Extremely dangerous disease that office workers often encounter

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

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

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.

MRI scan revealed 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 back of his hip, 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 for a long time, leading to acute back pain.

According to Dr. Cao Thanh Ngoc - Head of the 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 their 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 adhesion, 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 is 150kg.

When standing, bending over and lifting heavy objects, it is 210kg. When sitting with back straight and legs straight, it is 150kg. When bending forward and legs perpendicular, it 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 the bones in the body are compact bones, the rest are spongy bones with uneven distribution between the bones.

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

Osteoarthritis is common in the cervical spine, lumbar spine, knee joints, hip joints, wrist joints, ankle joints, etc.

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

The prevalence of degeneration is 10% in adolescents, 20% in 50-year-olds, and 60% in 70-year-olds.

According to VNN