Do Take That Break

Visit our special section on Health and Well-Being, created in association with Harvard Health Publications, and focused on one of the most important topics facing executives today: their health. Tense negotiations have been under way for three hours without a break, and they aren’t over by a long shot. By the end of the day, after factoring in your commute, you’ll have been sitting for a dozen hours with hardly any chance to move around. This amount of immobility can set the stage for a blood clot to form in a vein deep in the leg—a deep-vein thrombosis (DVT). Deep-Vein Thrombosis Normal Blood Flow Movement makes leg muscles contract. These contractions squeeze veins, which helps push blood to the heart. Deep-Vein Thrombosis When you sit for long periods, and work your muscles less, blood flow slows through the legs. Sluggish blood flow creates the right conditions for a clot to form. • • • Symptoms DVT feels like a pulled muscle or charley horse. It usually intensifies over several days and can be accompanied by swelling in the leg or a reddening of the skin. Prevention Movement is the best antidote. Stand up and walk around to rev up blood flow through your legs. If you’re in charge of a meeting, schedule a break every 90 minutes or so. If you’re trapped in a meeting, try heel and toe lifts at your chair. And drink plenty of water—dehydration thickens the blood. Worst-Case Scenario A pulmonary embolism (PE) occurs when a piece of a clot breaks away and blocks blood flow to the lungs. Along with DVTs, PEs kill as many as 180,000 Americans each year, more than the number that die from breast, prostate, colon, and skin cancers combined. Most people think of DVT as a risk associated with long flights. But a new study from Wellington Hospital in New Zealand places the problem in the workplace, too. It found that employees who sat for several hours without getting up—at a meeting, say, or even at their desks—were more likely to develop DVT than those who moved about more often. Watch a video that explains DVT, then take a self-assessment to see if you’re at risk, at the website for the Coalition to Prevent Deep-Vein Thrombosis. This doesn’t mean an epidemic of DVT in the workplace, but it does raise a concern for those predisposed to the condition—for example, people who frequently take long trips (eight hours or more), are advanced in age, have recently had surgery, are overweight, or have a clotting disorder or cancer. DVT afflicts up to 600,000 Americans a year.

Do Take That Break

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