Executive Prescription

For corporations and C-level execs, health emerges as a bottom-line concern

An executive — an annual visitor for a physical at the Cleveland Clinic — sat down in front of Dr. Richard Lang, and with a quick glance Lang knew this was a troubled patient. The man looked worn out and tired and had dropped 20 pounds he didn’t need to lose.

“You’re not looking yourself today,” Lang said, and the patient, a senior executive at a major corporation, responded with a small sob and a long sigh, explaining how tough his job had become. He quickly regained his composure, but the reality for Lang was stark.

“There just is so much stress in the c-suite today,” says Lang, director of the Cleveland Clinic’s Executive Health Program. “It’s become an important executive health issue. Executives today need to take control of their health and their stress as well.”

Lang’s observation is not something that can be ignored or shrugged off. Dr. Chris Skisak, president of Corporate Health Management Solutions, a wellness consulting firm in Missouri City, Texas, says executive health impacts the whole organization. “Good health has become good business,” he insists.

A number of encouraging developments and positive trends are taking place in the field of executive health management. There are quick and effective methods for dealing with job stress. In addition, new technologies, new screening tests, and plenty of new ideas have combined to change the face of health maintenance for time-pressed senior executives. It simply has gotten easier to maintain good health while occupying a top corporate position, in part because more organizations have come to recognize that the health of their staff impacts the bottom line.

David Nicoli, vice president of corporate affairs at the Delaware-based pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, is vivid proof of the principle that an engaged executive can turn around his health, and at warp speed. In five months Nicoli says he has lost over 50 pounds, primarily because he logs four miles on a treadmill every day. (“I like to watch CNN while I’m walking,” he says.)

The triggers behind Nicoli’s life-changing choices were many. His cholesterol was “through the roof,” he says. He exhibited prediabetic signs, and — what really got him — with the extra poundage he had trouble keeping up with his kids when the play got frenetic.

All that has changed now that the 51-year-old, 6-foot-tall Nicoli has brought his weight well below 200 pounds. Nicoli says he was also inspired by AstraZeneca’s global CEO, David Brennan, a fitness fan who puts in daily treadmill sessions supplemented by 25-mile bike rides on weekends. “Executive health starts at the top,” says Nicoli, who adds that fit employees are that much readier to deal with the stresses the workday throws at them, and a fit corporate culture makes a company that much more competitive. “Healthy employees are more productive.”

Walking is just one of many ways executives are jump-starting their focus on health. Other trends include a transformation of the annual physical, new techniques for better vision, and — here’s the timely one — ideas old and new for managing stress in a globally competitive environment where the going has gotten so tough, everybody on the field is having to toughen up.

Just the Fitness Facts

If you really want to know how your body is taking today’s environment — and you have the time to find out — the newest trend in executive health is the full-day comprehensive health examination. A number of top-tier providers — including the Scripps Center for Executive Health in La Jolla, Calif., the Cooper Clinic in Dallas, and the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio — are offering these daylong executive health audits.

Comprehensive is the watchword for these exams, says James Tuck, manager of the Scripps Center. But another word just might be convenience. That’s because in a span of about eight hours, a patient undergoes literally dozens of physical tests. There are eye and ear exams, blood work to determine cholesterol levels, treadmill tests, and prostate exams for men and mammograms for women (“about 25 percent of our patient volume today,” says Tuck, who adds that 15 years ago women accounted for about 5 percent of patients). Specialists are brought in for consultations if needed, usually on the same day.

Costs vary from clinic to clinic and from person to person. (Some need an annual colonoscopy for instance, while others might not need one more often than every 10 years.) At the Cleveland Clinic, for example, the price tag for a full-day examination typically runs from $2,000 to $3,000, but the value is in the assurance that just about everything is explored in the course of the examinations.

The Eyes Have It

The eyes may be the window to the soul, as the ancient proverb had it, but increasingly they also are part of any comprehensive executive health program. And new technologies in vision care offer compelling options for those with weakening eyesight, says Richard Doinoff, a spokesman for Woodlands Custom Vision in Texas. Blade-free, laser-based high-tech surgical techniques now can produce dramatic vision improvement for candidates who wear glasses and contacts. (About 12 percent of people won’t qualify for the procedures, according to Doinoff.) Results come swiftly too. Screening can take up to an hour, the surgical procedure that reshapes the eye takes less than 30 seconds per eye, and follow-up testing usually involves only minutes. The bright news: “98 percent of patients have 20-20 vision the day after surgery,” says Doinoff, who explains that more executives are exploring this approach to better vision health because it is simpler than dealing with contact lenses, and many prefer not to wear glasses.

Beating Stress

At the Hackensack University Medical Center in northern New Jersey, Dr. Michael Farber, head of the center’s executive health program, says, “Half my day now is spent counseling senior executives on stress. It’s so important to learn how to deal with it.”

But the remedy may be as simple as closing your eyes and tuning into an inner calm, says Tevis Gale Trower, founder of Balance Integration Corporation. Clients of Traver’s New York–based company, which include Disney and AOL, send executives to learn meditation, a practice that is winning an increasing number of fans.

“We’re seeing a lot more people in our classes now,” says Trower. Her company’s offerings include a 15-minute “clarity break” (a meditative moment) and a 30-minute “power nap” (a guided interlude of yoga nidra meant to reenergize). Meditation, Trower explains, involves no more than becoming still and focusing on one’s breathing, in and out. Do that for as little as 10 minutes, she says, and you’ll become calmer and better able to maintain steadier focus, no matter how hectic your days get.

Trower’s company is hardly unique. From Washington, D.C., to Seattle, more businesses are scheduling meditation breaks for harried executives. Klia Bassing, whose Washington, D.C., company Visit Yourself at Work numbers the World Bank Group and the National Academy of Sciences among its clients, says lunchtime classes are especially popular. “We teach meditation and mindfulness. These are simple but powerful tools.” Like Trower, Bassing says attendance is up as increasing numbers of stressed-out executives seek to get calm using centuries-old Eastern techniques.

Is meditation not for you? Just pick something else — almost anything that’s good for you — and do it for one hour a day. Farber of Hackensack University explains: “I tell my patients they need to spend one hour a day on themselves, an hour they spend growing.” This could mean exercise, learning a language, or even studying low-calorie cooking techniques.

“If you don’t have an hour that you can spend on yourself every day on growth, by definition you’re trying to do too much,” Farber adds. But put in that hour and, suddenly, stresses seem fewer and a kind of calmness settles over you.

The bottom line: your health is in your hands. Says the Scripps Center’s James Tuck, “We’re still in the early stages of interest in executive health. We expect to see interest mounting. It’s a good investment, for both the people and the business.”