Extremely dangerous disease that office workers often encounter

Sitting continuously for 6-8 hours a day or sitting in the wrong posture puts pressure on the discs 5 times the body weight, equivalent to having to continuously carry a 275 kg object.

The 28-year-old woman - a real estate company accountant in Ho Chi Minh City often works on the computer 8 hours a day. Recently, she felt neck pain and numbness in her left hand.

When taking an X-ray of the cervical spine, the doctor found spinal degeneration. The female employee was treated with painkillers, muscle relaxants, and active rest, but the pain did not subside.

Sitting at work a lot makes office workers susceptible to degenerative disc disease.

New MRI scan detected cervical spondylosis and surgery was indicated.

After surgery, the patient received physical therapy and is now in more stable health.

Another case is a 30-year-old male employee of a software company. He works on the computer an average of 10 hours a day.

After waking up one night, this man suddenly had muscle stiffness right at the hip behind his back, could not move, and was in a lot of pain.

When he went to the hospital for examination, the male employee was given painkillers, muscle relaxants and rest by the doctor, and the pain subsided.

The doctor determined that the cause could be due to him sleeping in the wrong position or sitting in the wrong position at work for a long time, leading to acute back pain.

According to Dr. Cao Thanh Ngoc - Head of Internal Medicine and Orthopedics Unit, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, currently, degenerative disc disease - spine is more common in younger people, especially office workers.

Dr. Ngoc explained that even though they do not have to do heavy work, office workers often sit continuously for long periods of time, an average of 6-8 hours/day, or sit in incorrect postures such as leaning forward with their legs bent.

At that time, the pressure on the disc is 5 times the body weight, equivalent to having to continuously carry a 275 kg object.

A person weighing 50 kg sitting continuously for 6-8 hours puts 5 times more pressure on the disc than the body weight.

Osteoarthritis is a disease that progresses silently in the joints, eroding and destroying the cartilage. At first, patients often have transient pain, so they are often subjective about the disease.

But later the pain became more persistent and lasted longer.

Osteoarthritis causes pain, joint deformity, and joint stiffness, causing the patient to lose joint mobility, leading to disability and reduced quality of life.

According to a study from foreign experts, body postures have different impacts on the discs.

For a person weighing 50kg, the pressure on the disc when lying on the back is 25kg, lying on the side is 75kg, when standing straight is 100kg, when standing bent over is 150kg.

When standing, bending over and lifting a heavy object is 210kg, when sitting with back straight and legs straight is 150kg, when bending forward with legs at right angles is 200kg.

Also weighing only 50 kg, but when bending forward with both legs bent - a common posture of office workers, the pressure on the disc is up to 275 kg.

According to experts, about 80% of bones in the body are compact bones, the rest are spongy bones with uneven distribution between bones.

Where there is more porous bone, osteoporosis is more likely, and joints that bear more force will degenerate faster.

Osteoarthritis often occurs in the cervical spine, lumbar spine, knee joints, hip joints, wrist joints, ankle joints...

In which, disc degeneration - spine often occurs earlier than other bone tissues and is also the place where osteoporosis is most likely to occur (75% spongy bone and 25% compact bone).

The rate of degeneration is usually 10% in teenagers, 20% in 50-year-olds and 60% in 70-year-olds.

According to VNN