Ergonomically Yours

By nature, I am a do-it-yourselfer. I like to think that I have the ability to examine a set of circumstances – especially my own – evaluate them and make any necessary changes or improvements.

Back during the late 90s, I was applying everything I knew about treatment for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome that was within my scope of practice as a chiropractor in order to heal my patients. This was a frustrating experience. Along with the classic symptoms of wrist pain and hand pain, many CTS patients get neck pain, shoulder pain and upper back pain. My treatment was partially successful on each of these symptoms.

The sticking point of my care was the fact that I was trying to unravel symptoms that were being generated / exacerbated during the course of a 40 + hour work week with treatments that were only being delivered three times weekly in half hour sessions. I am not implying that my care wasn’t helpful, what I am saying is that I knew that in order for my patients to recover that they needed more help. In this case, the help had to come from them. Somehow they needed to help minimize the stresses that they were subjected to during the day.

Part of this exercise involved my patients keeping pain diaries. Basically, over the course of one month, I asked them to write down everything that they could identify as a source of their pain.

A quick examination of my patients’ pain diaries revealed that there were three basic aggravating work duties that 90% of them shared. Reaching for the mouse, reaching for the phone and having to rotate their heads in order to see their monitor were the most common aggravating work duties.

Obviously it doesn’t take a degree in ergonomics to solve these kind of issues. Many of us go through our days numb to the factors that affect our well being. The conscious application of situational awareness can provide us with obvious problems and simple solutions to many work place ergonomic issues.

Look at your work environment today. If your body does not feel centered and balanced as you perform your work duties, chances are that you can make some modifications or at least identify some modifications that could be made to improve your ergonomics.

Here’s To Your Health

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Yours Ergonomically,
Steve Jones

Ergonomic Office Supplies

San Diego Chiropractor

(619) 280-0554