Health & Wellbeing for Driving Instructors

Introduction

Hertford Council had a stand promoting health and wellbeing. As an advocate for this, it was something I was interested in. After speaking to the host, it was confirmed that anyone between the age of 40 and 75 would be eligible for a free health check in the Hertford Council District.

This included blood pressure, heart rate, body mass index and blood tests, plus advice on fitness, a stop smoking campaign and diabetes awareness. It was a great opportunity to raise awareness as not many of us really stop to think about our own health, never mind thinking about getting a check up.

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Cholesterol

Cholesterol was one of the biggest talking points as not a lot of people understand it or know whether their cholesterol levels are correct. Cholesterol is a fatty substance, vital for good health. It helps form cell membranes, various hormones, bile and vitamin D. We get some cholesterol from our diet but most is made in our liver.

Anyone can have high cholesterol, even if they are slim, eat well and are physically active. Most people won’t notice any tell tale signs of high cholesterol. Cholesterol levels can be affected by your family history, age, medicines and some medical conditions. If you have higher cholesterol then you are more likely to suffer from: narrowing of the arteries, angina, heart attack, coronary disease, a stroke or a mini stroke.

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It is worth getting checked out if you have not had your cholesterol checked within the last 10 years or if you know that it is in your family history. I spoke to them briefly about the challenges and barriers driving instructors face when being in the car and having a sedentary daily job. She agreed that it was an issue and saw a lot of this at shows like the open day where there were a lot of driving instructors attending and talking to them individually.

Time Management

The biggest barrier was “I don’t have time”. We talked about how we could make time, but then we realised that we were both self-motivating people and the reality is that not everyone has that ability.

So, we started talking about the things that non-self-motivated people could do to help themselves be a bit more active in the day to day. Some of those things were:

1. Pencil in the time into your diary. You wouldn’t cancel on a learner so you shouldn’t cancel on yourself.