Ergonomically Yours

Archive for January, 2010

This is the final installment in this series of blog posts. My next series will examine different job duties and how they lead to cumulative trauma disorders.

What are the Common Symptoms of Cumulative Trauma Disorders?

· Tightness, discomfort, stiffness, soreness or burning in the hands, wrists, fingers, forearms, or elbows

· Tingling, coldness, night pain or numbness in the hands, especially around the base of the thumb

· Clumsiness or loss of strength in the hands

· Pain in the neck, shoulders, wrists, hands or back that is associated with using the computer

How Can You Avoid Injuries Related to Reaching for the Mouse?

The following recommendations are applicable to both home office ergonomics as well as ergonomics in the office.

1) Placing the input device directly in your immediate reach zone offers natural comfort and maximum hand-eye coordination. The use of a platform for the mouse is preferable. Some models of mouse platforms attach directly to your chair.

2) Your chair should have arm rests that are adjustable.

3) Your wrist should be either in a neutral position or flexed slightly downward when operating both your mouse and your keyboard. For this reason, if you select a mouse platform that attaches to your chair, adjustability of the platform is of primary importance.

4) Consider using a high quality office chair with adjustable armrests and lumbar supports. It should also allow some degree of recline.

5) Make sure that the upper arm and elbow are as close to the body and as relaxed as possible for mouse use – avoid overreaching.

6) Hold the mouse lightly, don’t grip it hard or squeeze it. Place the pointing device where you don’t have to reach up or over very far to use it. The closer you can place it to your body the better.

These are just a few ideas that might help you to either get out of pain or be of use in your efforts to prevent the onset of cumulative trauma disorders. I hope that this information is helpful to you all. Remember – KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!

More Coming Soon

Dr. Jones

Economical Adjustable Mouse Platform
San Diego Chiropractic
Pain Relief San Diego Chiropractor

Chiropractic Care and Repetitive Stress
Back in 1991 when I first earned my license to practice chiropractic, I was of the mindset that my typical patient would have complaints of low back pain, neck pain or headaches. By the mid 1990s I was a chiropractor in San Diego with an office full of people suffering from Repetitive Stress Injuries like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Instead of my original expectations of having an office full of patients with typical cases of low back pain, I was studying ergonomics and spending the bulk of my time unraveling the negative effects of Postural Stress that was accumulating in these patients secondary to computer work.
The study of workstation ergonomics tells us that the objects that we use most often should be located closest to your body and accessed easily, without awkward body positions or movements. Repeated reaching or prolonged fixed postures that involve leaning forward from your chair are stressful and fatiguing.
Some people are aware of computer ergonomics and have purchased various ergonomic devices. These devices, such as keyboard trays, gel mouse pads, and ergonomic keyboards rarely provide solutions to the big picture of computer ergonomics. These items must work with each other in order to produce a significant reduction in postural stress. For example, an ergonomic mouse is of little use if it is positioned in an area that requires reaching and stretching in order to operate it. Limiting reaching and stretching for desk items is essential to maintaining a healthy ergonomic environment.
The most frequent complaint that I have seen in my office is due to computer work is the combination of mousing and reaching to the desk for the mouse.
Most computer stations are designed in a way that involves the worker operating the computer mouse on a pad on the desk. Reaching to the desk for the mouse places direct stress on the joints and soft tissues of the neck, shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand. Additionally, reaching forward for the mouse stresses the lower and middle back.
So How Does Reaching for the Mouse Set the Stage for Injury?
Reaching for the mouse causes you to lean forward in your chair, extend your arm and support the weight of your body through your extended arm.
The stresses placed on the human frame when reaching for the mouse are easily identified. Contrary to popular belief, sitting, which most people believe is relaxing, is hard on the back. Sitting for long periods of time can cause increased pressure on the discs of the spine.
In recent years, studies on postural stress have indicated that we should be sitting upright with our hips flexed at 90 degrees. As it turns out, the most up to date studies show that a slightly reclined sitting posture with the hips flexed at 100 to 115 degrees is ideal if you have to sit at a desk. If your mouse is not positioned close enough to your body, you will have to reach for it. Reaching for your mouse stresses your back by reducing the angle of your hips.
Next, we have to look at the effects of reaching on the neck and shoulder. When the mouse is being operated at a distance that makes the operator reach, the shoulder extends forward and the shoulder blade abducts (rotates forward). This position stretches the muscle groups that connect the medial portion of your shoulder blade to your spine and the superior portion of your shoulder blade to your neck. In the short term, this stretch aggravates the affected muscle groups causing spasm, fatigue, headaches and stiffness in the neck and shoulder. In the long term, this position creates a condition called a “stretch weakness” resulting in muscular imbalance, trigger points and chronic variations of the conditions listed in the prior sentence.
Lastly, placing the mouse too far away, too low, or too much on one side can cause shoulder, wrist, elbow, and forearm discomfort. When the operator is forced to reach for the mouse, his / her body weight shifts forward and ultimately results in weight bearing stress on the extended arm. Spending prolonged periods of time leaning on an extended arm is an unnatural and destructive posture that will eventually lead to the development of a repetitive stress syndrome; likely resulting disorders would include tendonitis of the wrist, elbow or shoulder.
In my experience, chiropractic care can be very effective in treating Repetitive Stress Injuries. However, a large part of your recovery comes from reducing your exposure to postural stress. An important part of this involves a thorough ergonomic evaluation of your work station as well as making the correct ergonomic changes to relieve computer related postural stresses.

