Category: Health

Oct. 20, 2022 — Tawny Roeder was 23 years old and 3 months away from getting her nursing degree at Briar Cliff University in Sioux City, IA, when she got a job as a training nurse. She was ready to take on the world, but first she had to clear an obstacle: She felt she lacked empathy for the patients in the oncology unit where she worked.

“I knew no one with cancer at the time,” she says. “It hadn’t really impacted my life too much, so it was daunting to have to work with those patients.” 

In one word, she felt “oblivious” about the struggles these patients experience. “I felt like I didn’t have the words to care for these people. It was something that scared me.”

She was also oblivious to something far scarier that lurked in her young life. She was on the dance team at Briar Cliff, and “I should have been in the best shape of my life,” but she found her energy and wind spent too easily. 

At home during the 2008 spring break, her mom noticed her breathing difficulty. She also began having back pain that woke her up at night.

An X-ray showed a huge mass on her lung. Roeder got the results of a subsequent biopsy – lymphoma — over the phone, “which was awful. I was alone in my apartment.”

Just 2 weeks after starting to care for cancer patients in her hospital, Roeder became one. She studied for her nursing exams while undergoing chemotherapy with the help of her workmates. 

Roeder’s journey was just beginning, though. She was diagnosed with an aggressive form of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, a life-threatening blood cancer. 

“There are several patients exactly like Tawny who are on their way to living when they are hit with this deal-breaker,” says Manali Kamdar, MD, clinical director of lymphoma services for University of Colorado Medicine. The diagnosis creates “a huge break in what happens in living a normal life.”

Roeder is one of 80,000 Americans diagnosed yearly with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the most common form of lymphoma. 

Kamdar says Roeder’s is one of 85 different subtypes, and she emphasizes that“it is absolutely important that patients get that subtype.” Sometimes it takes several tests, she says, but it is important to establish the subtype as this may influence management of the disease.  

Kamdar also says there are now many different treatment options. Chemotherapy with the addition of medications has been a backbone of therapy, but now there are also chemo-free treatment options as well as approaches that involve genetically modifying a patient’s own immune cells, she says. 

“The last 3 years have seen a sea change with the number of treatments that have been approved for patients with lymphoma. What I had in my toolkit 5 years ago is nothing compared to what I have today,” she says. 

Roeder learned quickly that her cancer was so aggressive that she would need a stem cell transplant, during whichher healthy cells werecollected and stored while she underwent high-dose chemo, and would then be put back into her body intravenously. 

However, thistreatment was not available in Sioux City. The closest center was in Omaha, NE, about a 90-minute drive away.

“I was absolutely terrified,” Roeder says. She and her then-boyfriend, Cody, decided to uproot from Sioux City and move to Nebraska. “We thought it might as well be a good place for us to get jobs.”

After a monthlong stay in the hospital while she underwent intensive treatment involving chemo and stem cell therapy, she eventually returned home. She now marks Sept. 11, 2008, as her “rebirth” after the treatment. 

The night she returned, Cory proposed to her. “That was a very great coming-home surprise,” she says. “I had tubes hanging out of me. I was bald. I’m not sure it was the most romantic moment.”

The couple married the following May. Meanwhile, Roeder had started her nursing career in pediatrics, but “every time I would go to my oncology checkup, the doctor would say, ‘Come work for our team.’” 

In 2011, she took her oncologist up on the offer and began working as a staff nurse in the oncology unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

“It just kind of clicked,” she says. “This is probably why I’m still here. You sometimes have that survivor’s guilt as to why some survive and others don’t.”

Roeder’s treatment left her unable to bear children, so she and Cody have adopted a boy and a girl. 

Now 37, in addition to working with lymphoma patients, she also volunteers for the Lymphoma Research Foundation to raise awareness and funding to fight the disease. “I have gained a lot of friendships — people I’ve been in contact with just because of their transplants,” she says.

Roeder, who has been cancer-free since, is now the case manager for lymphoma patients undergoing transplants. She inspires her new patients, especially those who feel alone in their disease journey. “Most are very shocked” when they hear her story, she says. “It’s really shocking for people to see that I look healthy. One hundred percent of the time it is well-received and very much appreciated.”

Oct. 20, 2022 – A variety of Toll House cookie dough is being voluntarily recalled by Nestlé USA.

