Computer Ergonomics

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

Dr. Jones
(619) 280-0554 San Diego
Economical Adjustable Mouse Platform

San Diego Chiropractic

Pain Relief San Diego Chiropractor

Ergonomic Forum Ergonomic Mouse Pad

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

Dr. Jones

Dr. JonesEconomical Adjustable Mouse Platform
San Diego Chiropractic
Pain Relief San Diego Chiropractor