The office job seems more comfortable, preferable, prestigious and modern, but sitting job as to the specialists is far from being safe. Today lots of people spend most of the day sitting at computer, but keep in mind that this kind of job and, generally, static state is harmful to health and causes various deflections of musculoskeletal system. Modern furniture is constructed trying to minimize the danger of such problems, but not all companies can afford to purchase latest achievements of ergometry. We have to put up with existing versions or at least follow advice of specialists. We suggest some advice and explanations on this matter by manual physiotherapist academician Gagik Karapetyan.
- ninety percent of our children have walk deflections
- Spinal cord diseases more frequently appear with people leading a sitting way of life than with people engaged in hard physical work. The statistical data collected in different countries prove that both states are dangerous for health. – says the academician.For people of different ages and constitution there are ergo metric norms of furniture construction, the importance of following them is actual not only for a person, but also for the genetic fund of the nation. It is rather difficult to work with stretched arms, and those who use this pose at work in great amount usually suffer from neck and chest osteochondrosis. A long term strain of neck muscles, back and arms causes blood circulation disruption. A muscle is healthy when its contractions and relaxations take place regularly.
People turn to me when the contracted muscle does not relax and appears such hypostatic state(stable contraction) that spinal muscle strains and extracts the vertebrae from its place causing partial joint dislocation and a sharp pain. At neck osteochondrosis a patient suffers from a pressing, sometimes burning pain in the area of back and side occiput, limited motion, headache, deflection of hearing and eyesight, blood pressure rise is possible, sore throat, respiratory disorders, antritis, frontal sinusitis, even caries, and hair loss. .
There are about sixty symptoms occurring due to static state and loins limited motion. They sometimes are of professional origin, for example: violinists, hairdressers, dentists, massagers, cooks, and computer users. Osteochondrosis is often accompanied by spondilozis, radiculitis and accumulation of salt.
People who during work in front of a computer have to face the screen often turn to me for advice. It is very important to keep the head and occiput perpendicularly to the shoulders. At work you should not bend forward. The mouse should be kept near the keyboard, not to deflect a straight pose. The height of the chair should be proper for the knees to bend up to 90 degrees, the heels entirely lean against the floor. It is necessary to choose such a chair that the back of it would have a bend backward and would support the waist at rest “embrace’.
To unload the spinal cord the back and arms should have a point of support. The torso should be kept at the distance of a stretched hand. Try to avoid crossing legs which brings to additional strain and makes difficult the blood circulation While working in front of the computer it is necessary to stand up every 30-40 minutes, walk, massage with hand the strained muscles, do exercises to stretch the back and neck. For instance, facing the wall stretch up, extend the feet or lean you back against the wall, fix that position for one minute, then get out of that state. A human cannot do the same thing for a long time. The muscles demand not routine but various exercise.
People dealing with agriculture, weeding out or working from morning till night at home ask me if it is an exercise. Exactly, no, because in everyday life they do a routine and repeated work. For instance, while doing exercises and swimming a lot of muscles are involved in work, but psychology is also very important. You concentrate and realize that exercises are very useful.
People who have a habit of speaking on the phone pressing the receiver by the shoulder to the ear and doing some housework develop “a telephone syndrome”. It is very dangerous as it brings to neck distortion, which will further require serious treatment. In major cases like this are aided by healing massage and manual therapy. In Japan to increase the work effectiveness and maintain the health of population, they have created a massage method called “AMMA”, it has been spread over all offices the employees of which work in static regime. The equipment looks like a bicycle: forehead has a support point, body is relaxed, the massage lasts 5-7 minutes(it consists of u-shu and shia-tsu elements), after which the whole muscle system recovers.
The Japanese system of Health Care, alas, is impossible to localize in Armenia. Huge amount of money should be involved, and also it refers to moral-psychological “uselessness” of our nation.
Almost no arrangements are held in our country to improve a correct body carriage, healthy lifestyle and healthy genetic fund. We cannot raise intelligence in the first place, and then submit demands. Just hold on at any university or school, you will see that ninety percent of children have this or that deflections of body carriage and musculoskeletal system. A kyphotic walk seems to have come into fashion. You feel pangs of conscience when you see our children walk and generally our people.
There are, of course, gyms, sporting clubs in our city, but one should not forget that the exercise system for every human should be personal, referring to his age, physical state and health,
Nowadays gyms grow as quickly as mushrooms, where all people are pushed in one gym and are offered the same system of exercises with equal loading. People leave such places with various problems and a new group of ‘confused’ people come in their place. A human is lazy by nature, and when I give assignments to my patients I expect them to fulfill them up to 20-30%. Yet, on the basis of my observations I can say that women are more responsible than men at 10-15 percent. Every person must possess the art of body control and know his organism. People say : your shirt is close to your body – a person must take care of his health to be of use first to himself and his family, and to the public. It’s the right place to say: “Only health is not everything, and everything without health is nothing.”
Arranged by Armine Sargsyan “Իրատես de facto”, թիվ 12 (222), 28.09-30.09.2010թ.