No matter what side of the political fence you sit on, it’s interesting to see how Obama’s efforts to improve the status of health care in America is raising the awareness bar on wellness in our own lives—specifically, at worksites. Whether in the Oval Office, the corner office or the home office, business owners and C-level staff members are having a collective “aha” moment while they examine the close relationship between health and wealth. As a country, we will have spent $2.5 trillion on health care in 2009, while employers watch absenteeism rise and productivity decline because their employees don’t eat right or exercise.   

Obama recently gave a nod to a new wellness program called Lifestyle 180, which was created by Dr. Michael F. Roizen out of the Cleveland Clinic, where they’ve identified four primary elements that factor into one’s health: 1) food choices; 2) weight; 3) tobacco use; and 4) stress. We mentioned in a recent LifeHealth email that a local Cleveland business owner sent his 27 employees through the Lifestyle 180 program, and he’s already saved $31,000 in eight months. Roizen attributes much of the Lifestyle 180 success to teaching about nutrition. Part of the program involves simply taking people into the kitchen, showing them how to buy food, read labels and prepare food healthfully. Cleveland Clinic doctors say that people feel better, and so they do better on the job. Consequently, companies are catching on to health care in the workplace to the extent that Dr. Nancy Snyderman adds that employers’ growing sentiment is, “I’m investing in your health, you are investing in my bottom line.”