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. Dr. Jones Can be found on the web at www.JonesPainRelief.com & at www.ErgoNav.com

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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

Anyone who has gone to an Office Depot or Staples or any of the other countless office supply stores has seen how many different office chairs that are available.

The question is, which one should you choose? One thing is for certain, as far as your back and neck goes, the color doesn’t matter. However, plenty of other features do matter and can determine how your back feels at the end of your work day.

There are specific brand names that manufacture high end chairs that cost in the thousands of dollars. If you decide that a chair like that fits your needs by all means buy it.

On a regular basis I hear patients comment in a negative way about the expense of ergonomic office products. My response usually draws a correlation between the costs of their vehicle versus the cost of a good office chair. Very few of us spend more than 8 hours per week in our cars that we spends tens of thousands of dollars on yet we often scoff at spending more than a few hundred bucks on a good office chair that we sit in for 8 hours per day. That is some backwards logic isn’t it?

That being said, you don’t have to spend a small fortune on a good office chair. My chair fits all of my needs and I found it at Costco for about $100.

What features does a $100 chair need to have in order for it be the right chair for you?

This is a short list of general features that should be present in a good ergonomic chair.

1. It should have a high back
2. It should have arm rests
3. The backrest should recline and be slightly concave and include a 5 cm lumbar support
4. The seating surface should be able to tilt from front to back
5. The height of the chair should be adjustable
6. The armrest height should be able to adjust
7. You must be comfortable in it. A chair with all these features is worthless if you don’t find it comfortable.

Here’s To Your Health

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Yours Ergonomically,
Steve Jones

Ergonomic Office Supplies

San Diego Chiropractor

(619) 280-0554

Is your computer making you feel like you are losing a war?

For many of us who spend increasing amounts of time sitting at a computer, the answer to the question above is yes.

Postural stress is a major component of the cases of back pain that I see in my practice. Anyone who spends enough hours in enough days sitting in a static position at a computer station is bound to develop pain as a result of this stress.

Years ago I developed, patented and produced a mouse platform that was intended to reduce the chances of the development of carpal tunnel syndrome. Those of you who have read my previous blog posts are familiar with this story.

In a nutshell, I saw my patients struggle with many work related stresses due to computer use. Of these complaints, the most common complaint was the shoulder pain, neck pain, arm pain, wrist pain and hand pain that resulted from reaching to the desk for the mouse. I thought of an idea to eliminate the reach for the mouse and that thought resulted in the birth of my first patent, the Ergo Nav.

The Ergo Nav turned out to be very successful in reducing the stresses that it was intended to help relieve. However, there was a second positive effect that I had not really thought out prior to the initial months of testing this new way of mousing.

Click on button to buy Ergo Nav now.

By positioning the mouse next to the operator as the Ergo Nav does, postural stress on the low back was reduced thus reducing fatigue of the lower back and, hence reducing low back pain.

For years it was thought that the proper hip angle of a seating posture was 90 degrees. Now, however, that angle is known to be too small. A proper angle of the hips in a seated posture is from 95 degrees to 115 degrees. This angle has your chair back tilted slightly backward, away from your desk, keyboard and mouse.

The Ergo Nav helps the worker maintain this angle of the hips by keeping the mouse at constant distance from the operator. In other words, the Ergo Nav allows the operator to tilt the chair at the proper angle without moving away from the mouse.

Here’s To Your Health

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Yours Ergonomically,
Steve Jones

Ergonomic Office Supplies

San Diego Chiropractor

(619) 280-0554

Computers speed our daily tasks in ways that we could not have imagined ten years ago. That being said, most every improvement in our lives is a double edged sword (pardon the cheesy analogy).

Computer work gives me a pain in the neck! It probably gives you a pain in the neck too.

I graduated college in 1991 and at the time I can say that I made it through school without ever owning or even barely using 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 even developed an ergonomic mouse platform in order to help eliminate the stresses of mouse reach and I still fall victim to postural stress.

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.

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 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.

