The Damocles' sword of the executive world
Climbing to the top of the corporate ladder requires hard work and commitment and those who get there often find themselves looking at the more junior executives in their offices with a strong sense of envy.
That’s because power brings with it not just better pay and bigger perks but also long and stressful days, exhausting travel and entertainment obligations that impact negatively on health.
Such “duties” are also often an excuse for overeating, drinking and avoiding physical activity and combined with stress, have the potential to lead to serious health concerns.
For example, diet frequently takes a nosedive, becoming inappropriate both in terms of caloric intake and nutritional value. That snowballs into numerous metabolic problems and the executive puts on too much weight and messes up his/her metabolism leading to high blood pressure, elevated blood sugar levels, excess body fat and high cholesterol and finally diabetes. This in turn increases the risk of heart problems and several cancers such as colon, kidney, pancreas, thyroid, oesophagus, breast and uterus and causes damage to the bones and joints.
Equally, physical activity is often markedly reduced or becomes non-existent. The sedentary lifestyle often associated with excess of weight significantly increases the risk of heart attack, stroke, hypertension, diabetes and a number of other chronic diseases.
Frequent entertainment obligations can lead to a casual or serious addiction to toxins, namely cigarette or cigar smoking and excessive alcohol intake, all of which augment the risk of heart attack, stroke and many cancers such as lung, throat and gastro-intestinal tract tumours.
Emotional health suffers too as stress levels increase and family life collapses, with many going on to develop what has become known as the burn out syndrome. In addition, a recent study showed that outbursts of anger lead to higher risk of cardiovascular events shortly afterwards.
But not all executives neglect their health. Many businessmen and women out there do adhere to a routine of preventive check-ups and strive to maintain a positive attitude as well as manage a balance between their professional and personal lives. Increasingly though, as competition heats up, health is rarely on top of the businessman’s agenda. As a result, many do face significant health challenges during their professional life or shortly later after retiring. Although nobody is immune to health issues, serious acute problems are mainly found among those who show continuing careless attitudes towards their health. Often, the switch to a healthier lifestyle happens only after the occurrence of a severe illness, which unfortunately has left permanent damage that could have been prevented.
Of the numerous health hazards dramatically altering the fate of those who insist on ignoring their health, the first and by far the most common is a heart attack followed by stroke. In more than 90 per cent of the cases, heart attack or myocardial infarction does not happen by chance. It is a foreseeable acute complication of a chronic and silent process damaging the vessels of the heart named atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis corresponds to the development of plaques of cholesterol and calcium that progressively obstruct the vessels and reduce the blood flow. Any major disregard of healthy behaviour during ageing contributes to a much more rapid and important atherosclerosis development within the heart arteries. The core problem is the unpredictable occurrence of a sudden clot formation within already severely damaged vessels, which within minutes totally interrupts the blood supply to the heart muscle triggering a sudden attack. This is why more than half of the sufferers of this dreadful hardship are stricken without any premonitory symptoms. For the unhealthy businessman, a heart attack in the sword of Damocles and hangs over his head at every moment.
Are business duties a worthwhile reason for neglecting one’s health? Definitely not and in fact, the businessman’s health should be a priority for the company as well as for the individual.
Fortunately many realise during the mid-life that a sustainable quality of life over the long term requires balanced and healthy life. It simply goes back to the four pillars of wellness –diet, exercise, avoiding toxins and stress – coupled with regular medical check-ups.
Dr Gerard Lalande is managing director of CEO-HEALTH, which |provides medical referrals for expatriates and customised executive medical check-ups in Thailand. He can be contacted at [email protected]