The product, which is sold throughout the United States and Puerto Rico, is being recalled “due to the potential presence of white plastic pieces,” according to a notice posted on the FDA website.

“While no illnesses or injuries have been reported, we immediately took action out of an abundance of caution after a small number of consumers contacted Nestlé USA about this issue,” the company said in a news release.

The variety of cookie dough specifically being recalled is called Toll House Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough with Fudge Filling. Affected products were produced between June and September. The UPC code on the back of recalled packages is 050000429912.

If you have one of these products at home, you can take it back to the store for a refund or replacement. Anyone with questions may call Nestlé USA at 800-681-1676 Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET.

No other Nestlé Toll House products are impacted by the recall. 

By Tina Aswani Omprakash, as told to Stephanie Watson

In 2005, I was fresh out of college and had just landed a prime job on Wall Street. My life should have been peaking. But inside, I felt decades older than my 21 years.

I’d had strange symptoms since I was about 8 years old — joint pain and eye issues that had no obvious cause. Now I was also getting bouts of digestive symptoms. I had acid reflux, and I bounced back and forth between constipation and diarrhea.

I went to my primary care doctor, who sent me a GI specialist. In June 2006, I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. Because the disease was only in one part of my colon, it didn’t meet the criteria for Crohn’s disease, which can occupy any part of the GI tract.

Working Myself Sick

I was working a high-pressure job with pretty extreme hours. The stress of my job was making me sicker and sicker.

I had constant diarrhea. I was bleeding. The only way I could eat was through a PICC line in my arm. By early 2008, I was down to just 85 pounds.

My disease had progressed to the point where I needed surgery. Without it, there was a good chance I’d die. I had emergency surgery to remove my colon on July 4, 2008, which left me with an ostomy bag on the outside of my body to collect waste.

It was a rough few years. I started to develop hard growths called nodules on my skin. I had eye issues and joint pain. Everything in my body hurt. At the end of 2011, I developed my first fistula — an abnormal tunnel between my rectum and vagina that was caused by inflammation.

My doctor told me they thought I actually had Crohn’s disease, not ulcerative colitis. For the next four years, I was in and out of surgery. I developed several more fistulas. One was so close to my spine that it threatened to paralyze me.

In the spring of 2015, my doctor put me into a clinical trial for a new biologic drug. It took several months to work, but it closed up my last fistula and put me into remission for the first time in 10 years.

Managing Crohn’s Disease on the Road

In 2016, I started volunteering with the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, co-facilitating their Women’s Support Group. That’s how I became an advocate. Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about my disease and how to manage it.

One of the hardest things about living with Crohn’s is the constant urge to have bowel movements. My doctors prescribed anti-diarrhea medicines, but I also discovered a few tricks on my own.

I found that sitting on a heating pad or in a warm sitz bath prevents the muscle contractions that give me that urgent need to go. When I ride in a car, I sit on a cushion to prevent the urge.

Another thing that has helped is deep breathing and meditation. I’ve had to do a lot of that to calm myself down. I find that constantly thinking about my disease makes it worse. Focusing on something else helps.

For a long time, I had such severe bathroom anxiety that I wouldn’t leave the house. I discovered that I could get out as long as I packed a bag in case of accidents. I wear a diaper and bring along extra diapers and underwear. I also carry baby wipes and cream to prevent irritation. And I locate the nearest bathroom at my destination and rest stops along the way before I leave.

I also carry snacks with me. Having to go to the bathroom constantly can leave you feeling hungry.

I sometimes travel to conferences around the country and overseas. I pack everything I think I could possibly need when I go. Because I had an ostomy, I need to carry a lot of extra supplies. I’ll make sure I have 2 weeks of medication. I always double the amount I’d normally need for the length of time I’m traveling. You never know when you might get stuck.

I also carry a letter explaining that I have an ostomy device. It helps when I have to go through airport security.

Getting My Health Back

Twenty surgeries and a few near-death experiences later, I’ve finally been able to get some semblance of my life back. I’m working toward my Master of Public Health degree.

My Crohn’s disease seems to be in remission. Although my health still isn’t perfect, it’s much better than it was. Over the last 15 years, I’ve learned a lot from having IBD. Most of all, I’ve learned that you can’t take a day of life — or a day of health — for granted.

