Yoga — which combines physical postures, focused breathing, and meditation —strengthens the body, makes it more flexible, reduces stress, and enhances emotional resilience. It can also increase lung capacity and heart health, as well as improve overall physical fitness. Yoga improves cardiorespiratory performance and melatonin levels (associated with restful sleep), and has a positive impact on hypertension and cholesterol.

Researchers in Seattle found that obese individuals learn to manage their weight better through the body awareness that yoga teaches.

In medical studies of specific groups or conditions, yoga has shown significant improvements in:

• Psychopathology and quality of life in schizophrenic adults
• Distance walked, self-reported functional performance, muscle strength, and quality of life in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• Chronic lower back pain, depression, and energy in military veterans
• Fibromyalgia pain
• Preterm labor time in mothers and birth weight in their babies
• Nervous system health in older adults
• Antioxidant levels

The stress reduction that yoga brings can help cancer patients through difficult radiation and chemotherapy treatments.

Early scientific studies conducted on people with osteo- and rheumatoid arthritis show promising results, with improvement in joint health and emotional well-being.

One study, published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, compared two exercise regimens: yoga and walking. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy scans done after exercise sessions saw greater decreases in anxiety levels and greater improvements in mood in the yoga versus walking groups.

The National Institutes of Health recognizes the financial impact yoga might have. For instance, Americans spend $50 billion yearly on low back pain, and yoga reduces this pain while also improving movement and flexibility.

Although yoga has long been considered an alternative type of exercise, it is becoming more mainstream. Over 13 million Americans practice yoga, and more healthcare providers are recommending it to their patients.

Yoga is a low stress, low intensity exercise that, nonetheless, improves physical performance and endurance. Its postures and intensity levels can be tailored to sedentary individuals, or increased in frequency and duration for those more physically fit.

For those who still think of yoga as just sitting on the floor in a pretzel position, science is telling us otherwise. Yoga is so much more, and can benefit almost everyone.

[As with any exercise program, consult your physician before beginning.]

The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine Journal, followed 7,100 British workers for 11 years. Those people who worked more than 11 hours per day were 67 percent more likely to have a heart attack than those who worked fewer hours.

It can be a challenge not to work long hours, with organizations expecting more and more from employees. Employees frequently feel pressed to put in long hours to keep their jobs. While an employee may desire to keep his or her job, the long hours may or may not actually equal increased productivity.

People who burn out on the job may actually be less productive than those who take breaks, eat healthy meals, sleep well and keep work within more structured boundaries.

While employees and organizations feel stretched to meet the economic times – working longer hours with less staff can be seen as a way of helping the company and keeping their position intact – organizations and employees alike can band together for a healthier, productive work day that does not go on forever.

Both organizations and individuals need to assume responsibility for this growing problem, and show support for employees to work reasonable hours. An unhealthy standard won’t help the company or its people.

There is a difference between working an occasional long day and working an average of 11-hour days. For an employee to reach an average of 11-hour days, he or she has likely put in 14-hour, 13-hour and 12-hour days. This kind of commitment may be recognized, but if the employee winds up nonproductive, unhappy, unhealthy and unable to keep getting good results, the short-term benefits are not likely to outweigh the long-term pain.

Working late hours on occasion is probably necessary for many employees – but employees also need to set boundaries and manage expectations of what is reasonable, and when they should or should not be staying late.

There are a few steps an employee can take if he or she finds themselves working long hours:

-       Take the time to walk every hour or two

-       eat salads, fruit and other healthy foods

-       take time to meditate or clear one’s mind every few hours

These simple tips can improve a person’s productivity and health, even when work occasionally gets out of hand.

Therapeutic self care is a new way of looking at changes you can make in your life today that have the power to change your lifestyle dramatically for the better. Nature, raw foods, taking fast walks during breaks may sound like a luxury – but a new paper published by the American Psychological Association reveals that a therapeutic lifestyle leads directly to improved mental health and cognitive performance.

All it takes is focus, time, energy and the integration of a few new concepts into your daily practices. According to a paper published earlier this year by Roger Walsh, M.D., PhD. of the University of California Irvine College of Medicine, research on the effects of TLCs (therapeutic lifestyle changes)—including exercise, good relationships, stress management, diet, community service, being in nature, and spiritual development—points to significant therapeutic advantages.

The opposite lifestyle of too much hanging out on the couch, watching television, eating fast food and stressing and obsessing about every deadline could be costing you more than muscle tone. These behaviors and practices could indeed have a great psychological cost, Walsh maintains.

