Ergonomically Yours

Archive for November, 2009

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

Chiropractic, Neck Pain, Chiropractor, Back Pain, San Diego, Ergonomic

Computer work gives me a pain in the neck!  It probably gives you a pain in the neck too.  Being a San Diego based chiropractor, I see plenty of patients suffering from neck pain as a result of poor ergonomic set-ups of their computers.  My work as a chiropractor provides a unique insight into the stresses of computer work that few people outside of my profession have the opportunity to see.

I graduated in 1991 and at the time I can say that I made it through school without ever owning a computer.  I bought my first computer in 1995 and didn’t really start spending more than a few hours on it daily until maybe 2003.  In this relatively short period of computer use, I have developed postural stress issues despite my efforts to keep it at bay.

I began practicing chiropractic in San Diego in 1993 and at that time my practice consisted of patients suffering from typical complaints.  It was unusual to get patients that complained of neck pain, back pain, headaches or sciatica that wasn’t a result of some specific injury, auto accident or work injury.

Now my chiropractic patients are different.  I still practice in San Diego and my patients still complain of neck pain, back pain, headaches and sciatica but these symptoms begin with a different type of injury.

And it is scary!

Most of the injuries that I see today are due to sedentary tasks.  Most of these tasks involve computer use and postural stress.  The scary thing about these injuries is that I hear from my patients with kids that their kids are using computers both at home and in school.

I know how computer work has affected me with less than 5 years of moderate use.  Students of all ages are using computers for everything including school work, socializing and gaming.

By the time today’s’ kids are in their 30s or 40s, they will have had over 20 years of exposure to the postural stresses associated with computer use.   Considering the frequency with which I see computer related stress syndromes now, it is hard to imagine how much of these disorders will be seen in another 20 years.

The health of tomorrows (and todays) computer users will rely on ergonomically designed work stations combined with stretching, exercise and chiropractic therapy to help relieve the effects of computer related postural stress.  A little planning in your work area can go a long way in helping to prevent neck pain, back pain and other issues related to postural stress of computer work.

Writer Bio

Dr. Steve Jones is a licensed Chiropractor in San Diego.  Dr. Jones has treated his patients for over 15 years at his own San Diego Chiropractic practice.  He is certified as a Specialist in Health Ergonomics.  ———————————————————————————–

Here’s To Your Health

Yours Ergonomically,

Dr. Jones

Economic Mouse Pad
San Diego Chiropractic
Pain Relief San Diego Chiropractic

Did you ever question why you can sit down all day long and don’t do any hard work and still your back or neck hurts? ? A chiropractor can diagnose neck pain, postural stress, back pain and suggest ergonomic solutions. With closer examination of the structure of our bodies and some simple physics principles, it is a wonder that humans do not suffer from more frequent and intense back and neck pain.
Anyone can experience back or neck pain at any time. I treat individuals regularly who experienced back and neck injuries from improper lifting, machinery usage, sports, falls, and auto accidents. The majority of patients think that chiropractic issues stem from lifting heavy sacks of concrete but are surprised to find that most are due to postural stress.
Spinal health can be jeopardized slowly and insidiously due to postural stress. Regardless of whether you sit or stand, postural trauma can ensue. Any time your spine is not in its natural curves or moves forward beyond its neutral balance point, you can risk postural stress
As you sit at a computer, hunched over the keyboard or peering at the screen, your neck experiences postural stress. This posture, in which your head and neck are extended in front of your body, reverses the normal curvature of your spine and neck, and shifts your head away from its balance point.
If our posture puts pressure on our spines, the security that controls our structures when postural limitations are concerned is gone. Back and neck pain is often a result of poor posture, which also causes fatigue, irritability, and inflammation of muscles and connecting ligatures due to extended pressure.
A combination of therapies may be required to effectively treat back pain and neck pain from postural stress. Using this method of chiropractic care in conjunction with stretching and nutritional support relieves pain and stiffness and restores normal, full joint movement.If you have endured pain for a long time or if your symptoms are particularly acute, the road to recovery will not be short or easy. Don’t expect a quick fix.
Along with chiropractic treatment, it is important to address origins of postural stress. Ergonomic problems that lead to postural stress can be identified using workstation analysis. An ice pack placed on the affected area for twenty minutes can relieve neck pain and back pain.
Talking to your chiropractor is the first step in starting your treatment.
Chiropractors are medically trained to deal with postural stress problems and the neck pain that occurs as a result. At our chiropractic clinic in San Diego, we treat patients with a holistic approach using chiropractic care and enhanced with a regimen of stretching and exercise.
In order to facilitate the healing process we encourage the proper nutritional support.
You need to be aware of the importance of eliminating the source of the postural stress in addition to seeking treatment, regardless of which approach you take to relieve the pain of postural stress.

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Here’s To Your Health

Yours Ergonomically,

Dr. Jones

Economic Mouse Pad
San Diego Chiropractic
Pain Relief San Diego Chiropractic

(619) 280-0554

Do you ever think about ergonomics while you are suffering at your desk?

The two primary objectives of the study and application of ergonomics are to enhance worker performance and reduce worker fatigue.

Some ergonomic analysis is very simple and can be completed from start to finish by the worker. For instance, if reaching for your phone requires excessive and uncomfortable reaching, moving that phone to within easy reach is the fix. This is a simple example of the analysis and application of ergonomics that will certainly reduce fatigue and stress for that particular task.

I will take this opportunity to advise everyone reading this post to take a good look at their work environment and think about what they could do to improve it. This may mean checking to see if your keyboard is at a comfortable level, or if reaching for your mouse is aggravating your neck, shoulder or arm. These are just a few things that you should analyze in your work area. Just changing a few things in your work environment that cause stress or discomfort can be significant because these constant sources of low level irritation have a cumulative and compounding effect which increase the chances of injury.

Most analysis and application of ergonomics is much more complex than this prior example. For many work stresses, an in-depth knowledge of human anatomy and biomechanics is essential to truly evaluate a work environment and then implement the necessary work station modifications.

This task is difficult enough when designing an ergonomically friendly environment for one specific worker. However, this task is much more involved when a particular work area has to accommodate a number of different workers. Just think about how much people vary in height, weight, strength, reach, etc. If you have to share a desk, seat or other equipment with other people, make sure that you make any possible adjustments to limit your exposure to irritating work conditions.

Here’s To Your Health

Yours Ergonomically,

Dr. Jones

Economic Mouse Pad
San Diego Chiropractic
Pain Relief San Diego Chiropractic

(619) 280-0554