What a pain!

GEETHA RAO / TNN / Feb 28, 2007, 20:25 IST

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With RSI week focusing on a syndrome that affects a vast working population, we look at what's perhaps one of the biggest health concerns of this age.

With RSI week focusing on a syndrome that affects a vast working population, we look at what's perhaps one of the biggest health concerns of this age.
It's a silent pain, so people don't understand what you go through. And it's a reality that many IT professionals and others who use computers regularly contend with. And since computers are a way of life now, the list of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) victims can include just about everyone.
Which is why World Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) Awareness week is held between February 21 and 28 every year. Here is the experience of one victim: Nitin Kaulavkar, an IT professional, had to take three months off work because the pain was so bad.
Says Nitin, "I use the computer regularly. As long as I used my desktop at office or home, it was OK. But when I used my laptop at customer sites, I'd crouch a bit." The environment wasn't adjusted to his needs. Nitin travelled to Boston frequently on work and using the laptop triggered off the pain.

"It affected my shoulders and hands. My fingers would go stiff, my palm go cold, and I felt a tingling sensation in my hands, I had to keep my hands pressed to ease the pain." It forced him to take time off for three months.
"I'd key in my name and password, and I was done." He couldn't continue. All this despite him being physically active. RSI doesn't spare anyone. Luckily, his company was sensitive to the issue, and he could take a break.

Nitin says you don't know what it's like until it hits you. "I'd heard of cases where there was no cure. It was mental agony." That was three years ago. Nitin then went in for treatment. "I did different kinds of exercises, I changed my desktop and chair.
Now I am religious about how I sit, how I work," he says. The treatment worked. "If the problem surfaces, I know what to do," he says. Says Dr Deepak Sharan, expert in RSI rehab, "RSI is an occupational overuse syndrome affecting muscles, tendons and nerves, caused by incessant work in a static posture with highly repetitive actions.
It can affect anyone; nearly 75 per cent of 18,000 Indian IT/ITES professionals we evaluated since 2000 reported musculo-skeletal symptoms related to work.
The average age of patients who develop RSI in India is only 27 years and 50 young professionals have already lost their jobs due to advanced, neglected RSI. RSI is clearly the biggest health concern in the Indian IT/ITES Sector. Poor office design leads to RSI."
GET YOUR POSTURE RIGHT
• Laptop users must use an external keyboard and mouse, placed just above the lap level, and use a laptop stand so that the top of the screen is at eye level.
• Both the keyboard and mouse need to be placed just above the level of the lap. The elbow should be tucked close to the body.
• Sit with the back supported on the chair's backrest with the thighs sloping down so that the hips are higher than the knees.
• The wrist must be kept unsupported while typing and gel pads should not be used as wrist rests.
• Take five-second microbreaks every five minutes and macrobreaks of two minutes every half an hour.

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