5 health issues, every over 40 computer user should be aware of!

By the time you are 40 years of age, your body has undergone and is undergoing fair amount of wear and tear. So, it makes you that much more vulnerable to any occupational hazard. If you have a career in computers, you might want to know what possible problems could crop up and what you could do to prevent their occurrence.

Here are five of the most common problems, which a PC user may face:

1) Eye Strain

Cause: Staring at the monitor glare  and  the writing on it continuously for hours , day in day out, puts a strain on the eyes. The eye lens and the eye muscles stay locked in the same position for a long time and thereby, get strained. They subsequently weaken and are unable to perform the contraction and relaxation to the required extent, which is  needed to adjust the eye lens in order to view an object at a close distance or faraway. Vision thus, gets impaired.

Symptoms: Headache, pain in the eyes, watering of the eyes.

Remedy: Glasses.

Prevention:

• Keep monitor at a distance of two feet
• Take frequent breaks and focus at an object far away. This will release the eye lens and muscles from their locked positions, and prevent strain.
• Keep cotton soaked in raw (unboiled) milk over the eyes before going to bed at night. Squeeze them a bit to prevent dripping. Let them be overnight. Do this atleast once a week
• Rub your palms till they feel warm and place them over the eyes till the warmth is felt over the eyes. Rotate eyes gradually clockwise  a couple of times and then similarly anticlockwise. Repeat 2 to 3 times a day. This will exercise the eye muscles and strengthen them.
• Take Vitamins A and C regularly through natural sources like fruits and vegetables, meat and fish.
• Use protective tinted eye glasses to protect your eyes from the monitor glare
• Force yourself to relax your eyes using Eyes Relax.

2) Cervical Spondylosis and Lumbar Spondylosis

Cause: Although you might be aware that proper posture is important, you tend to forget this when you are sitting in front of the computer for hours, everyday. You do not hold your neck in that neutral position and you do not sit upright, as a result of which, you tend to shift into a more comfortable position of slouching or leaning back. The muscles of the neck and back then are held in this unwanted position, over long periods, everyday. They get strained and subsequently weaken over time. As a result, they are not able to perform their function of holding the vertebrae (bones of the vertebral column) upright as they should. A particular vertebra slips and the space between the two adjacent vertebrae is reduced. There is pressure on the inter-vertebral disc which is present between two vertebrae. It starts getting eroded over time and the nerves coming out through the inter-vertebral space get pressed by the vertebra which has slipped. Symptoms appear and this can be crippling if not managed on time.

Symptoms: Cervical Spondylosis –  Pain in neck and shoulder/s, Headache, Tingling and numbness in one or both hands, Stiffness of neck and shoulder muscles. Lumbar Spondylosis –  Low Back pain, Tingling and Numbness in one or both the Lower Limbs, inability to bend and stand or sit for a long time due to pain. In advanced stages, there is sharp shooting pin in the lower limb/s.

Remedy: Your Physician may advise you rest till the pain disappears. This could be followed by a lifelong regimen of neck or back strengthening. Proper posture will become mandatory and he may advise you to wear the lumbo sacral belt while sitting at your work station to prevent you from slipping into that improper posture. In advanced cases, traction becomes necessary and a cervical collar or a lumbo sacral belt (as the case maybe) has to be worn at all times. In severe cases, surgical intervention becomes necessary. See how to sit in front of computer.

Prevention: Keep monitor at eye level, Maintain a proper posture of the neck and the back, exercise daily, specially  to keep the back and neck muscles strong. Yoga exercises will be very helpful.