How to Prevent Back Pain

• Remain active—under the supervision of your doctor of chiropractic. Avoid prolonged inactivity or bed rest.
  • Exercise regularly. An inactive lifestyle contributes to lower-back pain
• Warm up or stretch before exercising or other physical activities, such as gardening.
• If you must sit for long periods, take frequent breaks and stretch.
• Don’t lift by bending over. Instead, bend your hips and knees and then squat to pick up the object. Keep your back straight, and hold the object close to your body.
• Don’t twist your body while lifting.
• Push, rather than pull, when you must move heavy objects.
• Wear flat shoes or shoes with low heels.
• Maintain a healthy diet and weight.
• Maintain proper posture.
• Sleep on a mattress of medium firmness to minimize any curve in your spine.
• Quit smoking. Smoking impairs blood flow, resulting in oxygen and nutrient deprivation to spinal tissues.
• Consult your doctor of chiropractic to ensure that your workstation is ergonomically correct.
• Drink plenty of water every day to help hydrate the spine.

Wellness for Free: Website and App Review

Most of us don’t have the resources or the time to work with personal trainers or nutrition experts to get us eating right, shaping up, and losing weight. We do, however, have the Internet—an incredible resource for finding free expert resources specific to our personal needs, including online tools that make healthier living easier to accomplish (including apps that can be downloaded to smartphones).

Food and Nutrition

NutritionData.com

Although this website is affiliated with Self magazine, its information is equally valuable to men and women. This website talks about nutrients in the food we eat and which foods have the highest nutritional value. Tested recipes help achieve nutritional goals. The database (largely sourced from the USDA’s National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference) has information on thousands of foods.

Other key features are a nutrition blog and plenty of online tools that compare the nutritional value of foods, search for foods with specific nutrients, and establish dietary goals. The daily-needs calculator is handy for determining individual daily nutrition and calorie needs.

Epicurious.com

Epicurious is about food, recipes, and menu planning. Affiliated with Bon Appétitmagazine, it advertises itself as a website for “people who love to eat.” Recipes are usually creative and challenging—but not necessarily time-consuming. Check out the “quick-and-easy” options.

Links go from the most basic “how to cook” to “around the world in 80 dishes.” Recipe guides come with instructional videos.

WHFoods.com

World’s Healthiest Foods is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to sharing a vast database of science-based nutritional information on fruits and vegetables. Other features include links to the 127 healthiest foods, essential nutrients, recipe of the week, food of the week, in-home cooking demo, and a seven-day menu plan for renewed vigor and energy.

The food advisor questionnaire is a helpful tool that analyzes personal nutritional status, identifies nutritional deficiencies, and recommends healthy foods and recipes. Four-day meal planners for people with specific health conditions are also available.

Food-Related Search

WhatsOnMyFood.org

Created by the Pesticide Action Network, this website provides data on pesticide residues typically found on conventional foods. Searches can be performed according to food or pesticide. Clicking on a food type reveals the most common pesticide residues for that food, according to the USDA Pesticide Data Program, as well as probable routes of exposure, human health effects, and environmental impacts. Links are also provided for relevant journal articles.

A free iPhone app provides a searchable database that links pesticide food residue data with the toxicology for each chemical, providing an easy-to-search format. Pesticide levels can also be compared between organic and conventional foods.

Calorie-Counting

Calorific Noom.com/products/#calorific

This program is anti-calorie counting, which it points out is time-consuming. Instead, foods are classified by color to help users recognize eating habits. Healthy foods are coded green, moderately health foods are yellow, and unhealthy foods are red—a salad would be green and a candy bar would be red.

Calorific calculates a star rating for your eating as the day progresses, providing real-time feedback on the quality of your meals in the form of a three-color pie chart. The “default” goal is 50 percent green, 35 percent yellow, and 15 percent red. Users report the pie chart is an easy and effective way to show eating trends. Calorific can also track water consumption during the day. The drawback of the program for detail-oriented people is the lack of precise food data.

Eatery.massivehealth.com

The Eatery is even less detail-oriented and fact-based than Calorific—instead of colored pie charts, the Eatery approach consists of  taking a photo of your meal, uploading it, and waiting for crowdsource responses on how healthy it is, rating the meal on a scale from fit to fat. Also, when new photos are added to your feed, you can comment on other users’ meal photos.

