Ergonomically Yours

Archive for December, 2009

Have you ever hurt your back and scratched your head wondering – how did this happen when my back has felt fine until now?

Patients present to my San Diego Chiropractic clinic on a regular basis with neck pain, back pain and other related symptoms that not only lack a history of pain in that area but have no recent injury or accident to explain their current painful symptoms.

This is frustrating for the patient yet a typical presentation for me.

When patients come in for care with this type of history recent injury, my inquiries usually lead to a situation that involves excessive postural stress for that patient.

Ongoing postural stress affects our body much like the old analogy of the straws on the camels back. Our bodies are capable of compensating for quite a bit of stress before symptoms appear. This is good and bad.

The good part of this situation is that if we didn’t compensate for all the little stresses that we are subjected to, we would be uncomfortable all the time. The bad part about compensation is that we often are not keen enough to recognize when our bodies are being exposed to ongoing low levels of stress.

Once the stress levels build to a certain point, the body part in question reacts with irritation, inflammation and muscle spasm. This combination produces pain and tightness and usually is the reason that patients call my office.

Postural stress can place an amazing amount of stress on your spine. One of my reference books has a chart that describes how different body positions affect the amount of pressure on your discs in the low back. The differences are amazing.

When standing straight up with ideal posture, the pressure in the discs of the low back is 100%. When lying flat on your back the pressure is at 24%. While sitting straight with good posture, the pressure is at 140% but when slouching forward with poor posture the disc pressure goes to a staggering 190%.

Considering that most of us sit for a good portion of the day, simply sitting becomes a significant source of stress for the lower back.

This kind of ongoing stress combined with an awkward twist or bend can generate a crisis for the low back leading the patient to wonder exactly how turning to pick that cup of coffee off the desk behind him / her lead to such a severe back spasm.

Here’s To Your Health

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Yours Ergonomically,
Steve Jones

Ergonomic Office Supplies Home of Ergo Nav

San Diego Chiropractor
(619) 280-0554

A mouse pad simply isn’t enough. Not even if it has a little gel support pad for your wrist. A mouse pad enhances the operation of the mouse but doesn’t do anything for your ergonomic situation.

I am a practicing chiropractor in San Diego California. Years ago I began to notice that most of my patients who were being treated for either Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, neck pain, shoulder pain or any of the other symptoms that are specific to stress imposed by long days at the computer had one common complaint.

That complaint was that extending their arm to reach for the mouse was one of their primary aggravating factors.

One of things that I have learned by treating injured people is that when they are in pain, activities that they perform without concern of postural stress when they are “healthy” suddenly become painful.

Reaching for the mouse is one of these activities. Reaching for your mouse in a way that forces your arm to assume any position other than hanging at your side while supported on your chairs armrest exposes your wrist, arm, shoulder, neck and upper back to postural stress.

With time, this ongoing postural stress will either cause a repetitive stress injury on its own or it will help contribute to one.

This mechanism of injury was the basis for the development of the Ergo Nav mouse platform. The Ergo Nav attaches to your chairs armrest in a way that places your mouse right at your finger tips allowing for stress free mouse operation.

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Independently performed EMG studies show significantly less muscular activity in the neck, back and shoulder girdle with use of the Ergo Nav as compared to reaching to the desk for the mouse. These same results were shown regardless of whether or not the desk placed mouse pad had a gel pad wrist rest or not.

While there were mouse platforms already available, they were either non-adjustable (read not ergonomic) or they were adjustable and very expensive with bulky, impractical chair attachments.

The Ergo Nav allows for adjustment of the platform in several planes for true ergonomic adaptability while maintaining exceptionally low pricing compared to other mouse platforms.

Here’s To Your Health

Yours Ergonomically,
Steve Jones

Ergonomic Office Supplies (Home of Ergo Nav)

San Diego Chiropractor
(619) 280-0554

Those of you have read my blog posts both here and at www.jonespainrelief.com/blog1 know that ergonomics is the study of how we can manipulate our work environment to both improve work performance and reduce injury-causing fatigue.

Obviously, the cost of injury drives the study of ergonomics. This is a good thing. Most employers, especially those who run large corporations are detached from their employees – both physically and emotionally. Were it not for the actual cost of employees’ injuries, many employers would not know or care about their workers’ ergonomic situation.

In the world of ergonomics, there are six separately identifiable variables that affect work performance and fatigue. These six variables are:

1) Workload

2) Each Individuals Physiological Response to the Workload

3) The Individuals Size & Strength Capabilities

4) Biomechanical Variances

5) Human Factors

6) Work Organization

The questions that should be answered by examining the variables listed above are not limited to but include:

1) Can You Perform a Task Once Without Injury

2) Do You Physically Fit Your Workplace

3) Are You Strong Enough

4) Can You Perform the Task For Seconds to Minutes Without Fatigue or Injury

5) Will Injury Occur if the Work is Performed Over Months or Years

6) Do You Have the Mental Capacity to do the Work

These variables directly affect an individual’s ability to perform certain job duties with or without producing an injury.

The reason that I have decided to include this dry and academic sounding material in this blog is to help provide some very general guides that can be used to evaluate your fit for your work duties.

I have patients who were injured at work who are not good fits for their work. They either lack the strength, the height or the endurance to effectively perform their work tasks.

If you find yourself in such a situation you should ask for or pay for an ergonomic analysis of your work environment. Many large companies either have an ergonomics department or have access to an ergonomic specialist. If so, you should take advantage of these services.

Here’s To Your Health

Yours Ergonomically,
Steve Jones

Ergonomic Office Supplies (Home of Ergo Nav)

San Diego Chiropractor
(619) 280-0554