We all have some unhealthy habits. While most of us are more than aware of them, life tends to go on without us making any change until some terrible wake-up call happens. A health crisis, an alarming diagnosis or the simple realization of our deteriorating health will do the trick. These unhealthy habits can be various, the most obvious ones are smoking or eating too much junk food, while the less obvious ones are simply not getting enough sleep.

It is hard changing habits. I know that, as I have been in the business of changing prescribing practices of physicians for the past ten years. Once an act becomes part of our normal routine, it is automatic; therefore it operates more on a subconscious level. When dealing with matters controlled by your subconscious, you’d better have some deep founded reasons as to why changing them is what you want to do. While all this can be challenging, kicking unhealthy habits is sure possible.

It would, however, be unreasonable to expect to make a complete turnaround in multiple areas at the same time. That’s why, to create meaningful changes in our life that will last, we should tackle one or two problems at a time. Find your most prominent pain spot. Identify the one or two unhealthy habits in your life that you must undoubtedly break. Otherwise your inaction will be more painful than embarking on the journey of making a positive change. To ensure we get the most bang for our bucks, it’s worth establishing an order of priority concerning which unhealthy habits are causing us the most significant damage and costing us the most. So here are the top 3 costliest unhealthy habits to start with.

1. Drinking soda

The act of drinking soda and other sugary drinks enjoys center stage in an all American lifestyle. Most soda drinkers, while aware of the fact that it’s “not good” for their health, they carry on and give it no further thought. Well, in my mind, your health is your wealth. Once your health is gone, no money can repurchase it. For this reason alone,  let’s take a closer look at what drinking a single can of soda per day can do to your health.

• According to a study published in Diabetes Care in 2010, consuming 1-2 cans of sugary drink per day increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 26%. I have spent many years selling prescription drugs for the treatment of diabetes. While seemingly there is a multitude of meds available to address this issue, I can tell you; none will be able to fix your failing pancreas. It is far easier to prevent this disease altogether than devoting the rest of your life to “managing” it.
• Another study, published in Circulation in 2012, followed 40,000 men for 20 years and found that drinking a single can of sugary beverage per day increases the risk of coronary heart disease and the likelihood of dying from a heart attack by 20%.
• A 22-year follow-up study published in the JAMA in 2012 concluded that of the over 78,000 women those drinking a can of sugary drink per day increased their risk of developing gout by 75%.

Add that to the bone weakening, tooth decay, and caffeine addiction, and you quickly realize, even just from a health perspective, drinking sodas does not make sense. How much do you think the lifetime cost of managing these chronic diseases will run you on a monthly basis? Health care costs are increasing that includes prescription drug prices, doctors office visits, not to mention the price of a loss of quality of life.

Besides the numerous negative implications to your health, buying sodas can hurt your wallet as well. Let’s face it; avid soda drinkers drink way more than a can a day. Just for the sake of example, let’s say someone going through 10 cans a day, pays about 5 dollars for a 24-pack at Costco. At that pace, this supply will last about 2 and a half days. That means almost 15 dollars a week, which is around $780 annually. It seems to me that this is a pretty expensive unhealthy habit, would you say? I am pretty sure you can find smarter ways to spend that amount of money, right?

2. Smoking

According to the American Cancer Society, tobacco smoking is still the number one cause of preventable disease and premature death. One of the many contributing factors to this issue is that it’s not easy to kick the habit. Many experts believe that nicotine is as incredibly addictive as heroin. If you are a smoker, you get to experience first hand the physical symptoms of withdrawal should you not light up for a few hours. Irritability, severe mood swings, nervousness, and insomnia are just a few of the many undesirable side effects, and that makes it incredibly tough to kick this toxic habit. You may think the odds are against you and it is impossible to break free from this dark prison. But think again. Nothing is impossible. It starts with you making a conscious decision to want to do it. So let’s examine, purely from a cost perspective, how much is this habit costing you, or on the flip side, how much will you be saving throughout your lifetime should you decide to quit today:

• Direct cost: To be on the conservative side, if you smoke one pack of cigarette a day, at 12 dollars a pack you will be blowing $4,368 annually. Should you take that money and simply stash it away, in 20 years, you will be $87,360 richer. If you invest it wisely you could end up with hundreds of thousands of dollars in your bank account.
• Indirect costs: Besides the physical exchange of money for a pack, other indirect costs impact your financial status in a negative way. Smokers pay almost twice as much premium for life insurance, their homes and cars sell for at least 10% less on average than those of non-smokers. Not fair, right? But the fact remains, lighting up will hurt your bottom line on the short and long run.
• Health implications: The most damaging effects of smoking are the ones to your health. There is not a single organ or area in the body that won’t be impacted by the more than 7,000 chemicals and compounds you flood your cells with every time you take a puff. Hundreds of those chemicals are toxic, and at least 69 of them are cancer causing. Besides the apparent causative relation between cigarette smoking and lung cancer, there are tons of other types of diseases and cancers that have been linked to this deadly habit. Do yourself a favor, set a date to reclaim your life and start living smoke-free. Watch this video to see what to expect once you make that life-saving decision to quit:

3. Eating fast food

While fast food is a seemingly convenient and inexpensive way to feed yourself and your family, over the long term it has proven to be unbelievably expensive. Back to my initial comment about your health being your greatest wealth, fast food can put you on the fast track to disaster. According to data from the National Health and Examination Survey, 2009-2010, more than 2 in 3 (68.8%) adults are considered to be overweight or obese in the U.S. These statistics are staggering, and the trend continues to worsen.

While there is no single cause to blame for this trend, eating large amounts of nutritionally deficient fast food is undoubtedly a substantial contributing factor. A Big Mac alone contains an overwhelming amount of saturated fat (about 55% of your average daily intake) and a whopping 590 calories. So while for the moment you may think you made a pretty good deal going through drive-through grabbing that Big Mac, at some point you are likely to pay a much higher price for such repeated offense of unhealthy habit.

• Obesity-related medical costs to society: According to data published by the Centers for Disease Control, the health care costs of obesity in the US are estimated to be between $147 billion to $210 billion per year. Obesity-related productivity loss due to absenteeism costs another 4.3 billion dollars to the US economy.
• Direct healthcare costs: Obese adults end up spending about 42% more on direct healthcare costs, such as doctor’s office visits, hospital admissions, tests, etc. than non-obese adults. Patients with a higher BMI also tend to end up on more pharmaceutical products than those of healthy weight.

There is no way around it, to lose weight one must improve nutrition and increase physical activity. Rarely have I seen fast food recommended as part of a healthy balanced diet. Actually, I never have. That’s because offering high-quality nutritious meals is not the business model of fast food chains. Trust me, the best possible way to reduce your spending on health care is by decreasing your dependence on utilizing its products and services. You can achieve this goal by improving your overall well-being, kicking some of your most damaging unhealthy habits and making mindful choices every single day. Why not start with the foods that you chose to put into your mouth?

References: http://stateofobesity.org/healthcare-costs-obesity/

This topic is causing employers a good amount of headache, trying to pinpoint the most significant reasons that negatively impact employee performance. The reasons for that heightened attention is the fact that a diminished employee performance takes a direct toll on a company’s profitability. The causes are numerous, but most of those are directly or indirectly linked to one of the three factors below.

1. Stress

According to the American Institute for Stress, work-related stress costs U.S. companies about $300 billion annually mostly through diminished employee productivity, absenteeism, increased employee turnover and direct medical, legal and insurance fees. Stress is, unfortunately, part of our everyday life. While according to scientists some stress is a good thing, too much of that is a cause for significant concern. The workplace, in particular, has proven itself to be the most significant source of negative stress in our life. Here are some of the origins of workplace stress:

• unreasonable deadlines and expectations
• constant pressure to perform
• micromanaging bosses
• backstabbing coworkers
• lack of job security
• lack of control over our destiny
• negative work environment
• feeling unappreciated

These are just some of the most common reasons as to why many end up on a fast track to job burnout, disengagement, and depression. Understandably, once employees start developing negative sentiment or resentment towards their co-workers, managers and their organization employee performance will quickly begin to suffer. Furthermore, there is a well-established link between chronic stress and deterioration of health. It is not uncommon for people in high-stress job functions to suffer a heart attack on the job or while on vacation as a direct consequence of a large amount of toxic work-related stress exposure.