By Ryan Ungaro, MD, as told to Barbara Brody

Back when I was in medical school, I decided to specialize in gastroenterology because I thought it was a  fascinating field. I still do. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients, including those with Crohn’s, are particularly rewarding to treat because I really get to know them and support them closely over many years. It’s my job to usher them through difficult times and get them back to enjoying a good quality of life.

As director of the Comprehensive Care for the Recently Diagnosed IBD Patient (COMPASS-IBD) program at Mount Sinai in New York, I see many people who have only recently learned that they have Crohn’s. Often these patients have classic symptoms, which include diarrhea, abdominal pain, and urgency. But many don’t realize there are a number of Crohn’s disease symptoms, and potential complications, that aren’t so obviously tied to the digestive system

Body-wide Issues

Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory condition. That inflammation primarily affects the intestines. But fever might be a sign of Crohn’s, particularly when it happens in conjunction with other symptoms. Fever suggests systemic inflammation, which could be stemming from inflammation in the bowel.

Unexplained weight loss can also be a symptom of Crohn’s because body-wide inflammation has the potential to speed up your metabolism. Meanwhile, people with Crohn’s often lose weight if they aren’t absorbing nutrients like they should. That’s most likely to happen when the bowel gets ulcerated or inflamed or because you have chronic diarrhea.

For that reason, weight loss could indicate new disease (in someone who hasn’t yet been diagnosed) or be a sign of a flare up in someone who’s been living with Crohn’s for some time. In other cases, patients lose weight simply because they’re eating less in an effort to avoid triggering or worsening their GI symptoms.

Fatigue is another common complaint among people with Crohn’s disease. It may be linked to inflammation, but we also see it in many patients who seem to have their disease well-controlled. This is an active area of research, so hopefully we’ll know more about why this happens in the future.  

Non-GI Complications

When someone has severe Crohn’s disease or is experiencing a flare, it isn’t only their digestive system that’s in trouble. Some people with Crohn’s develop eye problems such as episcleritis, scleritis, and uveitis, which are different types of eye inflammation. They can cause redness and vision trouble.

Inflammation associated with Crohn’s can also lead to skin symptoms, like tiny red bumps (erythema nodosum) or sores (pyoderma gangrenosum) that appear on the arms or legs.

Another possible complication is a disease of the bile ducts called primary sclerosing cholangitis. It’s more common in people with ulcerative colitis (the other type of IBD), but it does occur in some people with Crohn’s.

Crohn’s and Other Autoimmune Ailments

Crohn’s disease is an autoimmune condition. It happens when your immune system mistakenly attacks itself or responds inappropriately to a perceived invader. If you have one autoimmune disorder, the risk of having another goes up. Crohn’s disease frequently overlaps with inflammatory forms of arthritis, especially ankylosing spondylitis, a condition characterized by inflammation in the joints of the lower spine and pelvis.

Psoriasis, an autoimmune disorder known for causing skin scaly patches, is also fairly common among people with Crohn’s.

When someone with Crohn’s develops joint pain or skin problems, we often loop in a dermatologist or rheumatologist to tease out what’s going on. Sometimes the symptom turns out to be a complication of Crohn’s, but you can’t always chalk it up to underlying GI disease. Someone who turns out to have inflammatory arthritis or psoriasis may need specific treatment for those issues, in addition to the treatment they’re getting for Crohn’s.

The Importance of Personalized Care

No two people with Crohn’s are alike, so treatment needs to be individualized. One of the things we consider when figuring out how to treat someone is whether or not they have extraintestinal manifestations. That means symptoms or problems that aren’t limited to the gut.

For instance, someone who has Crohn’s as well as psoriasis might be able to take a medication with broad anti-inflammatory action that helps both conditions. Another person with Crohn’s symptoms that are confined to the GI tract might be better off with a drug that specifically targets inflammation in the gut.

I’m particularly interested in learning more about how to match each patient with the best treatment for them. At the moment, I’m conducting research funded by the National Institutes of Health aimed to predicting which patients, from the time of diagnosis, are likely to have a mild disease course versus a more severe disease that’s likely to lead to serious complications or require surgery. Right now it’s often a guessing game, but if we can figure that out early on (using blood or intestinal biopsy markers) it will help us determine who needs the most aggressive treatments to keep their entire body as healthy as possible. 

