Three Ways to Help your Employees Stay Heart Healthy

February isn’t just for Valentine ’s Day. It’s national Heart Month, too! Dedicate this month to showing your employees you care by helping them stay heart healthy.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that about 610,000 people die of heart disease a year in the United States. That’s one in every four deaths!  Heart disease occurs when plaque builds up in your arteries. It can happen to anyone of any age! However, there’s ways to help prevent it. Follow these three steps to promote a healthy heart in your workplace.

Promote getting active

The best way to a healthy heart is to move your legs. It’s important to make time to exercise for 30-60 minutes a day. That can be an extremely lofty goal when you’re sitting at a desk for 40 hours a week. Promote exercise in your company by offering discounted or free gym memberships. FreightCenter partners with our local YMCA in Palm Harbor to offer employees free registration and 50 percent off monthly membership fees for those who go to the gym more than six times a month as an incentive to get active.

Promote a healthy lifestyle

There’s many ways to promote a healthy lifestyle in the workplace. One way FreightCenter does it is offering discounted health insurance rates for non-smokers and smokers who complete a tobacco cessation course. Smoking increases blood pressure, decreases exercise tolerance, and increases the tendency for blood to clot. Quitting is a huge step in the right direction towards becoming heart healthy.

Reduce stress

No matter how great your work environment may be, workplace stress is normal. Stress not only affects productivity at work, it can also increase the causes of heart disease, such as high blood pressure and cholesterol levels, physical inactivity and overeating. Reduce workplace stress by surveying your employees on a regular basis to find common areas of stress that can be improved upon.