There’s been a trend lately amongst the leading health insurance providers – they’ve been encouraging healthy lifestyles as a way to keep your premiums down.
It seems fair – why shouldn’t those of us who keep in shape get cheaper health insurance than those of us who obstinately binge and lounge ourselves into early diabetes?
The Key Health team found it especially interesting, though, to see popular providers like VitalityHealth promoting relaxation and stress relief alongside diet and fitness, with spa treatments and cinema tickets appearing within a range of benefits offered to customers.
This might seem indulgent, but it should make sense to anyone with an interest in healthcare. Excess stress affects the immune system in ways that science is only beginning to understand, and can worsen physical maladies like muscle pain and RSI. According to the UK government’s health & safety executive, “stress, depression and anxiety” caused an average of 23 sick days per worker in 2013/14 in Great Britain.
Twenty three days a year, per working person.
You might not feel like you can spare time for “me time”, and employers can be stuck in the past when it comes to mental health, leisure, and breathing space. But once you take it down to cold hard profit margins, twenty three days is a lot – suddenly, it pays to send your employees for a massage every now and then.
To help you explore this trend, and hopefully get you thinking about ways to take care of yourself or your employees more holistically, we’re looking at three areas of personal health – juicing, strategies for handling work stress, and the spa lifestyle.
We have experts in each area, so you can relax and let them guide you straight to the important stuff. Click here for “Stress Less” strategies, and come back soon for juicing and spa lifestyle.
