Health Hero Lynn Anders

Like the rest of us, Lynn leads a busy life – both at work and at home. She has always been very active and spent many years in Colorado as an avid hiker, mountain biker and competitive Ultimate Frisbee player.

Lynn started working for the County as Senior Deputy Ombudsman with the Ombudsman’s Office* two years ago, and while her lifestyle now doesn’t allow her to be as physically fit as she used to be, she tries to eat right, is at a healthy weight and has always had normal blood pressure readings at her regular doctor checkups, so she thought of herself as healthy.

In April of 2008, the American Heart Association in cooperation with Virginia Mason provided free heart health screenings to King County employees. Lynn attended, more out of interest than concern, and was surprised by the results. Her cholesterol was high and her blood glucose was in the pre-diabetic range.

Although Lynn has no family history of diabetes, both of her parents and her brother – a marathon runner and triathelete – have high cholesterol. Still, the news was a shock.

“Being active and staying healthy had always been an important part of my life. But obviously my self-image had not caught up to reality,” says Anders. “I was surprised that I wasn’t as healthy as I assumed I was.”

Small changes can make a big difference

Because Lynn preferred to improve her health risks without medication, she took advantage of preventative programs covered by King County’s benefits.

“The fact that County benefits cover the cost of preventive care is huge. I might not have done it otherwise,” says Anders, “But it doesn’t seem that very many employees take advantage of this.”

The results of the health screening served as a catalyst for Lynn to call Virginia Mason’s Heart Attack and Stroke Prevention Clinic, which had sponsored the screening. Since she wanted to control her cholesterol and her blood sugar levels without taking medication, Lynn starting working with a team of health professionals at Virginia Mason, including a nutritionist, to discuss how to make lifestyle changes.

To Lynn’s surprise the nutritionist’s recommendations did not focus on depriving herself of certain foods. Instead the focus was on what she could add to her diet to make health improvements. One of the first recommendations was to start eating a bowl of oatmeal daily.

“My life is ridiculously busy right now,” says Anders, “I told them I often don’t even have time to make oatmeal each day.” So the nutritionist suggested adding raw oats to her yogurt each morning and this was a change Lynn was able to make.

“She also suggested eating more fish – but I am not yet much of a cook and I have a hard time making fish into a meal I actually enjoy eating.” So the nutritionist suggested eating a teaspoon of fish oil daily. Another change Lynn could fit into her busy life.

Though Anders indicated that her current schedule does not allow her to do intense workouts or go to a gym regularly, she constantly looks for other ways to work out and fit physical activity into her life.

“I park farther away from work and walk the extra distance as briskly as I can, and I try to take the stairs instead of the elevator,” says Anders, “I also love the fact that there is a workout facility onsite in my building and I use it as often as I can.”

The fruits of her labor became evident at follow up visits with the clinic. Though she is still working on managing her blood glucose, her good cholesterol is up and her bad cholesterol is down, and she is no longer at higher risk of a heart attack.

“My numbers have responded positively and it is exciting that even small changes can give a big bang for the buck,” says Anders.

And there were additional benefits too. After Anders shared her success story with family members, her mother has also lowered her cholesterol by eating oatmeal and taking fish oil daily.

Words of wisdom

What words of wisdom does Anders have for other King County employees?

“For me, it’s all about making smart changes, about choosing changes strategically. Making health a priority is a constant challenge, and we all have lurking over our shoulders that huge long list of healthy changes we should make. The reality of life is that we can’t do everything perfectly,” says Anders, “so my advice would be to choose changes that will have a significant impact and that will be sustainable for you. Changes have to fit with your unique life situation so that you can commit to making them part of what you do every day.”

Lynn adds, “I also want to put a plug in for thinking about prevention rather than just reacting to negative health events. I had my head in the sand, but I realize now that even if we continue to do everything the same as before, our bodies will age and we need to make changes to compensate for getting older.”

“The Health Matters programs create a consciousness about health for King County employees,” Lynn said. “It helps integrate our personal health efforts into our work lives, and keeps personal health a topic of conversation in our work community, as something that we talk and joke and commiserate about together. And that acceptance gives support to our ongoing efforts make healthy changes.”