Whether you are a small mid-sized business (SME) or large corporation minimizing exposure to COVID-19 has become critical to your business’s survival. While many employers have adopted biometric testing and sanitizing protocols to provide a safe and healthy workplace, it’s also crucial to consider preventive health measures aimed at reducing the risk of infections in your workplace.
One of the best and simplest ways to prevent infections in the workplace is to keep your workforce properly hydrated. Yes. Proper hydration helps to prevent infection, diseases and boost workplace productivity.
In recent years, an increasing number of corporate wellness experts have started raising awareness about the impact of hydration. Robert Herbst, a practicing lawyer for more than 20 years, has created a website dedicated to attorney wellness. Herbst says a healthy diet, daily exercise, proper hydration, and plenty of sleep are critical to improving healthcare outcomes for wellness goals of attorneys and other legal professionals.
According to Herbst, proper hydration is a viable and straightforward means to alleviating the dryness caused by exposure to dry air. “Sitting at a screen in an air-conditioned or heated office will cause you to become dehydrated,” Herbst says.
Understanding How Proper Hydration Enhances Immunity in the Workplace
The nose, throat and mouth are our body’s first line of defense. These organs are critical to fighting against pollutants and microbes in the air. Tiny hair-shaped structures, called cilia, are found inside our respiratory tract and a thin membrane of mucous that covers them. Airborne pollutants, allergens, viruses, and bacteria, are captured by this sticky mucous membrane and removed from the air.
While their job is to filter the air before it enters more sensitive parts of our respiratory system, increased exposure to dry air can weaken the immune system. It’s especially critical to remain hydrated during the winter months when employees are more likely to breathe dry heat, which can dry out the cilia leaving the throat and lungs more vulnerable to infections.
Proper Hydration Supports Employees with Chronic Conditions
As more people adapt to work from home, it is essential to consider employees who have chronic conditions. Health issues like type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and chronic pain are exacerbated by sedentary work and social distancing. A lack of exercise and limited activity make health conditions like diabetes, hypertension and chronic pain even more difficult to manage.
According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), the costs of diabetes care in the U.S. continue to increase at a remarkable rate. Experts estimate that 1 in 4 healthcare dollars or nearly $16,752 per year is spent on the care of a person with diabetes. Chronic musculoskeletal (MSK) pain is the leading contributor to disability worldwide, with low back pain being the single leading cause of disability globally, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
As healthcare costs for these conditions continue to rise exponentially, imagine the healthcare savings your business or corporation could achieve if they thoroughly considered the benefits of proper hydration.
Most employees, today, whether at home or the office often experience the following symptoms:
- Dry Eyes
- Headaches
- Trouble concentrating
- Lightheadedness
- Fatigue Sleepiness
- Muscle Aches
- Joint Pain
- Brain Fog
While all of these symptoms are caused by dehydration, most people attribute them to other causes due to a lack of knowledge about how hydration impacts the body and brain. However, over a prolonged period, these symptoms can increase the risk of chronic health conditions and cause your company’s healthcare costs to rise significantly.
Are You Offering Right Hydration Beverage?
It’s essential to know that hydration isn’t about just drinking more water. The commonly offered advice of drinking 8-10 glasses of water a day is misleading. Your hydration needs are dependent on body weight, medical conditions, medications, environment and lifestyle. And just boosting your intake of water doesn’t ensure that the electrolytes and nutrients are adequately absorbed into the bloodstream, interstitial cavities and cells. Studies have also found that consuming drinks like coffee, tea, cola, and even sports drinks didn’t significantly impact the beverage rehydration index (BHI), a measure of how much water is absorbed or retained in the body. Here’s a chart that shows BHI levels of common beverages.
Ingesting water with fats, amino acids, and minerals help the body maintain better hydration levels. And integrating a “daily proper hydration” into your corporate wellness can help prevent infections and boost productivity.
Proper Hydration for Your Workforce
Unlike other hydration products, Hydrus is formulated with nanosomes or small hollow sphere-shaped molecules that encapsulate electrolytes and water made of phospholipids. These tiny molecules are similar to the material found in all cell walls within the body and help disperse water evenly throughout the body. Absorption begins instantly, the moment Hydrus enters the mouth.
Compared to other hydration drinks, studies show that the science in Hydrus delivers about 50% greater water and electrolyte absorption than traditional sugar-electrolyte drinks. Contact our corporate wellness team to learn more about implementing a daily hydration offering into your corporate wellness remote or on-site workplace wellness plan and support better health and safety outcomes for your workforce.
