Weight Control May Reduce Workers Compensation Costs

Why Reduce? According to Sandy Leffingwell, MD, MPH, most people find controlling weight difficult, especially if they eat out often. Extra weight increases pain in the backs, hips and knees. Extra weight contributes to higher workers comp costs due to prolonged healing times and additional complications for individuals who are overweight. We often find that high dollar claims might have been reduced if the claimant had not been overweight.

In the back, extra pressure on discs in the low back causes degeneration of the discs, narrowing the space between vertebrae, leading to pinching nerves emerging between the bony arches behind the blocks of the vertebrae.

In the hips and knees, the pressure leads to erosion of the cartilage between bones. When the cartilage is gone, bone rubs on bone, wearing it away. Bone can repair itself, but if the wear is faster than replacement, the bone get thinner and thinner, eventually developing small fractures. Decreasing the pressure slows the rate of destruction and allows healing to catch up.

1. When you eat, the small intestine tells the brain when you have had enough by secreting two chemicals. From starting to eat until the signal says “enough!” is usually about 45 minutes. Most people can put away a lot of food in 45 minutes. Try quitting while still hungry, but promise yourself if you are still hungry in 30 minutes, you will go back for (workersxzcompxzkit) more. And, if you are hungry, keep that promise otherwise you won’t believe you the next time you promise yourself. You will find that not only are you not hungry, you have more energy than usual.

2. Choose low fat foods, preferably with whole grains. Fat has about twice the calories per pound of carbohydrates or protein. Whole grains are converted to sugar more slowly than refined sugars or grains, and give your body time to better manage the intake.

3. Keep low-calorie, high-fiber foods (like fruits) available for snacking. It is hard to have a healthy diet if the foods needed to do that are not readily available.

Click on these links to try it for yourself.
WC Calculator www.ReduceYourWorkersComp.com/calculator.php
TD Calculator www.ReduceYourWorkersComp.com/transitional-duty-cost-calculator.php
WC 101 www.ReduceYourWorkersComp.com/workers_comp.php