Your eyes have gotten super dry and irritated, and it hurts to move them. Or they’re red, watery, and swollen. Maybe you’ve been dealing with all of the above. You may have noticed your eyes look like they’re bulging more than before. In recent photos, you always seem to look startled. Maybe you’ve even had blurred or double vision. You know it isn’t allergies, but you can’t figure out what’s going on.

It’s possible that you have thyroid eye disease. And if you have an autoimmune thyroid disease, especially Graves’ disease, this is even more likely. That’s because around 90% of thyroid eye disease cases are seen in people with Graves’ disease, explains Christian Nasr, MD, an endocrinologist and medical director of the Thyroid Center at Cleveland Clinic.

What Is Thyroid Eye Disease?

Thyroid eye disease (TED) is a rare autoimmune disease that affects the eyes. TED causes swelling, inflammation, and damage in the muscles and tissues around the eyes. “The majority of cases are mild,” says Raymond Douglas, MD, PhD, an oculoplastic and orbital surgeon practicing in Beverly Hills and director of the Thyroid Eye Disease Program at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles.

Symptoms can vary, but they include:

• Redness
• Dryness
• Discomfort
• Pain behind your eyes
• Irritation
• Eyelid retraction (when your eyelid doesn’t close all the way)
• Bulging eyes
• Feeling like there’s something in your eye
• Blurry vision
• Double vision
• Bloodshot eyes
• Eyelid swelling
• Constant watering of the eye
• Headaches
• Eye socket pressure or pain

Who Gets TED?

TED usually happens in people who have Graves’ disease. Graves’ disease causes your thyroid to make too much thyroid hormone, a condition called hyperthyroidism. “About half of patients with Graves’ disease will develop thyroid eye disease,” Nasr says. He adds that most cases of TED happen within a year to 18 months of developing Graves’ disease.

About 80% of people who come in with TED have already been diagnosed with Graves’ disease, Douglas says. Around 10% are diagnosed with TED before Graves’. Another 5% of TED cases are in people with Hashimoto disease, Nasr says. In this condition, your thyroid doesn’t make enough thyroid hormone, a condition known as hypothyroidism. Though it’s rare, Douglas says some people with TED don’t have a thyroid condition at all.

Thyroid eye disease is more common in women than in men. But when men develop TED, it tends to be more severe. Douglas says cases of TED peak around ages 40-50 and again around age 60.

What Is the Link Between TED and Hyperthyroidism?

Three conditions can cause hyperthyroidism. One is Graves’ disease, the most common one. The others are thyroid nodules and toxic multinodular goiters. “Graves’ disease is the only condition where you can see thyroid eye disease associated with high levels of thyroid hormone,” Nasr says.

Both thyroid eye disease and hyperthyroidism are immune system disorders. “From what we know, there are two receptors that seem to be the culprit,” Douglas says. One is the thyrotropin (TSH) receptor, which is mostly on thyroid cells. The other is the insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) receptor, found mostly on the cells around the eyes. These two receptors sit next to each other, he says, and appear to be linked.

Experts don’t understand why, but the immune system starts to attack these receptors. When it attacks the TSH receptor, this causes too much thyroid hormone. “It’s like turning up the thermostat way too high,” Douglas says. When the immune system attacks the IGF-1 receptor, it increases the amount of IGF-1. The cells around the eyes get fat, divide, and accumulate extra scar tissue, causing thyroid eye disease.

If you have Graves’ disease, certain things can make your risk of developing thyroid eye disease higher. These include:

• Having a family history of TED
• Smoking
• Being female
• Getting radioactive iodine treatment
• Older age
• Stress
• Poorly controlled thyroid

What Are the Complications of TED?

TED can affect the two most important parts of the eye: the cornea and the optic nerve. “We make sure that both of these are monitored,” Nasr says.

Some of the possible complications TED can cause include:

• Bulging eyes
• Pain
• Scratched cornea
• Extreme dryness
• Severe headaches
• Trouble blinking
• Eyelids not closing completely
• Restricted eye movement
• Double vision
• Increased pressure in the eyes
• Blindness (rare)

Nasr tells his patients to call immediately if they see a dark spot in their vision field or multiple bright lights off and on. This might indicate optic nerve damage.

