Health hazards for IT workers -- how that desk job wears your body down Too
much junk food, too little exercise and a 24/7 tether to technology? Your
body ain't happy, friend. Let us count the pains.
Beth Stackpole
[image: Click here to find out
more!]<http://ad.doubleclick.net/click;h=v8/374d/0/0/%2a/l;44306;0-0;0;7137179;14464-336/35;0/0/0;;~sscs=%3f>
*October 1, 2008* (Computerworld) <http://www.computerworld.com/> Let's say
you're a young IT manager, in your 20s, 30s or even early 40s. It's not
unheard of for you to put in 10-hour workdays in front of your computer, or
some other user's.
You try to eat something at least halfway healthy when you make it to the
company cafeteria, but most days, you're crashing by 4 p.m., which means a
trip to ye olde vending machine for a Jolt or a Snickers (or both). By 6
p.m., you're sprawled out all over your desk, ergonomics be damned, still
typing furiously (and simultaneously) on your laptop and BlackBerry,
wondering if you'll ever get out the door.
Weekends mean family obligations, household chores and a few hours stolen
here and there to catch up on key projects from work. There's no time or
energy for exercise more rigorous than mowing the lawn or riding bikes with
the kids.
In your heart of hearts, you know the long days, heavy workload, poor
eating, lack of exercise and cruddy posture add up to a pretty stressful
work environment -- and that's before factoring in your boss's notoriously
short temper. But hey, you're young, you can handle it, right?
Wrong.
Fat, sore and stressed
Keep it up another 10 years, and you could be looking at a host of ailments,
from nagging aches and pains on up through serious, life-threatening
conditions, according to a host of medical experts we spoke with.
(To see just how much damage the IT lifestyle can inflict, check out
our head-to-toe
chart<http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9115418>
).
The combination of a sedentary workday and poor eating habits can lead first
and foremost to obesity, which can put your heart at risk and lead to a
litany of other diseases. According to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention's National Health and Nutrition Examination
Survey<http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/>,
in 2005-2006 the prevalence of obesity among adult men was 33.3% and 35.3%
among adult women.
Obesity, in turn, increases the risk for conditions like hypertension (high
blood pressure), Type 2 diabetes, stroke, gallbladder disease, sleep apnea,
respiratory problems, certain cancers and cardiovascular disease.
"A phenomenal amount of people die [every year] from cardiovascular
disease<http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9115340#heart>,
which is very preventable," says Susan Levin, M.S., R.D., and a staff
nutritionist at the Physicians Committee for Responsible
Medicine<http://www.pcrm.org/>,
a Washington-based nonprofit organization. Desk-bound workers are
particularly at risk, she says. "If you have risk factors -- you're male,
you're a person of increasing age, you lead a sedentary lifestyle and you're
overweight -- you need to take control."
[image: Text about this image] Your sedentary, stress-filled job wreaks
havoc inside and out.
Click to view the pain points up close and
personal.<http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9115418>
The office life is also hard on your muscles and skeleton, thanks to the
prolonged computer use that's so common among IT workers. When the body is
still, circulation slows, reducing the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the
muscles. This scenario, coupled with poor posture, can produce a
number of musculoskeletal
disorders<http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9115340#back>(MSD),
according to the National
Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health<http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/97-141/default.html>,
which manifest with pain, tingling, discomfort, numbness and swelling in the
joints and muscles. Most are temporary, but others can be permanent.
Finally, work-related stress, while motivating in manageable doses, can
grind down your health over time. Undue stress can lower your immune
defenses, increase the risk of heart disease and bring on anxiety,
depression and difficulty sleeping, according to the Mayo
Clinic<http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stress-symptoms/SR00008_D>.
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Scared yet? For more details, here's a head-to-toe look at the health
dangers lurking for the typical IT desk jockey.
Eyes
The good news is there is no evidence that staring at a computer
screen<http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/archives/id/41041>degrades your
vision permanently. But short-term symptoms are common.