Some of the lesser known benefits of living a therapeutic lifestyle include increased memory in older adults, new neuron formation in the brain, increased cognitive performance, and better school performance for children.

Specifically, nourishing one’s body with a diet rich in vegetables, fruit, and fish also improves cognitive function in adults and school performance in children, while reducing symptoms in schizophrenic disorders, states Walsh. Even experiencing a good relationship can provide fabulous therapeutic results, as well as relaxation and stress management.

For a simple meditation exercise, try this. Take a few moments to breathe. Focus on your breath. Sit with your back straight, your head directly over your shoulders. Take 10 breaths and watch yourself breathe. Turn off your phone and computer for 10 minutes, so that you can have this time to replenish your brain cells. Breathe into your body and just be aware of sounds as they go by. Don’t try to meditate, just breathe. You may want to start out with only two or three minutes, as you build up your meditation “muscles.” Your brain will thank you!

Relaxation, meditation, and managing stress in more productive ways treats anxiety, insomnia and panic disorders, according to Walsh. It all starts with a glass of water, taking time out from your busy day, and taking care of yourself with foods rich in life force. It doesn’t have to be complicated. And the results will be appreciated by not only you, but by everyone in your life.

Researchers Howard Friedman and Leslie Martin reported their conclusions in the book The Longevity Project. At the core of their research is a study started by Stanford University psychologist Lewis Terman in 1921. Here are five of their key myths about thriving:

1. Thinking happy thoughts reduces stress and leads to a longer life.

Reality: In the study, children described as “extraordinarily cheerful and optimistic,” or “never worries” were less likely to reach an old age. This was a “bombshell” for the researchers. Participants who lived long, happy lives were not cynical rebels and loners but accomplished people satisfied with their lives. Many knew that worrying is sometimes a good thing.

2. Going to the gym isn’t enough to keep you healthy.

Reality: Being active in middle age was most important to health and longevity in the study. But rather than vow to do something to get in shape (like jogging) and then hate it and not stick with it, people should find something they like to do.

3. Lighten up; being serious is bad for you.

Reality: One of the best childhood personality predictors of longevity was conscientiousness — the qualities of a prudent, persistent, well-organized person. The reasoning was that such people protect their health and take fewer risks. But what characterized those who thrived was a combination of persistence, dependability and the help of others. Young adults who were thrifty, persistent, detail-oriented and responsible lived longest.

4. Take it easy and don’t work so hard. You’ll live longer.

Reality: Those with the most career success were the least likely to die young. Among participants who were still working in their 70s, the continually productive men and women lived much longer than the laid-back comrades. It wasn’t the happiest or the most relaxed older participants who lived the longest. It was those who were most engaged in pursuing their goals.

5. Get married and you will live longer.

Reality: The authors examined the remarried, steadily married, divorced, and steadily single and found many differences among the groups and between genders. They found that a satisfying and happy marriage is a great indicator of future health and long life, but being single for a woman can be just as healthy as being in a marriage. Among men, those who stayed married lived the longest.

While so many seek the answer to long life, most studies seem to indicate that it may be deceivingly simple. Common threads of life expectancy seem to crop up in most studies, and frequent themes emerge: eating a balanced diet, not engaging in excessive or risky behavior, maintaining and pursuing goals, and having a clear sense of purpose well past retirement. Most surprising was the revelation that working longer may be the key to old age – not a relaxing retirement.

Even Captain Jack discovered that what truly made him feel alive was the thrill of new adventures. With an aging workforce that may work well beyond their retirement age, employers have even more reason to encourage healthy lifestyle habits among their employees – and those employees have a convincing reason to embrace them.

Earlier this year, Towers Watson surveyed 3,000 employees about their employers’ health care programs and found a significant decrease in workers’ focus on their own health during the last two years. Only 59 percent of respondents said that managing their health was a top priority, compared with 69 percent in 2008. Only one in five said they were using wellness programs designed to help them lose weight or stop smoking, for example, compared with one in four in 2008.

The reasons are simple: employees are seriously stressed out and might not feel as if they have the time to exercise and take care of themselves. Many have longer commutes and feel they have to be in touch with their employer all the time. The survey also suggests that employees who are in the poorest health tend to be the most critical of the employer health programs.

It’s true that getting employees to focus on their health can be challenging even in the best of times. In an uncertain economy, employees view it as one more burden that they have to manage, often at the expense of their health. Unfortunately, this burden goes beyond finding time to exercise. During a tough economy, employees often work multiple jobs to keep up with bills or work hard to save money in case they lose their job.

