Finding virtue in healthy lifestyle

Participants in the JP Morgan's Corporate Challenge in Shanghai on Oct 18. The healthy lifestyle campaign was initiated in New York in 1977 before spreading to Australia, UK, Germany, Singapore and South Africa. It came to China in 2011. [Provided to China Daily]

Statistics show increasingly sedentary living having serious effect on many office workers

Jay Jiang often likes to tell others about the benefits of physical exercise, through his personal experience. Today he is a running enthusiast－but just a few years ago, he could barely lift himself onto a treadmill.

"I wasn't able to run at first due to my previous lack of exercise.

"But the doctor said this was the best way for me to improve my health," said Jiang, who is vice-president of corporate communications at Bosch China, a home appliances company.

In 2006, Jiang weighed 85 kg and was starting to develop various health problems, such as a fatty liver, hypertension and abnormal insulin secretion.

As well as taking medicine, he was told to exercise for one hour a day.

Within three months he lost more than 10 kg and exercise has played an important part in his daily routine ever since.

He now encourages his friends and colleagues to participate in as much sporting activity as they can.

"We are trying to create a sports culture in the company, too, through regular health lectures and activities," Jiang said, adding that he and more than 300 staff members of the company participated in the fourth JP Morgan Corporate Challenge in Shanghai last month－a 5.6 km road race followed by a party that focuses on fitness and camaraderie in the workplace.

This year saw 8,200 participants from 240 companies take part, and JP Morgan will make a donation on behalf of all the runners to the Ai You Foundation, a charity committed to providing medical aid to orphaned children.

According to a report released at the start of the year by Shanghai Foreign Service Company, a business consulting agency, a rising number of people just like Jay Jiang have become concerned about what the medical profession likes to call "sub-health"－a decreasing level in soundness of body or mind, or in freedom from disease or ailments.

The report claimed as many as 94 percent of health checks carried out on white-collar workers revealed some health abnormalities.

Nearly half of all male white-collar workers had a fatty liver, for instance, including fatty infiltration of the liver; 37.5 percent were found to have high cholesterol; and 25.6 percent recorded blood uric acid.

The figures revealed that the number of professionals who were considered overweight and had thyroid disease or osteoporosis, had increased threefold over the past five years.

Among females, lobular hyperplasia of breasts－which suggests increased risk of developing breast cancer－was the most prevalent ailment, affecting nearly 80 percent of the women polled, followed by external hemorrhoids (22.8 percent) and abnormal leukorrhea, or vaginal discharge (21.5 percent).

In a separate report, released recently by a medical department attached to Shanghai's Jing'an district government, 68 percent of white-collar males confessed to taking next to no physical exercise.

More than 20 percent said they rarely had health checks, and more than 70 percent said they often skipped breakfast, before spending long hours on computers or using mobile phones.

Experts now say that the growing prevalence of obesity and endocrine diseases among white-collar Chinese workers is directly connected to diet, lifestyle and psychological conditions.

"The intake of high-calorie food, lack of exercise, working overtime, irregular lifestyles and high mental stress are all taking their toll on white-collar workers, and they continue to develop various health problems," said nutrition expert Han Ting, adding that many symptoms can be simply treated or avoided by adjusting their lifestyles for the better, particularly taking more regular exercise.

Stephane Jacqmin, general manager of consumer healthcare at French multinational pharmaceutical company Sanofi China, is also a running devotee, who has completed eight marathons.

"Having self-physical management is the best support for personal health and happiness," he said.

On Nov 2 he ran the Shanghai International Marathon alongside 35,000 others from home and abroad.

"This was my first participation in a marathon in China, but I have made marathon running an indispensable part of my life," he said.

"It not only helps me keep healthy, but offers me a great work/life balance."

Sanofi also sponsored a group of students from Jinde Primary School, a school for migrant workers' children, to participate in the marathon－a move will help them improve their level of health awareness at a young age, and build their self-confidence through physical exercises, Jacqmin said.