According to the American Optometric Association <http://www.aoa.org/>,
people who use computers daily at work or at home could suffer from computer
vision syndrome <http://www.aoa.org/x5253.xml#3>, which leaves them
vulnerable to problems like dry eye, eyestrain, neck and backaches, light
sensitivity and fatigue. Many of these symptoms result from poor workstation
configuration and improper work habits, the AOA says.
The AOA's 2007 American Eye-Q survey <http://www.aoa.org/x9217.xml> reveals
that 41% of Americans experienced eye strain after prolonged computer or
handheld device use, while 45% cited neck or back pain. While many of these
symptoms cease once the sufferer is off the computer, some people will
continue to experience visual problems, such as blurred distance vision.
Altering viewing distance, changing the screen setup, ensuring proper
lighting and monitoring the ergonomics of the desk environment can help. But
taking frequent eye breaks is just as important. The AOA suggests practicing
the "20/20" rule -- look away from the computer every 20 minutes for 20
seconds to minimize eye-focusing problems and irritation caused by
infrequent blinking.
Mental health
Working 10-plus-hour days and maintaining a 24/7 umbilical cord to your
BlackBerry amounts to some serious overstimulation for the brain. Without
implementing a consistent exercise regimen to boost brain endorphins or
allotting the proper downtime for mental relaxation, overworked IT
professionals leave themselves vulnerable to increased stress.
During times of stress, the brain releases adrenaline and other hormones to
heighten senses and boost strength. While experts consider the normal stress
response healthy, chronic stress can harm the immune and cardiovascular
systems, and increase vulnerability to heart disease, depression,
exhaustion, sleep deprivation and overall malaise, according to the Mayo
Clinic <http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stress-symptoms/SR00008_D>.
Undue stress can also trigger anxiety, which can cause its own set of
physical and emotional symptoms, including abdominal pain, dizziness, muscle
tension and headaches, decreased concentration, irritability and sexual
problems. In an extreme form, anxiety can even increase the risk of
cardiovascular disease, MSDs, psychological disorders, even suicide and some
cancers, according to the International Labour Office's Encyclopaedia of
Occupational Safety and Health
<http://www.ilocis.org/en/default.html>(subscription required).
High levels of stress and anxiety can also provoke more minor conditions,
such as hives, contact dermatitis, heart palpitations and headaches. It can
also lead to mindless overeating, which, in turn, can lead to weight gain
and its related medical risks.
"What leads to all this disease is trying to function at [a high] level,
24/7," says Howard Waldman, M.D., Ph.D., medical director of the cardiac
catheterization lab at the North Shore Medical Center
<http://www.nsmc.partners.org/>in Salem, Mass., and co-director of the
center's Heart Center. "When your BlackBerry is buzzing and you have
constant e-mail, it's a sickness."
Posture
Much progress has been made in the past decade in addressing carpal tunnel
syndrome and other repetitive stress injuries through the use of ergonomic
keyboards and computer stands. But less focus has been given to correcting
how people sit in front of their screens all day, according to Brian McKeon,
M.D., chief medical officer for the Boston
Celtics<http://www.nba.com/celtics>and an orthopedist at the Boston
Sports & Shoulder Center <http://www.bostonssc.com/>. Poor posture, coupled
with the natural process of losing bone density and flexibility as we age,
sets up a perfect storm for a host of back, neck and shoulders problems,
such as rotator cuff disease, McKeon says.
Turn yourself around
Five easy changes for better health
now<http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9115344>
These small adjustments to your workday can add up to a happier, healthier
you.
And the increasing popularity of portable computers only compounds the
problem, because "the design of laptops violates a basic ergonomic
requirement for a computer, namely that the keyboard and screen [be]
separated," according to the Cornell University Ergonomics Web, which
recommends a host of posture-positive tips for laptop
users<http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/culaptoptips.html>.
Poor posture can lead as well to digestive problems such as indigestion and
constipation, McKeon explains, as well as pulmonary disease as lungs become
restricted, making it harder to breath. "Bad posture is something we don't
take seriously -- most people don't see surgeons for these problems, and we
just tend to neglect it," McKeon says. "If we treated posture aggressively
from the outset, shoulder, elbow and hand injuries would dramatically
decrease."
