Staying healthy is key to being able to work at your peak efficiency. We all know that physical and mental fitness go hand in hand. As an employer, this is something you must bear in mind when it comes to your employees. If you run a business or are setting up one, offering employee health …

Have you ever heard anyone wax eloquent on the benefits of smoking? Has any cigarette brand ever talked about which cigarette is good for health? No, because cigarette smoking, in fact, the use of tobacco products, is harmful to health, is well known and established. Yet in 2020, according to the WHO, 22.3% of the population worldwide used tobacco. According to a 2022 report, 267 million Indians use tobacco, and this includes minors as well. About 15 million Indians above 15 smoke some form of tobacco, and statistics reveal that it is fatal for approximately 50% of its users. While there are many forms of tobacco, cigarette smoking is its most popular form, which we focus on mainly in this piece. So know how cigarette smoking can be injurious to health in myriad ways.

10 Ill-Effects of Smoking

Smoking can affect every organ. While most people know that the harmful effects of tobacco include the heightened risk of cancers, there are many less-known smoking diseases that can significantly affect your health and lifestyle. Take a look at ten of these:

• Cardiovascular diseases

Yes, cigarette side effects include heart and blood vessel (cardiovascular) diseases like stroke and heart disease. In 2000, more than 1 in 10 deaths from CVD were traced back to smoking. Cigarette side effects include an increase in triglycerides and lower good cholesterol. Further, it can increase the risk of blood clots in the arteries by making the blood stickier while also causing the narrowing of blood vessels. Cigarette smoke causes damage to the cells lining our blood vessels. All of these lead to a seriously heightened risk of CVD in smokers.

• Central Nervous System

The smoke effect is so potent that it can reach your brain in just 10 seconds after you take your first whiff of the cigarette. Nicotine in cigarette smoke can alter your mood. That’s why smoking makes you feel euphoric and energetic initially. But it harms your nervous system in many ways, as follows:

• Neurotransmission
• Development of nervous structures
• Cognitive function
• Cerebrovascular health

Smoking diseases include neurodegenerative diseases as well.

• Addiction

Tobacco effects are not restricted to physical ailments. It can also become an addiction that you cannot break out of. The first smoke effect that you experience is positive. You can concentrate better and feel that it makes you very productive. But then these effects quickly wear off, leaving you craving the energy again, especially as you feel drained and enervated soon after smoking. Nicotine, which is highly addictive, makes smoking a tough habit to quit, and this can result in a slew of other problems for you both health-wise and apart from that.

• Lung damage

The cigarette side effects on the lung are known very well, but smokers do not realize the seriousness of the issue until too late. Cigarette smoke significantly increases the risk of lung cancer. You are 25 times more likely to contract this dreaded disease if you are a smoker, more in the case of women. Most lung cancer fatalities across the world can be attributed to smoking.

• COPD 

According to the American Lung Association, harmful effects of tobacco include a seriously heightened risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD. COPD is the umbrella term for various illnesses that affect the lungs and cause considerable respiratory distress.

Know More: Understanding COPD & How Early Detection Helps

• Macular degeneration

Did you know that smoking can make you lose vision? Smoking heightens the possibility of vision loss from age-related macular degeneration. This eye disease hampers your central vision owing to damage to the macula portion of the eye. AMD is a prevalent condition, especially in older people and those habituated to smoking; the chances of losing central vision are much higher.

• Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes is also one of the cigarette side effects that you should be aware of. There is a 30- 40% greater chance that smokers will develop this disease when compared with non-smokers. Diabetics who smoke are more likely unable to manage their insulin dosing correctly. So not only is Type 2 diabetes one of the common smoking diseases you can contract, but smoking can also make it difficult for you to manage the condition.

• Erectile dysfunction

One of the tobacco’s less known harmful effects is that it narrows the blood vessels in the body. This also impairs the blood supply to the penis affecting male sexual function. One of the first questions asked of patients with erectile dysfunction is if they smoke a lot.

