In 2018/19, mental ill-health and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) accounted for the highest number of workplace sick days, at 12.8 million and 6.9 million respectively. However, for some, this may not be surprising given research shows emotional and physical wellbeing are closely linked.

For employers looking to nurture a happy and healthy workforce, it’s not enough to just focus on one aspect of employee wellbeing. Here, I take a look at the relationship between emotional and physical health and some of the best ways to promote a holistic approach to workplace wellbeing.

A relationship under the microscope

For too long, physical and emotional health have been treated separately, with different perceived causes and approaches taken to try to improve ill-health.

In reality, all aspects of health are interlinked, with both emotional and physical factors affecting your overall wellbeing. A common example is how, when we feel stressed or anxious at work, our muscles can tense up, causing aches and pain.

This is because the chemical messengers in our brain communicate with our nervous system to control our body. So, when we experience certain feelings, our body instinctively reacts. For example, we may feel physical symptoms like shaking and trembling when experiencing feelings of worry or fright.

However, it works both ways and physical health conditions can also impact our emotional state. A recent study involving 1.2 million candidates, recently confirmed the more physically active you are, the higher the increase in mental wellbeing. People who exercised had 1.5 fewer "bad days" a month than non-exercisers.

How neglecting one condition can affect the other

Emotional health not only leads to physical symptoms but can also exacerbate existing conditions. It can lead to cyclical patterns, where mental ill-health affects our physical wellbeing, which leads to further feelings of low mood, anxiety and depression.

When mental ill-health is left untreated over a long period, it can lead to serious physical health complications. Around 46 percent of people suffering from mental ill health also have a long-term physical health problem.

Mental ill-health is most linked to an increased risk in problems like cardiovascular conditions, diabetes and even cancer. This often results from prolonged exposure to the symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression, which can lend themselves to an unhealthy diet and sedentary lifestyle.

For example; those suffering from symptoms of prolonged mental ill health may have low mood or fatigue, leading to avoidance of exercise and choosing quick, unhealthy food options, leading to weight gain.

This can lead to diabetes as abdominal fat causes the release of ‘pro-inflammatory’ chemicals, which make the body less sensitive to the insulin it produces. This causes insulin resistance and is the hallmark of type 2 diabetes.

Research suggests a lack of physical activity has a profound effect on mental health too.

For example; many long-term physical conditions like MSDs cause people to live with pain and discomfort without relief. The condition wears people down and begins to impact their quality of life – leading to low mood and depression.

Not only does physical activity help break up a sedentary lifestyle, but it also helps our bodies produce endorphins and gives us a sense of productivity and achievement.

Supporting employees

A happy and healthy workforce is supported in all aspects of its health. As an employer, it’s important to understand how physical and emotional health is linked and how you can support employees to live healthier lives, rather than just focusing on one aspect of health.

This not only means providing the right support but also the education to help employees understand the relationship between physical and mental health.

Think about how you can provide a range of interventions to help employees battling poor health. This should include incentives to get them more active, like free on-site yoga classes at lunchtime or a subsidised gym membership to help reduce the effects of a sedentary lifestyle.

Support from a logistical point of view should be put in place for those who struggle to get around with ease. Managers should arrange for any meetings to be held in convenient locations for those with limited mobility and physical adaptations can be integrated into the workplace, including orthopaedic chairs, footrests, hand rests and shelves at a lower height.

These should be offered alongside interventions for emotional wellbeing, like appointing mental health champions in the workplace, inviting psychologists into the office to provide actionable self-help advice or even offering face-to-face counselling sessions.

It’s also important to help employees build their emotional resilience – the ability to bounce back from periods of stress. This may include offering more flexible working hours or encouraging those with tendencies to overwork to switch off from emails in the evening, to help reduce stress.

Finally, it’s our responsibility to make businesses aware technology is now available, which can make the identification of risk factors and early diagnosis of MSDs and mental ill-health a quicker and simpler process.

For example, Nuffield Health’s Personalised Assessment for Tailored Health (PATH) uses an AI algorithm to recommend the relevant steps that need to be taken to manage health risks with the support of clinical experts.

Marc Holl is Head of Physiotherapy & Clinical Development Lead at Nuffield Health.