He says it’s also important to call right away if you have severe pain or severe redness around your iris (the colored part of your eye). This could mean your cornea is damaged.

Who Treats TED?

Both doctors say treating thyroid eye disease involves an integrative approach. Experts on your care team may include:

• Endocrinologists
• Ophthalmologists
• Oculoplastic surgeons
• Neuro-ophthalmologists

“It’s really a team approach between primarily endocrinologists and oculoplastic surgeons,” Douglas says. Many people start with their ophthalmologist to figure out what’s going on. “Then, depending on the severity, they’ll be sent to someone like me, an oculoplastic surgeon, who will then talk to them about medical therapies versus surgical therapies,” he says.

Many general ophthalmologists are comfortable monitoring mild TED, too, Nasr says. They can keep track of your eye pressure, check your corneas, and do tests to make sure your optic nerve is in good shape.

Nasr also works with neuro-ophthalmologists to monitor the optic nerve. “Once in a while, we use strabismus specialists to work on correcting muscles to minimize double vision,” he says.

What Should I Do If I Think I Have TED?

Plenty of people chalk up their eye issues to aging or allergies, Douglas says. And even when they try to find out what’s wrong, they may be told it’s just allergies. If you notice your eyes bulging, vision changes, or your eyelids aren’t closing all the way, Douglas advises seeing your doctor. “Don’t just settle for an unsatisfactory answer,” he says.

Nasr makes a point of asking all his patients who have autoimmune thyroid disease if their eyes are dry, uncomfortable, or if they have pain behind them. “Dry eyes are probably the most common symptom in patients who have thyroid eye disease,” he says. But since dryness can be subtle, it can go unnoticed.

If you already have thyroid disease, you should be seeing an endocrinologist anyway. They will continue doing what they do best — keeping your thyroid well-controlled. Nasr does a thorough eye exam every year. He uses a special instrument to measure how much the eyeball is protruding. Your endocrinologist can refer you to another expert for treatment if needed, too.

Maybe you don’t have a history of thyroid disease. In this case, your best option is to see an ophthalmologist. They will be able to diagnose TED. You’ll also need to have your thyroid levels checked by your primary doctor or an endocrinologist. This is because chances are high that you also have undiagnosed Graves’ disease.

It’s rare, but you may have TED with normal thyroid hormone levels. But even if they’re normal, you’ll need to have your levels checked regularly over the next year or two. This is because you could develop Graves’ disease during that time.

By Steven Reinberg 

HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, Oct. 21, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Victims of sexual assault are seeking treatment in U.S. emergency rooms in growing numbers, with University of Michigan (UM) researchers detecting a 15-fold increase between 2006 and 2019.

Rapes and other forms of sexual assault occur every 68 seconds in the United States, and their number rose from 93,000 in 2006 to nearly 140,000 in 2019, according to data from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The increase in people seeking emergency medical care after sexual violence, however, is greater than the growth of those turning to the police for help, the study authors said.

And while there are more sexual assaults occurring, greater awareness and hospital coding changes are also contributing to the spike, the researchers noted.

“Overall destigmatization — whether that’s due to the Me-Too movement or other social-political movements — have made people feel safer coming and seeking care,” said lead researcher Emily Vogt, a UM medical student.

It’s not clear if people who go to the ER after a sexual assault are not going to the police, Vogt added. Perhaps “they feel like that’s the only place they can go,” she said.

For the study, Vogt and her colleagues used data from millions of emergency department visits. They found that in 2006, more than 3,600 men and women aged 18 to 65 sought emergency care following a sexual assault. In 2019, that number jumped to nearly 55,300. (For support, contact RAINN, the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network hotline).

Vogt’s team found that those seeking ER treatment were disproportionally younger women and poorer.

However, despite the rise in ER care, hospital admissions after a sexual assault decreased by 8% — from just under 13% to 4%. Most patients (95%) were sent home, the findings showed.

Admissions may have dropped because of lack of insurance, fewer empty beds, or victims not wanting to be hospitalized due to privacy concerns, Vogt said.

Patients who were admitted tended to be poorer and have Medicaid. Victims aged 46 to 65 were also more likely to be hospitalized than younger people, possibly because the assault exacerbated other medical conditions, Vogt said.