• Reproductive complications

The risk of a fatal reproductive complication is heightened in women who smoke. Known as ectopic pregnancy, this condition occurs when the fertilized egg is not implanted inside the uterus but elsewhere. Not only does this pregnancy not survive, but the mother is also at grave risk.

• Colorectal cancer

The link between lung cancer and smoking is relatively well known, but do you know that colorectal cancer can also be attributed to cigarette side effects? When cancer cells multiply in the colon or rectum, the condition is called colorectal cancer. Cigarette smoking is linked to this condition, and a preventive measure for this disease is to quit smoking.

There is little doubt that cigarette smoke can be highly injurious to health, but less known is the fact that most of the diseases outlined above can also be attributed to the harmful effects of tobacco. If you smoke or use any such product, it is time to stop NOW!

You must prioritize medical screening tests to evaluate how your body has been affected by cigarette side effects so that you can take corrective action quickly and effectively. Remember that many significant illnesses, including cancers, can be effectively treated if identified early, and screening helps you do that.

Book your appointment at NURA labs right away for a whole body check-up to evaluate overall health and identify potential early risks. You can also call in and check with us about the best package that suits your needs. With the medical prowess of Dr Kutty’s Healthcare and the cutting-edge technological expertise of Japan’s Fujifilm, NURA ensures you get the most accurate test outcomes, the fastest testing, and the best care before, during and after the testing procedures.

Read More: Everything you need to know about Coronary Artery Disease

Have you ever heard anyone wax eloquent on the benefits of smoking? Has any cigarette brand ever talked about which cigarette is good for health? No, because cigarette smoking, in fact, the use of tobacco products, is harmful to health, is well known and established. Yet in 2020, according to the WHO, 22.3% of the …

Human resource is one of the vital assets of any organisation. As a business owner, it is up to you to safeguard this asset so that your business can grow at an incredible pace. Investing in employee health is even more critical now when chronic illnesses are on the rise.

Some of these may arise from stress at the workplace or workplace environment, including poor ergonomic work conditions. Many stem from lifestyle habits. Irrespective of the factors that affect employee health, prioritising this aspect by offering routine medical check-ups for employees is beneficial for your business. Here are six reasons why.

Six advantages of routine health check-ups for employees

1. Healthy employees are also productive, and productivity underpins a business’s ability to fulfil market demand and remain profitable. When an employee is ill or unable to work at his/her best, the person’s productivity level dips. Not only is the illness affecting the employee, but it is also impacting your business’s efficiency and profitability. Regular health screening allows employees to keep track of vulnerabilities and pre-empt illnesses that may affect their productivity. In this way, when you invest in an employee health check-up package, you also invest in your business’s health.
2. When employees call off sick, it causes much disruption in your business processes. While this is more evident, especially in the case of higher levels employees in the core management team, the frequent absence of employees in the lower hierarchies also disturbs the smooth working of the operations team. A routine medical check-up for employees helps identify potential illnesses in time so they can be averted or treated without the employee being affected to the extent that they need a leave of absence. Since health screening also helps identify serious ailments at early stages, it enables quick and easy treatment for such diseases. The employee derives the benefit of better treatment outcomes and quicker recovery, meaning they can resume work at the earliest too.

3. A great way to improve employee retention is to demonstrate that you/your business truly cares for your staff. One of the lesser-known advantages of routine health check-up for employees sponsored by the company is that this positions you as a caring, considerate employee. Your qualified, trained staff is less likely to quit and move on when they perceive you as a good employer.

4. As an extension of this, your business also gains a reputation for being a good employer, and this helps you attract the best talent in the market when you are looking to hire fresh talent. An employee health check-up package delivers great ROI by making you a coveted employee so that the most qualified and brightest freshers consider you their preferred employer.

5. Medical check-ups for employees are not just advantageous for existing staff but also during hiring processes. Making a pre-employment medical test a part of your recruitment process helps you select the best candidates who are likely to give you committed, dedicated service for the long term. You cannot determine through an interview if a potential employee is healthy and fit enough to work without taking frequent leaves. However, the pre-employment medical test makes this very clear to you.

