September Is National Cholesterol Education Month

September Is National Cholesterol Education Month

September is National Cholesterol Education Month. Help employees lower their cholesterol to reduce the risk of having a heart attack, needing heart bypass surgery or angioplasty, and dying of heart disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, people with high cholesterol have about twice the risk of heart disease as people with lower levels.

Worksites can make environmental changes to support employees’ heart-healthy behavior. For instance, you can:

• Provide flexible breaks for physical activity.
• Offer one-on-one coaching on cholesterol management and support.
• Provide healthy vending and meeting food options to reduce dietary cholesterol.

For more ideas, see Train and Take—Cholesterol Management Workplace Policy and Environmental Supports, from the Montana Associate of Health Care Purchasers, a resource in the CDC Workplace Health Resource Center.

Learn How to Prevent Heart Attack and Stroke at Work

Register here for the webinar.

Want to Develop a Wellness App?

The National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention invite small businesses to submit research proposals under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Contract Solicitation. Firms that have the ability to conduct research and develop wellness apps in any of the health-related topic areas described in Section 12.0, and then commercialize the results, are encouraged to participate.

CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion workplace health project is #041 Community Based Worksite Wellness App Linking Employees to Wellness Resources, beginning on page 136 of the solicitation.

Closing date for submitting proposals is October 22, at 5 p.m. EDT.

The Small Business Innovation Research Program provides seed funds for small businesses to explore their technological potential and the incentive to profit from commercialization of their innovations. CDC’s SBIR program targets innovations in diagnostics, surveillance, and public health to support health promotion and disease prevention.