Although Eatery users find this method motivational and enjoy the social interaction, crowdsource feedback is probably not that accurate and The Eatery does not provide a nutrition database. Even so, users can quickly scan photos of their meals to identify unhealthy eating trends.

Weightwatchers.com

Weight Watchers is well known as an effective way to lose weight. Its mobile app, however, provides just a few basic services, such as a point system for tracking food, success stories, and featured recipes. Each food consumed during the day is given a point value. The objective is to stay within a certain point total for the day.

To go beyond these minimal functions and tap into more useful tools (such as a searchable database of more than 30,000 foods), users must pay a monthly fee to Weight Watchers Online. Plenty of free apps provide these tools for free.  

Myfitnesspal.com

This website/smartphone app makes counting calories easy. The core of the program is a comprehensive database on more than 2.3 million foods and restaurant items, along with an easy-to-use food journal. Users can add foods at any time, including their own recipes. A built-in application uses a smartphone’s camera as a barcode scanner to read UPC codes on food items and access the related information from the database.

Discussion forums allow users to connect with each other, share goals and experiences, and make new friends around the world. This can result in surprisingly strong bonds as individuals provide support and follow each other’s progress.

Fitness and Training

Stepforwrd.com

Joining Step Forward provides access to online tools that track fitness activities, medications and supplements, sleep, and water intake. The site is continuing to build its food database and encourages users to make suggestions. The limited food database can be frustrating, however—for example, there was no listing for string cheese at the time of this writing. For the typical American, the site is probably useful. However, if you are an informed consumer, or eat specialty foods or follow a restricted diet, this website will likely be inadequate for your needs.

Also, for the sleep function, hours cannot be logged in half-hour increments; this makes sleep totals inaccurate, especially for weekly or monthly totals.

Americaonthemove.org

This site provides web-based programs, tools, and resources for individuals, families, groups, and communities, including informative articles and blogs. Food and exercise can be tracked, although entering data can be cumbersome. Many of the tools are fact sheets with basic information. The site’s interactive tools don’t go much beyond step trackers.

Unfortunately, this is a boring site. It is certainly well-intentioned for improving eating and exercise habits, and provides solid information; however, the site lacks creativity and visual stimulation and tends to be slow. In its present state, it can’t compete with what already exists.

Endomondo.com

This smartphone app will track your running, cycling, or other physical activities. It’s easy to calculate your route on a map and monitor key metrics such as distance, time, speed, average speed, altitude, and heart rate. Voice alerts can also be programmed to announce performance milestones or reminders. Other Endomondo users can also give words of encouragement during your run. Users can take a previous workout as a goal and access the audio coach to help them beat it.

On the downside, online reviews say you can’t control the playlist while listening to your iPod.

SportyPal.com

SportyPal is a mapping tool that tracks route, position, speed, distance, elevation, and calories expended. Performance stats can also be generated on maps and graphs, including total time, distance, and maximum speed. Users can still listen to music, make or receive phone calls, or send and receive messages on their smartphones while using the application. A community feature allows users to post results, follow other members, and get new workout ideas.

Cyclists have noted that SportyPal consumes too much battery power on longer rides, sometimes necessitating shutting down the program in order to maintain phone capability. Incoming phone calls and texts may also interfere with tracking. Some users have also recently reported pop-up ads that clutter their screen.

CardioTrainer Noom.com/products/#cardiotrainer

CardioTrainer allows you to track all your indoor and outdoor fitness activity. Functions include counting calories burned, plotting your course, counting steps, and monitoring heart rate. The program will automatically pause when you stop moving. Voice feedback provides real-time information on distance, time, pace, and calories burned. It’s easy to post your numbers and compare your results with other users around the world.

For a fee of $2.99 each, other functions can be added, such as setting up a weight-loss plan or a program for competing against your best times. Although CardioTrainer has received generally solid reviews online, a number of complaints have been made about GPS and audio/music malfunctions.

FitWatch.com

This site enables users to track their fitness and nutrition programs. Members start by opening a calorie tracker account, reviewing the plentiful articles and videos, and designing a personal weight-loss or fitness program. Online tools for calorie deficit, weight-loss target date, body fat percentage, body mass index, basal metabolic rate, and calories burned help determine baseline numbers for tracking progress. Blog entries are well written.

A body-building and weight-training section provides access to training, nutrition, and cardiovascular fitness materials by experts such as Holly Rigsby and Tom Venuto. Titles include “Ten Ways to Exercise at Home with No Equipment.”

