Poor computer posture may cause raised blood pressure!

Just stumbled upon a New Scientist article from a couple of years ago (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12457-bad-posture-could-raise-your-blood-pressure.html) that reports on some research in mice suggesting that there’s a link between neck muscle activity and blood pressure and even heart rate.

Not had chance yet to follow this up to see if there’s more detailed research been published, but if there’s anything to it it’s certainly interesting.  As the researcher says, “The pathway exists for bad posture to really have an effect.” 

And you thought it was just Windows driving your blood pressure through the ceiling!

Dr Phil

Free PostureMinders for UK and US schools

Prolonged computer use can have a negative impact on children’s posture and health.  This is particularly the case if they use laptops or netbooks that encourage users to hunch over their keyboards.

A survey last year by the British Chiropractic Association found that 45% of 11-18 year old UK schoolchildren had suffered from back pain in the last year.
Disturbingly, this figure jumped from 29% in a similar survey in 2002.  The only thing that can account for this rise is the increase in computer usage amongst kids, due largely to the explosion in social networking.

For the first time the BCA also surveyed 6-7 year olds – 32% said they’d experienced back pain.  I’m sure similar surveys in California would show similarly worrying trends.

Back pain and other computer-related health problems cause misery.  Back pain is estimated to cost the US economy over $100bn per year, while as long ago as 1995 the UK Health and Safety Executive estimated the direct costs to UK businesses at £5.7bn.  Back pain also restricts individuals’ ability to work, and their motivation to keep fit and active.

For the last 5 years I have been developing award-winning software, called PostureMinder, to help computer users improve their posture and adopt healthy computer habits.

PostureMinder Ltd is currently preparing a major initiative to offer our award-winning software free to UK and US schools to encourage good posture habits from an early age. This blog post is advance notice of our plans in this direction.

If you’re a parent, teacher or politician and are concerned about protecting the health and well-being of schoolchildren in your charge, please contact education@postureminder.co.uk for details of our schools initiative.

Let’s work together to help kids grow up with good posture and pain free!

Dr Phil

World Spine Day – Frightening new stats, and concern for our children’s future

A survey released by The British Chiropractic Association (BCA) on 16th October 2008 (World Spine Day) showed the scale of back pain, and particularly childhood back pain, in the UK.

Previous academic studies, notably by the University of Edinburgh of 4000 11-15 year old Scottish schoolchildren, have shown that plenty of our children are starting to suffer pain from an early age, and also found a clear link between the level of computer usage and the risk of suffering problems.  They reported 15% of regular computer users and gamers suffer frequent backache, and 40% suffer neck or shoulder pain.

Those figures are bad enough, but the BCA’s finding that 32% of 6-7 year olds report suffering back pain is frightening, which is why it’s been reported in major UK newspapers (The Telegraph, Daily Mail and Daily Express).

45% report suffering some back pain by the time they reach 11 years old, up from 29% amongst 11-18 year olds in 2002.

The sources of this enormous increase include increasingly sedentary lifestyles, more time spent on computers or playing games, and the ongoing problem of carrying heavy bags to school.

The survey comes at a time when average computer use in the UK is reported to have risen by 400% since the early 2000s, presumably as a result of changing work patterns, more computers in schools, and the growth of broadband access.

Interestingly, I found an article the other day (sorry, can’t find the link just now – should have bookmarked it at the time) in which the UK Schools Minister admitted that, despite the billions of pounds being spent on re-building British schools, the majority of school IT classrooms are equipped with furniture that would be illegal in the workplace!

Alright, so kids typically don’t spend hours in front of the computer at school, and are normally made to take a break by lesson changes – but even so, this isn’t exactly joined up thinking. If you don’t encourage children to sit properly at their school computers, what chance is there of them doing so at home?

We have to start taking children’s posture seriously, otherwise we’re going to end up with a population that’s suffering near continuous pain, with huge numbers being unable to do their jobs – not to mention vast treatment costs and compensation claims.

Check back on the blog soon – we’re planning a major announcement on the education front to enable schools to benefit from using PostureMinder to encourage better posture in the classroom. In the meantime, if you’re a teacher, headteacher or concerned parent, please get in touch with your thoughts.

Dr Phil

Professor Dame Carol Black’s review of UK workplace health and well-being

Prevention is always better than cure!

Dame Carol Black’s review of work and health is all over the news in the UK today (17th March 2008). It shows that ill-health is costing the UK economy a whopping £103 billion per year.

The media is really focusing on the huge costs of incapacity benefits, which isn’t surprising – over half of the £103bn figure is spent on long-term incapacity benefits. However, over £13billion is down to the direct costs of sickness absences, and the HSE has previously suggested that the overall costs of sickness absence are typically 2-3 times that figure, or up to £40billion.

At a time when we seem to be heading for recession, can companies afford to be incurring these costs? Are they just an inevitable consequence of doing business?

The big variations in absence rates between different organisations (generally public sector has more absences than private, small companies have lower absences than large) suggest not – there are things that organisations can do, and these things typically pay for themselves several times over.

Dame Carol’s review highlights the need to detect problems early and take action in order to reduce these costs, and proposes a huge expansion of occupational health services such as physiotherapy and stress counselling.

Early interventions like this show massive returns on investment, but nowhere near as great as taking cost-effective preventative action in the first place.

At PostureMinder, our concern is for computer workers’ health.

Although computer jobs clearly aren’t as dangerous as deep sea fishing or working on an oil rig, it does carry risks. The sheer number of computer workers means even low sickness absence rates will contribute hugely to the figures found in Dame Carol’s review.

Not only that, for evey person who takes time off with a back, neck or shoulder problem or RSI, headaches or eye fatigue, the HSE suggests there are up to 15 who suffer in silence.

If you’ve ever suffered back pain through hunching over your keyboard, or found yourself stressed and headachy from working too long without a break, you’ll be aware that the hidden costs of underperformance due to these low-level health issues dwarf even the huge figures in Dame Carol’s review.

The proven solution to minimise these problems is incredibly simple – sit in a good posture at your computer, and take regular short breaks. Easy, right?

If you look around your office, how many people do you see following this simple advice? If your office is like most, it’ll be almost no-one!

That’s why we invented our award-winning well-being and productivity software – PostureMinder – to help computer users to help themselves. It gives you a friendly nudge in the right direction whenever you sit badly or forget to take a break, without trying to force the matter and raise your stress levels in the process! This is great for helping you get over an episode of back pain, and even better for preventing them in the first place.

PostureMinder is an essential tool to help people feel better while they work, and protect their health for the future.

With computer-related musculoskeletal disorders on the increase as more people use computers from an earlier age than ever, it’s never been more important for employers to take preventative action.

Phil