The current economic uncertainty and resultant commercial anxiety, has seen a surprising increase in the number of medical consults by executives who have hitherto not been to a doctor for years. In the UK and USA, previously healthy businessmen and women have been presenting to their GP with palpitations and stress related exacerbation of existing conditions such as asthma, migraine, diabetes, hypertension, irritable bowel syndrome, and heart disease. Whilst many symptoms may have simple explanations others may indicate more serious underlying problems. For instance relatively benign symptoms such as poor sleep, insomnia or early morning wakening surprisingly may be signs of depression. On the other hand, symptoms such as chest pain don’t always indicate heart disease and may simply indicate heartburn, gastritis or ulcer disease (particularly if not related to exertion or stress). Medical self diagnosis is not advisable, particularly when it is remembered that serious problems can arise if individuals simply ignore early warning signs. In these days of high stress, the discerning individual should be seeking medical advice and getting “checked out” firstly to have new symptoms investigated and diagnosed, and secondly to screen for early signs of cardiac, respiratory, mental and malignant disease.
Certainly, many executives will have experienced one of those old fashioned medicals where a physician does some basic blood analysis and subjects one to a variety of tests. These have typically involved shining a torch down the throat, into the ears and eyes, hitting knees with a hammer and possibly running an ECG tracing of the heart. Although this may suffice for many, the more discerning patient with access to the internet, will be aware that these medicals leave a lot out and serious illness can be missed. I recently heard of a 45 year old lady who had one of these a few years ago, and was deemed medically fit at the age of 45, only to be diagnosed with bowel cancer 6 months later and have to undergo major surgery in order to remove the disease. Certainly a more thorough health check may have picked the disease up 6 months earlier. Another story involves a 49 year old runner who despite having regular “normal” medicals and being able to run 10 miles in 1hr 20 mins, had a cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging “MRI” scan which unexpectedly found him to have a completely occluded coronary artery which required urgent stenting
Sadly a healthy external appearance is no guarantee that all is well inside ones body. The fact is that the only way to truly gauge and understand your own “inner health” and that of your executives and employees relies on a modern, comprehensive health check. These days, such checks should include state of the art imaging (ultrasound and MRI scans) of your major organs and blood vessels, in addition to patient and disease specific blood testing and a thorough clinical examination. The recent trends seen in the UK and the US suggest that increasing numbers of executives are now volunteering for these comprehensive full body MOTs, first in order to ensure their fitness to do their job but more probably more importantly, to ensure their wellbeing for their family and children.
So what can you do to comprehensively analyse your own health? Furthermore what can a company do to ensure that its key men and women are healthy and fit enough to endure the stress and anxiety of modern day business pressures?
These days, to a greater extent than ever before, control of your life expectancy and health wellbeing (and that of your employees) lies in your own hands. Modern “Well-Man and Well-Woman” screening packages are much more far reaching and comprehensive that even 5 years ago and represent a true value for money investment. These typically begin with routine urine and blood tests, and depending on age, medical history and gender, disease specific blood tests are also included to look for cancer and chronic disease markers. Cardiovascular fitness is then tested by a resting and exercise ECG (and ECHO cardiogram if necessary) and this is followed by an extensive ultrasound examination of the major organs (including prostate, abdominal organs, ovaries as well as the carotid arteries and aorta). The assessment should also include hearing and a glaucoma tests. Thereafter the most comprehensive screening packages include MRI scans. These are scans taken by a very powerful magnetic scanner, which computer manipulates thousands of images of the body to produce incredibly detailed images of the heart, brain, kidney and entire body arterial tree. As they utilize a magnetic field rather than x-rays, MRI scans have the advantage of being radiation free (unlike CT scans) and thus completely avoid the recognised significant lifetime increase risk of cancer associated with CT scanning. MRI brain scans check for tumours and abnormalities in blood circulation (in order to assess stroke risk), whilst a MRI heart scan assesses the function of the cardiac muscle and clearly analyses the pumping action and microcirculation of your heart. Scans of the main arterial tree looks for potential aneurysms, narrowing of arteries and plaque deposits and evidence of increased vascularity within the major organs may be the earliest indication of cancer. The process takes about 1 hour in total and is completely painless. There is no better example of using modern day technology to help save or prolong lives.
As the recession unfolds, more and more executives will have to endure increased stress levels resulting from longer working hours and increased pressure to succeed in more and more challenging markets. Combined with the fear or experience of unemployment or business failure these conditions are fertile grounds for heart attacks, strokes and even cancers. By ensuring that your health and that of your senior workforce, is good for its age (and that your company personnel have no apparent short term illness concerns) clearly offers a real benefit to any director.
It is often said that a business is only as healthy as its leaders but in these challenging times, company directors and senior executives can be so focussed on the health of their business that they risk neglecting their own. Why is it therefore, that we willingly invest money and time on the maintenance of our high performance chattels such as cars and houses, yet rarely invest the same time, money or effort into monitoring the well being and condition of most important non replaceable possession - our bodies?
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