Fitness.com

This “global fitness community” offers a vast selection of exercises, articles, and recipes. Many of the everyday exercises can be done around the house without special equipment. Detailed instructions and pictures are provided for each exercise step, making it easy to create customized workout programs.

Other features include sample recipes and exercise videos. In addition to the standard calculators for body mass index and basal metabolic rate, online tools include a five-minute fitness test, 12-minute run test, hidden carb finder, and Greek proportions—which determines your ideal physical measurements based on the ancient Golden Ratio.

RunKeeper.com

Serious runners use RunKeeper to chart routes and monitor and track their running activities and metrics, including speed and distance progress over time. These data can be stored and analyzed to improve workouts and establish new goals. The program utilizes the GPS function in smartphones to provide accurate data regarding pace, distance, time, and calories burned.

Built-in audio cues through the headphones provide stats, updates, and coaching during runs. Weight can also be updated to keep “calories burned” as accurate as possible. Detailed reports showing trends in key metrics during individual runs as well as over time can be accessed. RunKeeper is also a good app for walking, hiking, and biking.

Medicine and Health

EverydayHealth.com

This website has an abundance of information. “Health A-Z” and “Drugs A-Z” are loaded with links that connect readers with articles, recipes, and other key sources of information. Other sections of the website are a symptom checker, food and fitness advice, and groups with live discussions.

Online tools include a recipe box, meal planner, pollen counter, and calculators for body mass index and body fat. There are plenty of free apps too, such as tracking health conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

MedHelp.org

A stroll through this website, which calls itself “the world’s largest health community,” reveals a wealth of articles, advice, forums and discussion groups, and success stories regarding healthy living. Healthy living groups focus on male health, female health, nutrition, parenting, pregnancy, senior care, and weight loss.

If you are looking for health-related smartphone apps, this is the place to start. Nearly 100 applications are available—these include a drug-interaction checker and trackers for food, weight, mood, sleep, ovulation, exercise, and pain.

RealAge.com

“Are you younger than you think?” is the key question asked on this website, which showcases a unique test for calculating apparent “health age.” Physicians Mike Roizen and Mehmet Oz helped develop the test, which is a quick calculation of how old or young your body appears to be. Key data required include family/genetic history, lifestyle, medical history, medications and vitamins, sexual activity, and attitude toward life.

Blogs, articles, videos, support groups, health-condition tests, and action plans for wellness, diet, and fitness are also available. The “new and trending” category presents high-value information, such as a video demonstrating five effective exercises for pain. After taking the real-age test and consulting these other resources, users can create a customized action plan to improve their health and lower their apparent age.

WebMD.com/fitness-exercise

In addition to in-depth materials on a wide variety of health topics, this popular website provides a wealth of valuable information on healthy living, nutrition, food, and recipes. For example, the online “food and fitness planner” tool helps users customize a health plan, record diet and fitness activities, and track results.

Other tools and applications provide nutrition facts, assess diet, and calculate body mass index. The unique portion-size plate tool shows size equivalents for more than 70 common foods to help manage serving sizes. Smartphone applications for drug data andWebMD magazine are also available.

Tapping in to Community

SocialWorkout.com

One way to make exercise fun and more challenging is to create some friendly competition. SocialWorkout achieves this through “social goal-setting for big groups and brave individuals.” Members create a personal homepage, establish health goals, and start working toward meeting those goals. Progress can be tracked and shared with other members. The website has hundreds of goals to choose from—or you can create your own. At the time of this writing 38, 236 people were “crushing” 779 goals.

SocialWorkout also urges members to participate in group challenges, where group members provide encouragement and advice. Some current group challenges are “40 Days of Yoga Life,” “Sleeping Seven Hours a Day,” and “1,000 Minutes of Cardio in 30 Days.” Individual results can be updated on the challenge homepage leaderboard.

SparkPeople.com

The mission of this website is to “spark millions of people to reach their goals and lead healthier lives.” The site is loaded with resources on nutrition, fitness, wellness, and motivation, including food trackers, personalized meal plans, customized fitness plans, a point-based motivation program, message boards, articles, and recipes.

“SparkTeams” are groups of people who share common goals and interests and provide support and encouragement. Teams are started by members with specific interests. For example, “Taming Your Sweet Tooth” and the “Eight-Week Diabetes Weight Loss Challenge” are two current teams. Each team has its own message board forum for sharing tips and providing support.