Sadly, it’s much easier and less expensive in the short term to live an unhealthy lifestyle. It’s cheaper to feed a family at a fast-food restaurant than to buy a balanced diet of healthy fruits, vegetables, meat and fish at the grocery store. And it’s even more expensive to buy those items produced organically or from a sustainable farm.

On top of that, there’s the time crunch: working parents barely have time to spend with their children during the week, let alone find time to exercise. It’s a vicious cycle that people get trapped in and there’s no easy answer for turning it around. However, with a little planning and commitment, it’s possible to get back on track.  Below are a few ideas to try:

• Involve the kids in an exercise program so that it serves double duty as a family activity and health regimen

• Grow a garden with fresh fruits and vegetables.  This can be a low-cost way to grow your own produce organically and is a great learning experience for the kids to join in.

• Start a CSA purchasing group at work.  A CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is a great way for you to buy directly from a local farm; if several co-workers join in, they may even deliver for free. This not only saves money but time.

• Plan out a week’s worth of meals over the weekend and gear them around sale items at the grocery store. If possible, make some items in advance and you’ll have more time after work to spend with the family rather than cooking. Even better, involve the kids in cooking dinner and make it a family activity.

Woman talking to man at front desk

We couldn’t help but view a recent article in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review with a mix of dismay and amusement. The story – titled “How Healthy are Wellness Programs?” – pointed out that most companies with wellness programs spend $50 to $100 in incentives per employee to prod their workforce to join. At Consol Energy Inc., each employee gets a “well being” day off with pay. At Bayer Corp., it’s a $50 gift card for general merchandise of the employee’s choice.

These companies are hardly alone in throwing money or perks at employees to induce them into wellness programs. A recent survey by Cowden Associates found that 69 percent of employers in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio offer incentives to participate. And yet, the story noted that less than half of the companies in Western Pennsylvania measure whether such programs work well.

In Bayer’s case, the company piloted a wellness program in the Pittsburgh area from 2008 through 2010, then expanded it to all 60 offices nationally this spring. As of April, about 35 percent of its employees had signed up for the nationwide program; the goal is 50 percent by year’s end. Those who enroll get a gift card for general merchandise at area stores.

Obviously, we believe wellness programs are a great addition to a company’s benefit portfolio. However, while incentives may help to motivate employees in the short term, they can fall short on providing sustainable behavior change that makes a real impact on a person’s health.

Wellness programs work best when the focus is on helping motivate individuals for their long term well-being. For instance, behavioral change coaching can help participants connect their health with things in their life they value highly, like being able to enjoy their grandchildren, retirement, and other perks. While this may seem logically obvious, people typically don’t make the connection in a way that motivates change until the individual takes time to reflect on what is important to them.

Once that connection is solidified, an employee experiences motivation that can last a lifetime—well past receiving the incentive check. Without an environment that supports long-term wellness, people eventually turn back to their unhealthy habits.

What’s the alternative to incentives? Some ideas include:

- Provide behavioral coaching that helps employees link their goals to personal values

- Monitor employee work-life balance

- Stock vending machines with healthy foods

- Start a walking club

- Host a healthy recipe exchange on the intranet

- Ensure employees have easy access to resources for emotional issues, like an EAP program

- Assign a team to coordinate and spearhead company wellness initiatives

- Make wellness a constant/consistent message that’s driven and modeled by top leaders

In a telling example, Bayer’s manager of diversity and work life participated in the Pittsburgh

pilot program, but it wasn’t the gift card that persuaded her to join. Rather, it was the realization that “my cholesterol is on the high end.” She adopted an exercise regimen, monitors her diet, and uses the wellness program’s online tools to guide her dining selections.

That’s true behavior change.

Amid the flurry of assertions about how to boost brain performance, in 2010 the National Institutes of Health (NIH) conducted an evaluation of the applicable research, hoping to distill fact from fiction. What they determined is that there is little evidence supporting such things such as eating blueberries, increasing one’s omega-3 intake, or some of the brain training websites that are flooding the commercial market.

And, of course, there were some brain-boosting approaches that had some science to back them up, but not enough to earn the NIH seal of approval, so to speak. For example, many assert that the Mediterranean diet is associated with a lower risk of cognitive decline, and that is true. However, it’s not clear whether it is the diet itself (olive oil, fish, vegetables, wine) or what it excludes (refined sugar, red meat, high-fat diary) that has the protective effect.