So what can employers do to help improve employee performance? As they say, a little can go a long way. Arming employees with the skills to deal with stress is one particularly effective way to increase employee performance. The most effective technique that should be learned by everyone is conscious breathing. Numerous scientific studies have demonstrated that learning and practicing breath control can be tremendously helpful in reducing stress and improve stress-related conditions. There is a reason why breath control is such an integral part of ancient practices like yoga, tai chi, and meditation. How can such simple thing as learning to breathe appropriately help? The explanation can be found in human physiology. For example, when we feel stressed or anxious, our breathing pattern changes. We tend to take rapid, shallow breath disrupting the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the body. When you consciously slow down your breath, creating a relaxed breathing pattern, your body will respond the following positive ways rapidly reducing your stress level:

• reduction in levels of stress hormones in the blood
• lowered heart rate
• lowered blood pressure
• re-established homeostasis between blood oxygen and carbon-dioxide
• boost of energy
• feeling of calm

Try this simple breathing exercise to help you relieve stress and anxiety.

2. Poor employee health

According to the CDC, 86 percent of all health care expenditures are spent on preventable chronic illnesses. Unhealthy employees are a significant cost factor for any business. The top 4 most expensive health conditions are:

• high blood pressure
• heart attack
• diabetes
• chest pain.

While the bad news is, these conditions have become the new normal in our modern day society, the good news is that these ailments are mostly preventable. The problem is however that a tremendous amount of misinformation and complacency make prevention of these conditions reasonably tricky. Many will blame genes and family history for the “sudden,” and unexpected appearance of chronic diseases and many will need help with changing their course. Coupled with the population’s “there is a pill for every ill” mentality, the chances of turning things around seem quite slim. The facts remain facts, however, by eliminating risk factors (such as obesity, sedentary lifestyle, poor diet, etc.), at least 80% of all heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes could be prevented, as demonstrated by statistics published by the World Health Organization. This means that there is an enormous need to re-educate and empower people to wake up and take charge of their health.

Companies have the single most significant vested interest in improving the health of their employees. It has been shown in many clinical studies that a healthier workforce equals much greater employee performance. Employees dealing with chronic diseases typically miss far more days from work. In addition, people with chronic conditions take several prescription medications with many undesirable side effects that have the potential to negatively impact not only their performance but their overall quality of life. These employees often do not feel well, have a more difficult time staying focused on their work, which leads to increased presenteeism.

In the United States, people spend a disproportionately large amount of time at work. This leaves employees with very little free time, making it particularly difficult for self-care. Employers must recognize that it is their vested interest to help maintain and improve the health of their workforce. Since employee health or lack thereof directly impacts company bottom line, corporate wellness initiatives should be laser-focused on finding effective ways to create a healthy workforce. There are five essential steps businesses should follow to address this urgent issue:

1. Assess the health of the employees
2. Plan strategies
3. Implement health and well-being focused programs
4. Evaluate the results
5. Lead by example

One solution to remedy this situation is to provide on-site wellness education. Wellness workshops are a popular and effective way to inspire and empower employees to take action. Furthermore, as prevention is far less expensive than chronic disease management, health promotion and disease prevention workshops may help organizations reduce their healthcare spending.

3. Lack of engagement According to a survey done by Gallup in 2013 “State of the American Workplace”, 70 percent of employees in the U.S. are “not engaged” or are “actively disengaged” in their work. This is a huge problem to every business as it has a direct negative impact not only on employee performance, customer satisfaction, but on overall profitability.