Computer Related Strain Part II: Avoiding Strains After Looking At The Computer Screen…

While researching my last blog post, I came across many other things that can bother people while working on the computer all day long.

Computer-Related Hazards & Strain

Aside from CVS, there are also a few other things you should look out for when working on the computer all day long and those include:

• Pain or stiffness in your neck or back
• Pain in your arms or wrists
• Worsened posture
• Unreasonable weight gain
• Numbness in your arms or wrists

Although these may not all seem serious, you should try to get out of your office at lunch time.

One item that can become potentially serious is carpal tunnel syndrome. This can be indicated by a pain your wrists, weakness or numbness in your hands or wrists.

What exactly is carpal tunnel syndrome?

This occurs when the nerve that run from your forearm into your hand becomes compressed from thickening and irritated tendons. This nerve controls the feelings and movement to the palm side of all of the fingers, aside from the pinky.

If it goes untreated, in worst cases, it can result in loss of strength and feeling in the hand. It may result in being unable to grip things and tell the difference between hot and cold.

So obviously you don’t want any of these to happen, so you are going to want to seek treatment.

Treatments…

The treatments range anywhere from resting your hands for 2 weeks, alternative treatments, drugs, exercise and worst case scenario–surgery.

But don’t freak yourself out just yet…

You could just be experiencing writer’s cramp. This can be brought on by repetitive activity and results in a cramp, spasm and ache in the fingers, wrists and/or forearm. Treatment for this can be anywhere from injections of botox to retraining yourself how to do a certain activity in a different way.

Or Repetitive Strain Injury (RPS)- which is caused by misuse over and over again by certain body parts. Most likely this would show up in your wrists. I have also seen this term used to include tendonitis, writers cramp and carpal tunnel- or just to explain the unexplainable pain in the wrists, forearm and back.

Prevention

Either way- here are some ways to protective yourself from ever having to deal with any of the above mentioned conditions.

• As we suggested in the previous blog post, taking breaks is always a good idea. Sitting in one spot for hours and hours upon time isn’t healthy and just getting the blood flowing is always good.

• Exercise can decrease the risk of mostly any condition, especially the ones that cause upper and lower back pain. Having more muscles allows you to sit up properly and therefore decreasing the chances of you slouching and furthering your back problems. (You should also sit at a 90 degree angle)

• Make sure your wrists are always straight….

• Invest in an ergonometric keyboard. These allow your wrists to go across straight.
• Use one of those keyboard pads so you can rest your wrists on them and assure they are staying straight.
• Instead of a mouse, use a trackpad. It causes less strain because you aren’t always tensing, gripping and clicking.
• If you pain has gotten so bad and your job requires you to type all day, you may want to invest in some speech recognition software. It can be costly and slightly annoying to work at the beginning but definitely worth it over the long haul.

• Try different exercises to lower you stress and calm yourself. Whether its listening to music or while you take breaks rolling your head, or going for a walk on your lunch- make sure to take care of yourself.

Because after all, its only your job! Make sure you take the breaks you need.

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Tagged as: computer fatigue, computer screen, computer vision syndrome, cvs, laptop, laptop fatigue, macbook, tired eyes