Fitocracy.com

For those who are motivated by racking up points and advancing to new levels, Fitocracy is the perfect site. Its mission is to “make fitness a more fun, more addictive experience. Play Fitocracy to beat challenges, push your boundaries, and show your friends who is boss.”

“Players” start at Level 1 and are rewarded with points for each workout. Typical “Fitocrats” are motivated to beat their previous point levels each time they work out to attain the next level as quickly as possible. Online tools are available for recording results and tracking progress. Achievement badges are awarded when certain milestones are reached. Members often join groups and forums to share tips and inspire each other to reach their goals.

For more information on prevention and wellness, or to find a doctor of chiropractic near you, go to the Patient Information section on ACA’s Web site at www.acatoday.org or call 800-986-4636.

Written by Mark Crawford and published in the January/February 2013 issue of JACA Online, published by the American Chiropractic Association.

Source: http://www.chirohealthy.com/articles/wellness-for-free-website-and-app-review.asp

Chiropractic Research

A growing list of research studies and reviews demonstrate that the services provided by chiropractic phyisicians are both safe and effective.  Following are excerpts and summaries from a few of the more recent studies. The evidence strongly supports the natural, whole-body and cost-effective approach of chiropractic care for a variety of conditions.

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For Acute and Chronic Pain

“Many treatments are available for low back pain. Often exercises and physical therapy can help. Some people benefit from chiropractic therapy or acupuncture.”

--Goodman et al. (2013), Journal of the American Medical Association  

“[Chiropractic Manipulative Therapy] in conjunction with [standard medical care] offers a significant advantage for decreasing pain and improving physical functioning when compared with only standard care, for men and women between 18 and 35 years of age with acute low back pain.”

--Goertz et al. (2013), Spine

In a Randomized controlled trial, 183 patients with neck pain were randomly allocated to manual therapy (spinal mobilization), physiotherapy (mainly exercise) or general practitioner care (counseling, education and drugs) in a 52-week study. The clinical outcomes measures showed that manual therapy resulted in faster recovery than physiotherapy and general practitioner care. Moreover, total costs of the manual therapy-treated patients were about one-third of the costs of physiotherapy or general practitioner care.

 -- Korthals-de Bos et al (2003), British Medical Journal

“Patients with chronic low-back pain treated by chiropractors showed greater improvement and satisfaction at one month than patients treated by family physicians. Satisfaction scores were higher for chiropractic patients. A higher proportion of chiropractic patients (56 percent vs. 13 percent) reported that their low-back pain was better or much better, whereas nearly one-third of medical patients reported their low-back pain was worse or much worse.”

– Nyiendo et al (2000), Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics

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In Comparison to Other Treatment Alternatives

"Reduced odds of surgery were observed for...those whose first provider was a chiropractor. 42.7% of workers [with back injuries] who first saw a surgeon had surgery, in contrast to only 1.5% of those who saw a chiropractor."

– Keeney et al (2012), Spine 

“Acute and chronic chiropractic patients experienced better outcomes in pain, functional disability, and patient satisfaction; clinically important differences in pain and disability improvement were found for chronic patients.”

– Haas et al (2005), Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics

“In our randomized, controlled trial, we compared the effectiveness of manual therapy, physical therapy, and continued care by a general practitioner in patients with nonspecific neck pain. The success rate at seven weeks was twice as high for the manual therapy group (68.3 percent) as for the continued care group (general practitioner). Manual therapy scored better than physical therapy on all outcome measures. Patients receiving manual therapy had fewer absences from work than patients receiving physical therapy or continued care, and manual therapy and physical therapy each resulted in statistically significant less analgesic use than continued care.”

– Hoving et al (2002), Annals of Internal Medicine

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For Headaches

“Cervical spine manipulation was associated with significant improvement in headache outcomes in trials involving patients with neck pain and/or neck dysfunction and headache.”