Here’s To Your Health

Yours Ergonomically,
Steve Jones

Ergonomic Office Supplies

San Diego Chiropractor

(619) 280-0554

Have you ever wondered how it can be that you can sit around all day doing nothing strenuous and still develop back pain or neck pain?  Oddly enough, most of the aches and pains that we develop don’t have a clear injury associated with the onset of our symptoms.  Our spines and the muscles and ligaments that move and support them are quite durable.  Aside from severe traumatic injury like a car accident, a hard fall, etc, the pain that is most prone to troubling us is the result of the seemingly inconsequential episodes of poor lifting habits, bad posture and other forms of postural stress.
Back pain or neck pain can affect anyone at any time.  In my San Diego chiropractic clinic, I see patients that have injured their backs and necks from lifting, operating machinery, sports injuries, auto accidents and falls.
Many non-chiropractic patients or new chiropractic patients would be surprised to find that the most common type of injury that I see in my office is not from lifting heavy sacks of concrete but from the long term consequences of postural stress.
Postural stress is the “silent killer” when it comes to our spinal health.  Postural stress occurs during both seated and standing positions.  Postural stress occurs any time that your spine looses its’ natural curves and / or moves forward beyond its neutral balance point.
An example of a posturally stressful position for your neck would be when you are sitting at the computer leaning your neck and head forward while keyboarding, mousing or reading the screen.  Assuming a posture in which your head and neck are extended out in front of your body reverses the normal curve of your neck and shifts your head forward of its balance point.
When we assume postures that cause stress on our spines, the stability that is inherent in our structure when postural boundaries are respected is lost.  Postural stress exposes our ligaments and muscles to prolonged periods of stretching which results in fatigue, irritation, inflammation, back pain and neck pain.
Treating neck pain and back pain that has resulted from postural stress requires a multifaceted approach.  Chiropractic care and massage will relieve the pain and stiffness and restore normal, full joint motion.  This part of your recovery may take several treatments or several weeks of ongoing care based on the length of time that you have been in pain and the severity of your symptoms.
In addition to chiropractic care, you must eliminate or modify the causes of your postural stress.  A workstation analysis can reveal ergonomic issues that are instigators of postural stress.  Any type of treatment that you pursue will only be marginally successful if you are not able to control the source of the stress.  This doesn’t mean quitting your job as a computer operator.  However, it does mean that you may need to reposition your monitor or move your phone closer to your primary work space or purchase a keyboard tray or mouse platform in order to create a more friendly work environment.
The best way to begin your care is discuss your issues with your chiropractor.  Chiropractors are well trained in dealing with postural stress issues especially as they relate to your work environment.

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.   Dr. Jones is accepting new patients and would be happy to consult with you regarding your chiropractic needs.

(619) 280-0554

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Here’s To Your Health

Yours Ergonomically,

Dr. Jones

Economic Mouse Pad
San Diego Chiropractic
Pain Relief San Diego Chiropractic

Hundreds if not thousands of books and articles have been written that deal with the short and long term negative effects of working with computers.

As a chiropractor practicing in San Diego, I see a constant flow of new patients who complain of neck pain, shoulder pain, arm pain, wrist pain and hand pain as a result of long work days that mostly consist of sitting at a computer. It doesn’t stop there. Because sitting is especially stressful for the lower back we see plenty of computer operators who complain of low back pain as well.

It seems that the computer spares no body part from pain, discomfort and sometimes disability.

The most damaging characteristics of computer work can be summed up in two related triggers that stimulate our bodies to react to this type of work.

The first of these triggers involves the way the muscles of our necks, upper backs, arms and hands are used during computer work.

Whenever we are working on our computers our fingers are moving a mile a minute while the rest of the muscles of our upper extremities are in a static contraction. Muscles are designed to move joints through an entire range of motion. When we work at our computers these muscles simply contract to hold joints in a fixed position. When muscles act in this way they build up lactic acid, become irritated and inflamed and eventually fatigue and become painful. The long-term effects of this process include tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, trigger finger, etc, etc.

The second trigger involves postural stress. It is human nature to lean forward into our work. Leaning forward improves our ability to see what we are working on. This posture typically includes bending forward at the waist, rounding our shoulders forward and craning our necks forward. Each of these body positions by themselves is capable of causing pain and discomfort. When we are doing computer work it is not unusual to have all three of these postural stresses working on us at the same time.

Controlling these stresses is of utmost importance in order to prevent injury. Taking short one or two minute stretching breaks for the arms and hands every twenty or thirty minutes is very helpful. Icing the painful areas is helpful as well. Finally, becoming aware of your posture and doing what you can to eliminate postural stress will help.

There are other articles on this topic in this blog and in my chiropractic blog that will give you more information on how to control the stresses of computer work.

Here’s To Your Health

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Yours Ergonomically,
Steve Jones

Ergonomic Office Supplies

San Diego Chiropractor

(619) 280-0554