6. Among the financial advantages of routine health check-ups is the tax benefit to you and your staff. Instead of increasing salaries and pushing your employee to a higher tax bracket, you can sponsor an employee health check-up package for the employee and their family members as a perk. This helps you and them save money on taxes while ensuring they remain healthy and fit to give you their best.

Also Read: Health and Safety of Employees – Why is it Important ?

Getting the right employee health check-up package

With so many benefits, it makes sense for your business to standardize an employee health check-up package that you can offer your entire staff. Choosing a committed, professional partner to give you this service is critical, so your employees get the best outcomes. What is most vital is that they get accurate results in the quickest possible timelines and that screening is done with top-notch equipment and complete convenience.

NURA labs ticks all these boxes and then some, with cutting-edge Japanese Fujifilm technology powering our testing processes. Dr Kutty’s Healthcare joins hands with this world-class technology to bring you the most efficient screening tests to keep track of your employee health. We understand that the common man may not be aware of which tests are to be prioritized at what stages in life. That’s why we have packages designed to give you comprehensive health check-ups that can screen for all major diseases efficiently and minutely. Partnering with NURA can help you give your valuable human resource the greatest advantages of routine health check-ups that include prevention and early treatment of serious ailments like cancer.

Human resource is one of the vital assets of any organisation. As a business owner, it is up to you to safeguard this asset so that your business can grow at an incredible pace. Investing in employee health is even more critical now when chronic illnesses are on the rise. Some of these may arise …

It is easy to ignore the possibility of an illness when you are apparently healthy or keeping well seemingly. Moreover, you probably don’t want to worry about ailments unless you experience a symptom that you cannot ignore. It is natural to feel that way. However, given how easily different diseases and conditions are affecting people of all ages these days, going for regular health screening and being cautious is advisable. After all, prevention is better than cure.

Now, screening tests are often deemed concerning and you might be afraid of what the results might show. But that is not a good enough reason to avoid them. Remember that there are many advantages of health screening and they can give you an early warning about potential health issues. For example, studies show that breast cancer screening through mammography offers an impressive 41% reduction in women’s mortality in the following 10 years. We don’t need to tell you how helpful that is, right?

Also, the best part about health screening is that it allows early treatment, which reduces the possibility of a disease aggravating. To know more about the importance of screening test for our health, read on.

What is health screening?

Let’s start with the basics. Exactly what is health screening and when does the physician recommend it? A screening test is a kind of test done before you show any symptoms of a disease. It is conducted with the goal of detecting possible ailments or to find out if you are at risk of a certain disease.

Health screening tests are not a diagnostic tool to be exact, but they are used extensively by physicians to determine if you should be undergoing more specific tests to check if you have a particular ailment or if you are at a higher risk of contracting it.

It also makes sense to go for health screening tests at periodic intervals because the chance of being at risk of a certain disease despite screening is a small one. In other words, health screening protects you against potential risks that may otherwise lead to complications.

The importance of screening test for your health is greater when:

• You have a family history of specific medical conditions
• You cross a certain age
• Your lifestyle increases your health risks
• You have a medical history that increases your risk of getting specific diseases

Types of screening tests

If you have never been asked to go for a health screening test, you may not be aware of what they are generally like. There are many types of screening tests, and each one may need to be done with its own distinctive periodicity. Some types of screening tests, such as breast cancer screening, might be recommended after a certain age, for instance.

Even a physical exam by your doctor is a simple screening test example. The most common screening tests recommended by doctors are for:

• Diabetes
• High blood pressure
• Excess cholesterol
• Breast cancer in women
• Colorectal cancer
• Cervical cancer in women
• Obesity
• Lung health
• Liver health
• Kidney health
• Prostate cancer in men
• Osteoporosis

10 reasons why health screening is important

There are several reasons that help establish the importance of health screening. In general, the following are the most significant among the benefits of screening tests because they act as a guide for treatment.

