body weight.

Can something be done about this?

The problem has been identified: work stress is bad for your health. So is personal stress. Not only does it double your risk for getting heart disease, long term unrelenting stress can be the cause or exacerbating factor in almost any of our modern day chronic diseases or ailments: from infections, cancer, skin problems, premenstrual tension, severe menopause, back problems, obesity and overweight, to chronic fatigue, digestive system problems and lung disease.

Let’s acknowledge it: we’re living in a stressful environment that also deeply affect our children. When asked whether she’d support a rally against war, Mother Theresa answered: ‘No, but if you have a peace rally, I’ll be there!’. We focus all our attention on what we don’t want: stop crime, no crime, no violence, no poverty, fight crime, poverty, etc. When considering the law of attraction, this mind-set tend to create more of the same, as well as a tremendous amount of fear and stress in ourselves and our children. Why not rather change our thoughts to: I want peace, calm and safety; I want to be surrounded by love; I find solutions, and so on. Films not to be missed: ‘What the bleep do we know’ and ‘The Secret’ , for more in this topic. There are regular screenings of both films at the Centre . These, as well as the weekly meditation sessions , are free to the community.

Stress management is of the utmost importance to maintain health and wellbeing and restore a sense of serenity and peace while maintaining your creative, productive, high profile lifestyle.

Expected results when implementing health and wellness programmes that would include stress management as an essential ingredient, include:

Expected results when implementing health and wellness programs: Improved productivity and creativity, higher levels of company morale, reduced absenteeism and presenteeism (employees being at work, but not optimally healthy or well), improved day-to-day quality of working life for the employer and employee.

Cigarette smoking, poor nutrition, substance abuse, a sedentary lifestyle and, most importantly high stress levels, are major contributing factors to work related health problems and reasons for employee absenteeism. Many studies show that psychological and physical factors in the workplace such as intense deadlines, poor interpersonal relationships, poor ergonomics, absence of a stimulating work environment and healthy work culture, as well as inadequate job descriptions, are also major contributors to employee absenteeism and increased health risk.

A growing trend towards preventative healthcare plans provides the solution to this problem. Working proactively to reduce the risk of developing disease, as well as the very important promotion of a wellness lifestyle to prevent and treat disease, stress interventions empower the individual to recognise the danger signals of overdoing it, of living an unhealthy lifestyle, and educate employees about taking preventative measures to reduce the harmful effects of their habits and behaviour.

Not only do wellness interventions, with stress management programs being the most popular intervention, lead to improved productivity and creativity, higher levels of morale and reduced absenteeism and presenteeism, they also improve the day-to-day quality of working life for the employee. By educating employees on how to take control of their health and wellbeing at work and at home, everyone will be empowered to manage their own health, family life and working environment.

Still taking care of the bottom line: Employees are a company’s most important assets. Wise companies know this. Healthy, happy, relaxed employees will ensure a good return on investment for shareholders!.