-- McCrory, Penzlen, Hasselblad, Gray (2001), Duke Evidence Report

“The results of this study show that spinal manipulative therapy is an effective treatment for tension headaches. . . Four weeks after cessation of treatment . . . the patients who received spinal manipulative therapy experienced a sustained therapeutic benefit in all major outcomes in contrast to the patients that received amitriptyline therapy, who reverted to baseline values.” ‘

-- Boline et al. (1995), Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics

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For Neck Pain

In a study funded by NIH’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine to test the effectiveness of different approaches for treating mechanical neck pain, 272 participants were divided into three groups that received either spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) from a doctor of chiropractic (DC), pain medication (over-the-counter pain relievers, narcotics and muscle relaxants) or exercise recommendations. After 12 weeks, about 57 percent of those who met with DCs and 48 percent who exercised reported at least a 75 percent reduction in pain, compared to 33 percent of the people in the medication group. After one year, approximately 53 percent of the drug-free groups continued to report at least a 75 percent reduction in pain; compared to just 38 percent pain reduction among those who took medication.

 -- Bronfort et al. (2012), Annals of Internal Medicine

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Cost Effectiveness

Low back pain initiated with a doctor of chiropractic (DC) saves 40 percent on health care costs when compared with care initiated through a medical doctor (MD), according to a study that analyzed data from 85,000 Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) beneficiaries in Tennessee over a two-year span. The study population had open access to MDs and DCs through self-referral, and there were no limits applied to the number of MD/DC visits allowed and no differences in co-pays. Researchers estimated that allowing DC-initiated episodes of care would have led to an annual cost savings of $2.3 million for BCBS of Tennessee. They also concluded that insurance companies that restrict access to chiropractic care for low back pain treatment may inadvertently pay more for care than they would if they removed such restrictions.

– Liliedahl et al (2010), Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics

“Chiropractic care appeared relatively cost-effective for the treatment of chronic low-back pain. Chiropractic and medical care performed comparably for acute patients. Practice-based clinical outcomes were consistent with systematic reviews of spinal manipulative efficacy: manipulation-based therapy is at least as good as and, in some cases, better than other therapeusis.”

– Haas et al (2005), Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics

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Patient Satisfaction

“Chiropractic patients were found to be more satisfied with their back care providers after four weeks of treatment than were medical patients. Results from observational studies suggested that back pain patients are more satisfied with chiropractic care than with medical care. Additionally, studies conclude that patients are more satisfied with chiropractic care than they were with physical therapy after six weeks.”

-- Hertzman-Miller et al (2002), American Journal of Public Health

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Popularity of Chiropractic

“Chiropractic is the largest, most regulated, and best recognized of the complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) professions. CAM patient surveys show that chiropractors are used more often than any other alternative provider group and patient satisfaction with chiropractic care is very high. There is steadily increasing patient use of chiropractic in the United States, which has tripled in the past two decades.”

– Meeker, Haldeman (2002), Annals of Internal Medicine

Source: http://www.acatoday.org/level3_css.cfm?T1ID=13&T2ID=61&T3ID=150

Back Pain Facts & Statistics

Although chiropractors care for more than just back pain, many patients visit chiropractors looking for relief from this pervasive condition.  In fact, 31 million Americans experience low-back pain at any given time.¹

A few interesting facts about back pain:

• Low back pain is the single leading cause of disability worldwide, according to the Global Burden of Disease 2010.
• One-half of all working Americans admit to having back pain symptoms each year.²
• Back pain is one of the most common reasons for missed work.  In fact, back pain is the second most common reason for visits to the doctor’s office, outnumbered only by upper-respiratory infections.
• Most cases of back pain are mechanical or non-organic—meaning they are not caused by serious conditions, such as inflammatory arthritis, infection, fracture or cancer.
• Americans spend at least $50 billion each year on back pain—and that’s just for the more easily identified costs.³
• Experts estimate that as many as 80% of the population will experience a back problem at some time in our lives.⁴

What Causes Back Pain?

The back is a complicated structure of bones, joints, ligaments and muscles. You can sprain ligaments, strain muscles, rupture disks, and irritate joints, all of which can lead to back pain. While sports injuries or accidents can cause back pain, sometimes the simplest of movements—for example, picking up a pencil from the floor— can have painful results. In addition, arthritis, poor posture, obesity, and psychological stress can cause or complicate back pain. Back pain can also directly result from disease of the internal organs, such as kidney stones, kidney infections, blood clots, or bone loss.

Manipulation as a Treatment for Back Problems

Used primarily by Doctors of Chiropractic (DCs) for the last century, manipulation has been largely ignored by most others in the health care community until recently. Now, with today's growing emphasis on treatment and cost effectiveness, manipulation is receiving more widespread attention.