Back
Without the proper ergonomic setup, deskbound workers like IT professionals
run the risk of back and spine injuries, McKeon says. Problems can include
anything from cervical radiculopathy (a compression of the nerve roots in
the neck) and bursitis of the shoulder on down to pulled or strained
muscles, ligaments and tendons in the lower back.
Ironically, the risk of injury is actually compounded when a mostly
sedentary worker makes an attempt at exercise. "The desk jockey realizes
they've got to exercise so they do things like play tennis or do pushups,
but those don't do anything for exercising their back muscles," McKeon says.
"They set themselves up for muscle imbalances and can sometimes make things
worse."
More than 1 million people lose time from work each year due to
musculoskeletal disorders, which can be easily avoided with proper attention
to workplace ergonomics and with regular exercise that includes
back-strengthening routines, according to "Musculoskeletal Disorders and the
Workplace," <http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10032&page=1> a
report published by the National Research Council and the Institute of
Medicine of the National Academies.
Arms, hands and elbows
There's been a decrease in the past five years in carpal tunnel
syndrome<http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000433.htm#Definition>,
but there are still plenty of other prevalent repetitive stress ailments
afflicting the hands, arms and elbows as a result of prolonged computer use.
Hand and wrist
tendonitis<http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/handwristsurgery/a/wristtendonitis.htm>,
tenosynovitis<http://www.assh.org/Content/NavigationMenu/PatientsPublic/HandConditions/deQuervainsTendonitis/deQuervain_s_Tendon.htm>(also
known as DeQuervain's tendonitis) and ulnar
nerve entrapment <http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=a00069> are just
some conditions that could be in store for you if you spend too much time at
the keyboard without a proper eye to ergonomics.
The text messaging and other handheld-based activities that IT professionals
hold so dear make them more vulnerable to developing symptoms ranging from
hand throbbing and swelling to tendonitis, according to the American
Physical Therapy
Association<http://www.apta.org//AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home>'s
Occupational Health Special Interest Group. When text messaging, people tend
to tense their shoulders and upper arms, which cuts down circulation to the
forearm at the time when the consistent movements of the thumb and fingers
require increased blood flow, the APTA says. Also, because so many PDA users
are middle-aged businesspeople, overuse can inflame underlying arthritis,
further increasing the risk of injury.
There's a quality-of-work component to extremity injuries as well, according
to the musculoskeletal
report<http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10032&page=1>from the
National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine. "High job
demands and high job stress are work-related psychosocial factors that are
associated with the occurrence of upper extremity disorders," the report
notes. In other words, somewhere down the line, you're potentially going to
feel that stressful job in your hands, wrists, elbows, arms or shoulders.
To cut short that damage before it happens, check out recommendations
for a more
ergonomic workstation
setup<http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/computerworkstations/more.html>from
the Occupational Health & Safety Administration.
Heart
Nearly one in three adult males in the U.S. has some form of cardiovascular
disease (CVD), which is the single leading cause of death of American men,
according to the American Heart Association <http://www.americanheart.org/>.
Statistics published on the AHA site show that the lifetime risk of
developing cardiovascular heart disease after age 40 is 49% in men and 32%
in women. Besides heart attack, CVD can lead to other cardiac-related events
such as angina, stroke, high blood pressure and peripheral vascular disease.
While some of the risk factors that contribute to that risk for
cardiovascular disease -- such as age, sex and genetics -- are beyond an
individual's control, behaviors like smoking, exercise and diet have a
significant impact on increasing or decreasing a person's risk profile.
The first step in the battle is to know your risk factors, says the North
Shore Medical Center's Dr. Waldman. "People, by age 40 or so, should know
what their lipid profile is," he says. "Awareness sometimes ignites change,
and people may start to make better choices."
Gut
Over the years, a lifestyle of poor food choices and lack of exercise pretty
much guarantees weight gain and loss of muscle mass. And IT workers in
particular are at risk of gaining weight.
