I read a couple of very interesting articles in the Globe & Mail this week.<\/p>\n
1. Stress: Public-Health Enemy Number 1?<\/a><\/p>\n Here’s just 2 excerpts – it’s worth reading the whole article.<\/p>\n “Across the country, people are experiencing increasing levels of stress. A poll commissioned by The Globe found that Canadians endure, on average, 14 stressful episodes a week. That might not come as a surprise to the researchers behind the latest report from the Canadian Index of Wellbeing, which recently revealed that one working person in five is experiencing high levels of \u201ccrunch time\u201d \u2013 periods when they feel overwhelmed by overcrowded inboxes and jammed weekly schedules.”<\/p>\n “Chronic stress caused by taking on too much \u2013 both at home and at work \u2013 has been linked to a wide range of serious health concerns, from Alzheimer\u2019s and depression to obesity, diabetes and heart disease. In Canada, hypertension is the No. 1 reason people go to the doctor, and last year accounted for almost 20.7 million medical appointments. \/\u00a0The physical and psychological ailments brought about by stress are believed to be a major reason absentee rates for full-time employees have shot up 43 per cent in the past 10 years. Canadians miss far more work days for personal reasons than both their British and American counterparts. At least one think tank estimates that stress-related absences cost employers more than $10-billion a year, with an additional $14-billion impact on the health-care system.”<\/p>\n