1. Identifies underlying issues: One of the main advantages of health screening is that it allows you to spot when there is an underlying problem, one that has not yet manifested itself in the form of symptoms. There may be situations where you feel perfectly healthy and have not been experiencing any changes, but there may be something wrong with your physiology at a very deep level. You probably haven’t realized it or felt it yet. Hence, the importance of screening test lies in its ability to pinpoint such ‘invisible’ health issues.
2. Helps in early detection: Among the main benefits of screening tests is their usefulness in detecting certain conditions at early stages. When a condition is detected early, treatment can be started early too. This results in better, more positive outcomes, improving your chances of a full and quick recovery. Remember that early detection plays a significant role in reducing mortality and morbidity rates, which means that health screening may actually give you a new lease of life with a serious ailment.
3. Relieves anxiety: Especially in case of hereditary diseases that pass on from one generation of the family to the next, you might be highly anxious to know if you have the disease or not. This anxiety itself might lead to a slew of stress-related problems. The importance of screening test in such cases lies in the reassurance it can give you, so that you can stop worrying about a hereditary problem that you are not affected with. Early screening allows you to live a stress-free, healthy life, where you can pursue your dreams to the fullest.
4. Helps avoid unnecessary precautions: Often, you might hear so much about a specific ailment that you might take extra precautions to avert it, even going to the extent of changing your lifestyle or restricting it severely. However, that might not be necessary at all. So, one of the significant benefits of screening tests is that you can eliminate the possibility of such ailments so that you can stop taking unnecessary precautions that curtail your freedom.
5. Puts you in control: It becomes challenging to fight a disease when it has taken a strong hold of your system. Or you might end up needing serious medical intervention. However, when the same disease is detected at a very early stage, thanks to health screening, it enables you to get treatment on time and recover fast. So, in effect, one of the main advantages of health screening is that it gives you better control over your body and health.
6. Allows focus on crucial areas: A screening test throws light on specific health hazards that you are at risk of and it also tells the doctor what areas they need not be worrying about. This narrowing down of the potential risk areas allows the physician to work without distraction and focus where it is needed the most.
7. Catches the signs before complications: When it comes to health and wellbeing, you surely want to avoid emergency situations. And the simplest way to do that is by scheduling regular screening tests as suggested by the doctor. So, if you are wondering “why is health screening important”, one of the main reasons is because it identifies emerging issues on time before they lead to complications requiring emergency treatment.
8. Ensures early intervention and less invasive treatment: While this is not always true for all ailments, it does hold good for most. Be it simple health hazards, say high cholesterol, or more serious problems like colon cancer, early identification means the disease can be managed with simpler, less invasive treatment methods.
9. Helps you to take preventive care: As you age, your body’s defences also begin to break down. This is the reason why it is important to take better care of yourself when you get older. So, why is health screening important in this regard? It helps you to take preventive care and avert the possibility of common but dreaded diseases. For example, if your screening shows that your cholesterol levels are elevated, you can immediately start making changes to your diet and exercise regime, to prevent cardiovascular complications later.
10. Pinpoints ailments that are unexpected: You already know that lung cancer is a significant risk for smokers, but did you know that 10- 15% of non- smokers too suffer from this dreaded disease? What this data indicates is that even when you have no family history and no lifestyle factors contributing to a disease, it may still affect you. And the importance of screening tests lies in their ability to warn you of such diseases that may otherwise blindside you.

To conclude

Being healthy is the key to being happy, and the importance of screening test for our health cannot be emphasised enough. Apart from a number of advantages that it has to offer, as you can see, the importance of screening test lies in the fact that it gives you a stress-free life where you have the freedom to pursue your career and dreams without being bogged down by health concerns. With regular health screening, you can give yourself a better and healthier life.

It is easy to ignore the possibility of an illness when you are apparently healthy or keeping well seemingly. Moreover, you probably don’t want to worry about ailments unless you experience a symptom that you cannot ignore. It is natural to feel that way. However, given how easily different diseases and conditions are affecting people …

Japanese lifestyle tips for longevity

It is no secret that the Japanese live long, healthy lives. While the average life expectancy across the world is 72.6 years, in Japan it is 84.6 years. So how do the Japanese do it? Is there a formula or an approach to life that helps them live not just longer but healthier?

