Office Diseases

Do you spend most of your time in the office sitting at a table in front of a PC? Then this article is for you.

In our age, the most valuable thing is what? Correctly - information. Work with her, as you know, requires a person to move their brains, and not the body at all. What's sad.

According to the British researchers, people with sedentary work age an average of ten years earlier than their more active peers. While American scientists have proved that sitting (while working at a computer, talking on the phone, watching TV, reading) not only leads to a set of excess weight, but also to metabolic and other shifts in the body. First of all, the vessels, eyes and spine suffer.


So, we'll figure out which organs and systems are most often at sight in hypodynamia, the "daughter" of a sedentary lifestyle. And how to get rid of these problems.


1. Cardiovascular system


To make sure that work at the computer threatens you personally with problems with the heart, it is enough to conduct a small test. Distract for a moment from the monitor and notice how you are sitting at the table. Shoulders slightly raised? Is the neck and occipital muscles tense? Is the head tilted forward or sideways?

This pose, especially if you are in it for a long time, leads to stagnation in the system of vertebral arteries and disruption of the blood supply to the brain. This causes headaches, memory decreases, fatigue and pressure increase. And also cardialgia (pain in the heart) and arrhythmia (cardiac rhythm disturbances) can develop - due to prolonged compression of the intercostal nerves.

What to do?

First of all, often change the pose and control muscle tension, that is not to strain. Install a reminder on your computer and, say, every 10-15 minutes, check how you are sitting: whether the back is strained, whether the shoulders are raised, whether the hand is fatigued, etc.

If you feel that you are tense, move on the chair, shake your hands, squeeze-unclench your fingers, just shrug your shoulders. By the way, this exercise helps to relieve tension from the shoulder girdle, activates the blood flow in the vertebral arteries, stimulates the nerve plexuses located in the nape of the neck.


2. Sight. Dry eye syndrome


Ophthalmologists call this syndrome - "office". His symptoms are redness, dryness, a feeling of sand in his eyes. It is due to a long stay in the room, where there are computers and air conditioners. If the disease starts and does not go to the doctor on time, you can go to the operating table.

What to do?

Bear in mind that an artificial image on a monitor is a poor-quality image. His eyes are perceived as their own shortcoming, which they try to correct and therefore they are always straining. To unload them, after every 45 minutes of work it is advisable to take a break of 10 minutes.

Perfectly help relieve stress exercises for training eye muscles (each repeat 5 times, 1-2 sessions per day)

1. Move your eyes to the distance, then to yourself on the nose.

2. Look up and down, right-left.

3. Close your eyes and gently press on the eyeballs. Pressed - let go (this improves blood circulation).

4. Close your eyes and open your eyes.

5. Make circular motions clockwise and counter-clockwise.


3. Wrist canal. Syndrome of computer mouse


This syndrome is also called "tunnel" syndrome. It arises because of the constant stress on the median nerve, in people who work long hours at the PC. His symptoms are numbness of one of the fingers, convulsions. Earlier, 80% of patients got rid of the syndrome only after the operation to dissect the transverse ligament of the wrist.

What to do?

Kiev reflexologist Irina Bartosh advises to fight the disease of a computer mouse in a non-surgical way. Namely - massage. Near the elbow, at the point of attachment of the muscle, feel for a small seal (usually 1.5-2 cm from the elbow joint) of the forearm and start massaging. In this case, you feel a numbness in the fingers of the kneaded hand. If this does not help, then the problem is long-standing and you need to contact a specialist who will solve the problem by pricking. From a prick the muscle relaxes, as with a spasm.


4. The digestive system. Gastritis and stomach ulcer


The stomach of an office man has three main enemies - food for dryness, substandard coffee from the machine and stress. By the way, chronic nervous tension is the cause of many psychosomatic diseases, including stomach and duodenal ulcers. Not less often for these reasons, functional disorders of other digestive organs develop: biliary tract dyskinesia, pancreatic reactive processes, intestinal colitis.

What to do?

First of all - rational nutrition! To make an optimal menu, you can contact a nutritionist. If the digestive organs are already "pumping up" - to get rid of permanent pain in the abdomen is finally possible only after sanation (recovery) of all foci of chronic infection: eliminating sore throats, curing carious teeth, etc. With severe pain, gastroenterologists are advised to undergo comprehensive diagnosis and treatment.


5. Hemorrhoids


Proctologists assure that about 70% of people sooner or later face this problem. And those who are forced to sit for a long time - even more so. Hemorrhoids are a real scourge of office workers.

What to do?

It is a misconception that you can get rid of the disease with the help of conservative treatment: candles, capsules, vein-toning drugs, etc. As the surgeon-coloproctologist Sergei Radolitsky explains, these remedies can not cure hemorrhoids, but only reduce symptoms, reduce exacerbation and his duration. The only effective way is to remove the hemorrhoids. This can be done in a traditional way, that is, with a scalpel or with more modern minimally invasive methods: by cryodestruction (freezing) or by the application of latex rings.