Also, you’ve probably heard that crossword puzzles and other simple brain games can boost cognitive performance, and they can. However, so far, the research suggests that this kind of cognitive training only improves performance on the task at hand (such as crossword puzzles), and does not generalize to other mental activities.

So what does work? Here are the three primary behaviors that have been shown to promote neurogenesis (the growth of new neurons), as well as to boost learning, memory, reasoning and creativity across a broad range of mental tasks:

1.       Aerobic Exercise: As little as 45 minutes of brisk walking three times a week, for instance, promotes neurogenesis and the growth of new neural networks. One scientific finding is that a year of exercise can provide a 70-year old with the same brain capacity as a 30-year old with respect to memory, planning, multitasking and critical thinking.

2.       Meditation: Long touted as a way to exercise the brain, meditation has been show to promote neurogenesis, improve concentration, enhance processing of sensory information, and offset IT-induced attention deficit disorder. How? Neuroscientists know that a meditator’s use of “focused attention,” a hallmark of the meditative process, enlarges and optimizes brain circuitry. This is also seen when someone learns an entirely new cognitive skill, such as a second language, a new musical instrument, etc.

3.       Certain Videogames: Parents may not like this, but some videogames improve mental abilities such as motor control, visual search, working and long-term memory, and decision-making, particularly in older adults. What’s more, like meditation, videogames invoke the “holy grail” of brain boosting — attention. Certain games are better than others, particularly more complex ones requiring strategic planning.

Bottom Line: If you want to enhance your cognitive skills, then exercise your body, meditate and play certain videogames. And for a still bigger boost, learn a new and challenging mental skill, like a foreign language. Your brain will love you for it.

Brain scientists continue to puzzle over why we snooze at all, but we now know that a good night’s sleep, and even so-called “cat naps,” contribute significantly to optimal cognitive functioning. In fact, as little as six minutes of repose has a measurable and positive impact on memory and the executive functions of the brain, such as judgment, critical thinking and decision-making.

While it may seem like it, when you sleep, your brain does not shut down or even go into a quiescent mode. In fact, it is just as active as when you are awake. What’s it up to? Well, among other pursuits, it is transferring data from the hippocampus (where short-term memories are processed) to the cerebral cortex (where long-term memories are archived). Which explains why people who get sufficient sleep, including napping, perform better on memory tests.

There is even evidence that napping while at work, which is broadly frowned on in most organizations, makes workers more productive. Despite this, few businesses openly encourage their employees to power nap, in part because we have a longstanding societal bias against so-called “downtime” while on the job. This is exemplified in the phrase, “keep your nose to the grindstone.” But, in fact, if you take a break from the grindstone, whatever that might be in your workplace, and put your nose on a pillow for 10 or 15 minutes, you’ll be a more productive employee.

Bottom Line: Sleep is vital to cognitive functioning, mental well-being and physical health. When your body tells you to catch some winks, it isn’t trying to turn you into a slacker. More often than not, it’s just trying to function at its best.

Based on numerous studies presented at the annual conference of the Obesity Society, as well as prior research, there are a number of genes that can influence one’s risk of becoming overweight. However, there is also strong evidence that, in this arena, genes alone do not determine the destiny of one’s body mass. Behavior matters. Here’s how.

The first genetic mutation associated with obesity (on the “FTO” gene) was discovered in 2007. Since then, several studies have examined the impact of exercise on those who carry this mutation, and the results look somewhat encouraging. Examining over 200,000 individuals in North America and Europe, these studies indicate that people with the FTO gene mutation who live sedentary lifestyles are at 30% greater risk of becoming obese than their physically active counterparts. Translation? Regardless of whether your genes are conspiring against you in your weight loss/control efforts, you can do something about it. Regular exercise is the ticket.

Of course, diet continues to be a significant contributing factor. Even if one exercises daily for at least 30 minutes, as most experts suggest, a high fat, calorically dense diet can nullify the positive impact of more physical activity. For most, fast food is the culprit. Also, the kind of physical activity one pursues can make a difference, as well. A combination of aerobic exercise (think running, swimming, bicycling, brisk walking, etc.) and resistance training (weight lifting, in particular) shows the greatest impact on weight, whether in losing extra pounds or in keeping them off.

Bottom Line: When it comes to weight, genetic factors matter, but they don’t dictate. We still have the ability to keep the “fat gene” influence in check. Eat healthy and keep moving.

Our blogs provide a forum to stay abreast of the most relevant and insightful industry articles, information and white papers.  So remember to subscribe to our RSS feeds because being informed has never been so easy.