Overall, emergency department visits increased by 23% during the same period, with sexual assault accounting for less than 1% of visits. Yet hospital charges for sexual assault visits topped $233 million in 2019, up from $6 million in 2006, the researchers reported.

ERs can do better in helping patients after a sexual assault, Vogt said. “The emergency department, even though it’s a better place to go than nowhere, is probably not the best place. We need better kinds of outpatient care,” she suggested.

Vogt anticipates sexual assault numbers will continue to swell. “We didn’t even get to look at the years of the COVID-19 pandemic, which we already know from other studies has certainly increased rates of sexual assault,” she explained.

“A lot of these patients are getting sent home, and it’s unclear whether they are getting the attention they deserve,” Vogt said. “We know these patients are at higher risk for [post-traumatic stress disorder], substance abuse, and psychiatric problems as a result of the trauma they’ve experienced.”

The report was published online Oct. 20 in JAMA Network Open.

Dr. Elizabeth Miller is a professor of pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She said sexual violence remains a significant public health concern.

“Sexual violence reporting and care-seeking is not evenly distributed across populations, and inequities persist,” Miller said. “The health consequences of sexual violence remain underrecognized by our health system, especially among survivors who are marginalized because of sexism, racism, heterosexism and ableism,” added Miller, co-author of an accompanying journal editorial.

Miller agreed there is both increased awareness of sexual violence and growing incidence.

“As a result of lots of community campaigns to make the experiences of sexual assault more visible, more people appear to be seeking care. But it does appear globally, we saw an increase in interpersonal violence, including childhood sexual abuse, sexual assault and intimate partner violence during the pandemic,” she said.

And, she pointed out that people who are already marginalized because of gender identity, sexual minorities, females and people with disabilities experience higher incidences of sexual violence.

Miller added that survivors of sexual assault should expect to be treated with respect by law enforcement and by emergency room staff. “They should know that they can also ask for a trained sexual assault nurse examiner, and they can also ask for a victim services advocate to be present during a forensic exam,” she said.

However, more is needed to improve survivor-centered care in ERs. “We need to understand how best to provide meaningful support for survivors and to not contribute to retraumatizing individuals who have experienced an assault,” Miller said.

By Cara Murez 

HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, Oct. 21, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Just about anyone who’s ever dealt with a toxic work environment can tell you about the toll it takes on your physical and mental health.

Now, the U.S. government is backing that perception up with some evidence.

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy released a report on Thursday that links low wages, discrimination, harassment, overwork and long commutes to physical health conditions, including cancer and heart disease. Depression and anxiety can also result from these toxic workplaces.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the nature of work, and the relationship many workers have with their jobs. The link between our work and our health has become even more evident,” Murthy said in the report.

He cited five components of a healthy workplaces, which are protection from harm, connection and community, work-life harmony, mattering at work and opportunity for growth.

Growing a work culture to emphasize these principles can help promote inclusion, fair wages and opportunities for employees to advance, the Surgeon General’s office said.

Instilling those values “will require organizations to rethink how they protect workers from harm, foster a sense of connection among workers, show them that they matter, make space for their lives outside work, and support their long-term professional growth,” Murthy said. “This may not be easy. But it will be worth it, because the benefits will accrue to both workers and organizations. A healthy workforce is the foundation for thriving organizations and a healthy community.”

The report comes at a time when the pandemic and shifts to working at home helped workers find a work-life balance.

“These [work and home] role conflicts can magnify psychological stress, increase the risk for health behaviors such as smoking, unhealthy dietary habits, alcohol and substance use, and medication overuse, and cause disruptions to relationships both at work and at home,” the report found.

“When people feel anxious or depressed, the quality, pace and performance of their work tends to decline,” the report said.

Gabriella Kellerman, chief product officer at corporate coaching platform BetterUp, agreed with the theory that employee well-being equals good business, CBS News reported.

“In this day and age, given the nature of work, there is a tremendous amount of uncertainty from companies and the external environment that is inherently challenging to our mental well-being and role, and companies have a role to play in supporting their employees for moral reasons, but also because it’s good for the bottom line of their businesses,” Kellerman said.

“The fact that this is actually recommended by the Surgeon General is extremely important as a statement,” she added. “They are giving employers concrete recommendations on what matters most to support employees’ well-being. Getting this granular and prescriptive is a new level of involvement, and of guidance, that is novel.”