According to a May 2008 CareerBuilder.com
survey<http://www.careerbuilder.com/share/aboutus/pressreleasesdetail.aspx?id=pr434&sd=5/14/2008&ed=12/31/2008&cbRecursionCnt=1&cbsid=8d52672a181d4fe6a3e978b1082ae4fd-274542381-J6-5>of
approximately 7,700 employees, 34% of respondents who identified
themselves as IT workers said they had gained more than 10 pounds in their
current job, and 17% had packed on more than 20 pounds. While IT workers'
weight gain was less than those in financial services and government, it was
still above the average, for all workers who took the online survey, where
26% said they had gained 10 pounds and 12% had gained 20 or more.
The same survey showed that a mere 9% of all workers head out to the gym
during lunch breaks to work off those calorie-laden restaurant lunches (38%
eat out twice or more per week) or frequent snacks (66% of those surveyed
snacked once a day, with nearly 25% indulging twice a day or more).
Weight gain, particularly when around the middle, where it tends to collect
in middle age, has been directly linked to metabolic
syndrome<http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4756>,
a group of risk factors that increase propensity for heart diseases and
diabetes, among other problems. Diabetes, in turn, opens the door to a host
of other issues, including blindness, sores that don't heal and more serious
maladies. Type 2 diabetes occurs most frequently in people who are 45 or
older and overweight, according to the American Heart Association.
Have your say
Share the pain -- has your job taken a toll on your
health?<http://www.computerworld.com/comments/node/9115340>
Another unpleasant side effect of obesity, especially as it relates to
diabetes and metabolic syndrome, is testosterone deficiency, which can lead
to erectile dysfunction and lowered libido, according to reports from
endocrinologists<http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/93/5/1834>
.
Legs
If you're stuck behind a desk all day, the lack of exercise over time can
lead to loss of muscle mass, and losing muscle mass decreases a person's
ability to keep weight off, NSMC's Waldman says. "When it comes to muscle
mass, if you don't use it, you lose it," he says, "and muscle is far more
effective at metabolizing calories than fat."
Just as cardiovascular disease, brought on by poor diet and insufficient
exercise, can affect the arteries around the heart, so too can it affect
blood flow to extremities such as the legs. Office workers with a poor diet
and insufficient exercise can over time develop peripheral vascular
disease<http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4692>,
a serious condition that affects some 8 million Americans and can lead to a
heart attack, stroke or diabetes.
For healthy adults aged 18-65, about 30 minutes or more of
moderate-intensity physical activity five days of the week can protect your
heart and consequently help stave off lower-extremity diseases, according to
the latest
guidelines<http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/reprint/CIRCULATIONAHA.107.185649>(PDF)
issued jointly by the American Heart Association and the American
College of Sports Medicine.
Ch-ch-ch-changes
Age, gender and genetics are outside your control, but lifestyle and eating
habits are well within your purview to change. With a few well-chosen
modifications, which don't even need to be extreme, you can alter your
health profile.
Physicians like Waldman say it's imperative for IT workers and other
deskbound professionals to take the time to pay at least some attention to
diet and exercise and their physical workstation setup in the office.
Making small changes -- cutting back on red meat, reducing portion size or
taking regular, 10-minute exercise and stretching breaks -- can be just as
effective over time as radical changes like taking up running or abruptly
switching to a vegetarian or vegan diet. The trick, the experts say, is to
make changes that will stick. (See "Five easy changes for better
health
now"<http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9115344>for
suggestions.)
Mentally, you need to find a way to respect your body's limitations as well
as its strengths. "If you're asking a lot from your mind and body, you must
be prepared to properly nourish it too," notes Robin Foroutan, a
nutritionist and holistic health counselor certified by the Institute for
Integrated Nutrition <http://www.integrativenutrition.com/> in New York.
"That means downtime, exercise, stress release, quality time with friends
and loved ones, adequate sleep and healthy foods."
*Next: Five easy changes for better health
now<http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9115344>
*
*Beth Stackpole, a frequent *Computerworld* contributor, has reported on
business and technology for more than 20 years.*
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