5 ways your corporate job is harming your heart health

The economic burden of cardiovascular diseases on India is expected to be about $4.8 trillion before 2030. The young and productive 31–60-year-olds already have significant risk factors like hypertension, dyslipidemia, and obesity among others which significantly contribute to heart issues. The upcoming decade is going to see a significant decline in our health and productivity as a nation unless we do something about it now.

Apollo analyzed the preventive health checks done for about 1.5 lakh corporate employees and the results showed that 50% of diabetics, hypertensives, and high cholesterol patients were under the age of 45 years. Even more concerning was that 75% of the individuals having high blood pressure didn’t know that they had developed hypertension. Similarly, 2 out of 3 diabetics were unaware of their blood sugar problem. Additionally, there was a high incidence of obesity and sedentary lifestyle among these employees with 70% of overweight individuals having one or the other risk factors.

Dr. Deepesh Venkatraman, Interventional Cardiologist, Apollo Hospitals says, “A workplace is an integral part of our day to day and exerts immense influence on our lifestyle and choices, hence, I strongly believe that it's essential for corporations to create a holistic approach to employee health that considers physical, mental, and emotional well-being. The way our workplaces are structured push us into making certain lifestyle choices that have long term ramifications on our health, including our heart health.” For instance:
Sitting is the next smoking: Prolonged sitting has been documented to increase blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist and unhealthy lipid levels.
Work Stress has become an inevitable part of our day to day, from endless meetings to tight deadlines. Stress is undoubtedly a major contributor to hypertension and by normalizing stress in our lives, we are invariably on the path to develop cardiovascular diseases in the long run.
Poor diet: Easy access to junk food/salty diet combined with unstructured meal times have a detrimental impact on our overall health.
Poor Hydration: inadequate water intake adds to the spectrum.

There is a need for a robust workplace health rejuvenation. From standing desks, encouraging breaks, availability of nutritional food and stress management, these will certainly have a long term positive impact on employee wellbeing, productivity and happiness. Lifestyle changes like cessation of smoking, regular physical activity, close monitoring of health risks should be encouraged and rewarded. Companies should consider going a step further and extend preventive health care benefits to employees' families, motivating holistic employees’ involvement.
A good corporate wellness program should also go beyond just annual health checks to partnering with healthcare professionals such as physicians and health mentors and lifestyle coaches to ensure an individually customized approach. This includes ensuring the right screening tests based on an individual's family history, follow-up diagnostics and coaching for condition management.

There are various reasons behind the missed opportunity for timely detection of heart disease. Many vulnerable individuals have never got their health checked including their blood pressure or blood sugar levels. What drives this pattern is that most cases of BP and sugar level elevations in the initial years manifest no external symptoms, while they continue to silently cause damage to our organs. In my experience, 60% of patients presenting to the emergency room with chest pain have no previous ECGs to compare with, leading to trivial ECG aberrations triggering panic, a battery of tests, and long stay in the hospital.

​Also Read: Working too hard? It may be impacting your heart health​