The fact is that the Japanese have imbibed a particular lifestyle as part of their existence. Maintaining good health is something that everybody in Japan learns at a young age. Japanese children are taught to eat a good diet, exercise daily and maintain good hygiene. Here are 10 tips from the Japanese which we too can incorporate for a healthier, longer life.

• Balanced diet

While all of us know this, the Japanese lifestyle is built around it. You will find very few fast-food chains in Japan! Though some exist, they do not dominate the food options and avenues. Whether at home or at restaurants, the Japanese eat well-proportioned, nutritious meals. They respect the food of the land and pay their respect and tributes to the one who has prepared the meal. As such, there is a mindful and conscious way of eating that nourishes the body, keeping it healthy. Added to this the Japanese make it a point to always eat fresh ingredients. Seaweed (nori) which is an essential part of the Japanese diet is very low-calorie and high in proteins.

Tip: Split your meal into smaller plates (portion sizes) like the Japanese and you will be consuming a diet that is adequate and nutritious. The formula: One soup, three sides.

• The philosophy of Ikigai

Simply translated, Ikigai means “the reason for being”. The Ikigai philosophy is ingrained into the Japanese way of life. Ikigai teaches us that life begins on a blank canvas and motivates one to find his or her purpose in life. It is divided into four core areas – a) what we are good at b) what we love c) what the world needs d0 what we can be paid for. This association with life purpose and mortality is found by researchers to increase longevity. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found a positive correlation between having a purpose of life and a decreased mortality rate. Generations of Japanese have believed and practised Ikigai and have been leading a sustained, fulfilling and healthier life.

• Eat until you are almost full

Hara hachi bu – In Japanese, it literally means “eat until you are 80% full”. One has some room left in the stomach after a meal. This creation of “space” is very healthy for overall well-being.  This kind of mindful eating makes you conscious of the amount of food you are eating and prevents excess or overeating.

Tip: It will help to ask yourself before a meal “How hungry am I?

• Forest Bathing – An excellent nature therapy

Shinrin-yoku which means “forest bathing” in Japanese is literally soaking yourself in the environment of a forest. One purposefully turns one mind into the essential elements of nature in a forest, heightening the senses to the nuances of nature – the smell of grass, the feel of the gentle breeze, the rustle of leaves, touching the barks of trees, feeling the warmth of the sunlight etc. It relaxes the mind and is equivalent to meditation. Forest walking is proven to lower blood pressure, lower cortisol (the stress hormone) and increase parasympathetic nervous activity which has an overall calming effect. 

Tip: If there is no forest nearby, you can try this method in any natural setting and it’s bound to rejuvenate!

• Have strong social bonds

Isolation has a very negative impact on health. The Japanese give importance to and focus on building a strong social circle which is the reason they enjoy physical and emotional well-being right up to their old age! Most Japanese keep themselves occupied with work right past their retirement because of their emphasis on social integration.

Tip: Always make time to talk to family and friends and keep in touch in whatever way you can. Conversations and friendships are essential for well-being.

• Culture of regular health screening

Other than following a unique approach to life, the secret of Japanese longevity also lies in their practice of regular health screening. It’s one thing to be health conscious but quite another to make annual health screening a part of our lifestyle. With regular screening, the Japanese are able to get clarity on their general state of health and also able to detect lifestyle diseases and critical illnesses like cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and COPD earlier, which means greater chances of recovery and resuming a normal life.

Tip: Include annual health screening as a mandatory part of your life. Most of the time, prevention is the cure and earlier detection is the way to a healthier life.

Japanese lifestyle tips for longevity It is no secret that the Japanese live long, healthy lives. While the average life expectancy across the world is 72.6 years, in Japan it is 84.6 years. So how do the Japanese do it? Is there a formula or an approach to life that helps them live not just …