Chiropractic spinal manipulation is a safe and effective spine pain treatment. It reduces pain, decreases medication, rapidly advances physical therapy, and requires very few passive forms of treatment, such as bed rest.⁵

In fact, after an extensive study of all currently available care for low back problems, the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research—a federal government research organization—recommended that low back pain sufferers choose the most conservative care first. And it recommended spinal manipulation as the only safe and effective, drugless form of initial professional treatment for acute low back problems in adults.⁶

A patient information article published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association also suggested chiropractic care as an option for people suffering from low back pain--and noted that surgery is usually not needed and should only be tried if other therapies fail.⁷

The American Chiropractic Association (ACA) urges you to make an informed choice about your back care. To learn more about how the services of doctors of chiropractic may help you, review the results of recent research studies and contact a Doctor of Chiropractic in your area. Search our online database of ACA members to find a doctor of chiropractic near you.

Tips to Prevent Back Pain

• Maintain a healthy diet and weight.
• Remain active—under the supervision of your doctor of chiropractic.
• Avoid prolonged inactivity or bed rest.
• Warm up or stretch before exercising or other physical activities, such as gardening.
• Maintain proper posture.
• Wear comfortable, low-heeled shoes.
• Sleep on a mattress of medium firmness to minimize any curve in your spine.
•  Lift with your knees, keep the object close to your body, and do not twist when lifting.
• Quit smoking. Smoking impairs blood flow, resulting in oxygen and nutrient deprivation to spinal tissues.
• Work with your doctor of chiropractic to ensure that your computer workstation is ergonomically correct.
  
  
  Source: http://www.acatoday.org/level2_css.cfm?T1ID=13&T2ID=68

Workplace Ergonomics

Since ancient times, people have known that movement is essential to life. Today, a typical office worker sits hunched over a keyboard for eight hours a day and seldom stands up. When the requirements of a job do not match a worker’s physical attributes, injury and loss of productivity are likely.

Workplace injuries, a common cause of time off, cost employers and employees billions of dollars every year. Some of the more common workplace injuries are carpal tunnel syndrome (a nerve entrapment at the wrist seen in computer users), low-back pain, tendinitis, bursitis, and neck pain or headaches.

What Causes Workplace Injuries?

Many workplace injuries are repetitive-stress injuries or cumulative-trauma disorders. These injuries occur when abnormal stresses are repeatedly placed on normal joints by poor posture or poor joint position during the performance of a task.

Many of these stresses are caused by poor workstation design and/or repetitive task performance. In addition, poor posture at the workstation can be detrimental. For example, prolonged use of a computer or a mouse, particularly when the work area is not designed well, can lead to carpal tunnel syndrome and/or neck and arm pain.

Many modern product manufacturers are designing their products ergonomically, blending form with function. Such products fit the worker’s actions while on the job and make tasks safer and easier to perform.

What Are Good Ergonomics?

According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, ergonomics is the science of fitting workplace conditions and job demands to employee capabilities. An ergonomic assessment of the workplace critically appraises the physical work environment—followed by changes based on the assessment. Ergonomic principles are then used to make the workplace compatible with the employee, improving the employee’s safety and productivity. In other words, the easier it is to do a job physically, the more productive and happy the worker will be.

When working at a desk, try these suggestions for greater comfort:

1. Choose a desk that is the proper height for your body. All items on your desk should be within easy reach.
2. Your feet should be touching the floor, with the legs and body forming an angle of 90 to 110 degrees.
3. Keep your body straight with the head and neck upright and looking forward, not to the side. Do not hunch over or slouch.
4. Adjust the height of your monitor. Look forward with your head in a neutral position. Your eyes should be at the same height as the top of the monitor. Leaning your head forward can lead to headaches and neck pain.
5. When typing, keep your wrists straight, your shoulders perpendicular to the floor, and your forearms parallel to the floor.
6. When reading at your desk, use a bookstand or a paper holder to keep your eyes in the same neutral position you use to read documents on your computer monitor.
7. When talking on the phone, use a headset whenever possible—especially if you talk on the phone for prolonged periods. Holding the phone between your shoulder and cheek will only lead to neck pain and headaches.
8. Stand up and stretch your legs with a short walk about every 20 to 30 minutes.
9. Take micro-breaks often, stretching your neck, arms and wrists, back, and legs. Simple stretches include neck rotations, fist clenches, arm dangles, and shoulder shrugs.
10. If your eyes must concentrate on a particular object for long periods, relax your eye muscles by shifting your focus from objects close to you to objects that are farther away. This helps reduce eye strain.