6. Inflammation of the pelvic organs


Sitting work, along with driving a car and a long sexual abstinence causes stagnation of blood in a small pelvis. This often leads to inflammatory diseases of the female and male sexual sphere and other organs of the small pelvis.

What to do?

Find time for the gym, swimming pool, morning jogging and gymnastics. Every six months you have a screening examination with an andrologist (gynecologist). It includes bacterial culture, analysis for the presence of pathogenic microflora, in particular PCR viruses (polymerase chain reaction), a cytomorphological analysis of scraping from the urethra. Examination with ultrasound and endoscopic methods. Also, if pain in the pelvic area worries, go to the neuropathologist and proctologist for an examination.


7. Chronic fatigue syndrome


Until recently, CSUs were not taken seriously. But today it takes epidemic proportions. And the palm of excellence on morbidity here is held by office workers. And two thirds of them are women who complain of exhaustion after minimal effort, constant pain in the joints and muscles, a strong weakness. Scientists have not been able to find the reason for CFS. It is believed that this is a disease of the immune and nervous systems.

What to do?

To begin with, maybe you have a deficiency of iodine in the body? Before going to bed on your stomach or anywhere else, draw a light iodine mesh, if by morning it disappears - iodine is not enough. Means, it is necessary подналечь on seafood, milk, yogurt, eggs and bean.

Good methods of combating fatigue are methods of alternative medicine, such as acupuncture, hirudotherapy (leeches), phytopreparations. Excellent means - aromatherapy. Help improve the performance of citrus aromas: lemon, mandarin, grapefruit. A bath with a few drops of basil or lavender oil - relax and fully rest.


8. Sensitivity to electromagnetic fields


Monitors, telephones and other office equipment - a powerful source of electromagnetic radiation. People sensitive to his influence usually complain of skin irritation, fatigue and migraine. At the same time, they often do not even guess the reason for their ill health.

What to do?

Observe the distance. Optimum, if the "ropes" of wires, mini-ATS, printer, etc., electrical appliances will be from you at a distance not less than 1-1,5 m. And all instruments, including your PC, must be grounded. It is better to use ordinary phones with cable - radiotelephones can cause strong high-frequency fields and especially harmful pulsating fields.


9. Scoliosis and osteochondrosis


Those who are forced to sit for a long time in the workplace are familiar with aching back pain, numbness in the neck and other unpleasant symptoms. From this, the curvature of the spine may appear (or develop further), the salts are deposited, the back begins to ache. According to doctors, most people over 30 years old have cracks in the intervertebral disc.

What to do?

If there is no time for the gym, you can independently do isometric gymnastics. It is based on a strong short-term strain of muscles without stretching them.


Exercises for cervical osteochondrosis:

- Standing against the wall, press it on the back of the head for 3-5 seconds, then relax the muscles;

- sitting at the table, lean your chin on the arms bent in the elbows, press on them, trying at the same time to tilt your head or turn it to the side.

Do not make more than 4-5 stresses in one session.


In chest osteochondrosis:

- sitting on a chair, press the shoulder blades and waist into the back;

- Holding on to the seat, try to lift yourself with a chair;

- sitting, put your elbows on the table and press on it;

- standing, touching the back of the wall, alternately press on her buttocks, waist, shoulder blades.


With lumbar osteochondrosis:

- lying on a level surface with knees bent at the knees, press on her loins;

- a more complex version of this exercise: during pressure by the waist on the surface, "pinch" the muscles of the buttocks and perineum.

In case of aggravation, the duration of the stresses should not exceed 2-3 seconds. Then you can increase it to 5-7 seconds.


10. Varicosity, Thrombosis


More than office workers, they risk provoking varicose veins only couriers, whose legs are fed. But when sitting, the veins do not suffer from overload, but from the clamp. Phlebologists warn that sitting "leg on leg" is a direct way to varicose veins and thrombosis. The latter, as is known, is dangerous because the blood clots formed in deep veins can migrate to any organ of the body - the heart, lungs, brain. What is fraught with a heart attack, stroke or sudden death.

What to do?

In case of varicose veins, if a friable venous network appears on the legs, sclerotherapy helps to stop the disease and return the aesthetic appearance to the feet. During this procedure, the medicine is injected into small venous vessels and sclerosing them. As a result, the blood flow over them stops, and eventually they "resolve".

When thrombosis, domestic doctors successfully use the KV-filter - the invention and products of the Kiev medical center "Endomed" - nothing more than a trap for blood clots. If the risk of thromboembolism is high, the patient is given a permanent or temporary (during the operation) KV-filter. It is introduced through a catheter into the main vessel, and opens there like an umbrella. In the event of a sudden separation of the floating thrombus, the filter retains it, not allowing it to advance to the pulmonary artery.