When working with a computer mouse, try the following:

• Don’t move the mouse with just your wrist. Use your entire arm and shoulder.
• Don’t rest your arm on the edge of the desk while manipulating the mouse.
• Hold the mouse loosely.
• Keep your wrist relaxed. Don’t hold it up or down; instead, hold it in a neutral (straight) position.
• Step away from the mouse several times per hour and move your wrists, arms, and shoulders around.
• Consider using an ergonomically designed keyboard.

 Source: http://www.chirohealthy.com/articles/workplace-ergonomics.asp

Don’t Take Arthritis Lying Down

Years ago, doctors hardly ever told rheumatoid arthritis patients to “go take a hike” or “go for a swim.” Arthritis was considered an inherent part of the aging process and a signal to patients that it’s time to slow down. However, research and clinical findings since then show that there is much more to life for arthritis patients than the traditional recommendation of bed rest and drug therapy.

What Is Rheumatoid Arthritis?

The word “arthritis” means “joint inflammation” and is often used in reference to rheumatic diseases. Rheumatic diseases include more than 100 conditions: gout, fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, psoriatic arthritis, and many more. Rheumatoid arthritis is also a rheumatic disease, affecting about 1 percent of the U.S. population (about 2.1 million people.) Although rheumatoid arthritis often begins in middle age and is more frequent in the older generation, young people and children can also suffer from it. Rheumatoid arthritis causes pain, swelling, stiffness, and loss of function in the joints.

Several features distinguish it from other kinds of arthritis:

• Tender, warm, and swollen joints
• Fatigue, sometimes fever, and a general sense of not feeling well
• Pain and stiffness that last more than 30 minutes after a long rest
• The wrist and finger joints closest to the hand are most frequently affected. Neck, shoulder, elbow, hip, knee, ankle, and feet joints can also be affected.
• The condition is symmetrical. If one hand is affected, the other one is, too.
• The disease can last for years and can affect other parts of the body, not only the joints.

Should Arthritis Patients Exercise?

Exercise is critical in successful arthritis management. It helps maintain healthy and strong muscles, joint mobility, flexibility, and endurance. It also helps control weight. Rest, on the other hand, helps to decrease active joint inflammation, pain, and fatigue. Arthritis patients need a good balance between the two: more rest during the active phase of arthritis, and more exercise during remission. During acute systematic flare-ups or local joint flare-ups, patients should put joints gently through their full range of motion once a day, with periods of rest. To see how much rest is best during flare-ups, patients should talk to their health care providers. If patients experience unusual or persistent fatigue, increased weakness, a decrease in range of motion, an increase in joint swelling, or pain that lasts more than one hour after exercising, they should talk to their health care providers.

Nutritional Recommendations

Nutrition may provide complementary support to arthritis medications. Some foods and nutritional supplements can be helpful in managing arthritis:

• Fatty-acid supplements like eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and gamma linolenic acid (GLA). Deep-sea fish, (salmon, tuna, herring, and halibut) are sources of EPA and DHA. Black currants and borage seed contain GLA.
• Turmeric, ginger, and nettle leaf extract
• A vegetarian or low-allergen diet

The benefits and risks of most of these agents are being researched. Before taking any dietary supplement, especially if you are using medication to control your condition, consult with your health care provider.

How Can Chiropractic Help?

If you suffer from rheumatoid arthritis, your doctor of chiropractic can help you plan an exercise program that will:

• Help you restore the lost range of motion to your joints
• Improve your flexibility and endurance
• Increase your muscle tone and strength

Doctors of chiropractic can also give you nutrition and supplementation advice that can be helpful in controlling and reducing joint inflammation.

Recommended Exercises for Patients with Arthritis

• Range-of-motion exercises: Activities like stretching and dancing can help maintain normal joint movement and increase joint flexibility. Perform such activities every day, or every other day.
• Strength training: Weight lifting can help support and protect the joints affected by arthritis. Unless pain or swelling occurs and is severe, perform such exercises every other day.
• Aerobic or endurance exercises: Walking, swimming or riding a bike can help improve your cardiovascular system while toning your muscles and controlling your weight. Exercise 20 to 30 minutes three times a week unless pain and swelling are severe.

Source: http://www.chirohealthy.com/articles/dont-take-arthritis-lying-down.asp