Side Effects of using Computer and ways to Tackle Them

If it has become your daily routine for a long period of time working or play on a computer system that means you need to educate yourself on the side effect of using computer and ways to tackle them.

Excessive usage of computer has its own side effects due to:

·         Long sitting posture which results to strain in blood vessels, nerves and muscles

•   Inconveniency in sitting triggers the bone and cause displacement of organ and also poor flowing of blood
• Decrease in face to face conversation with fellow human, psychosomatic reactions and also depression
• Poor working environment and conditions, which involves using of computer system, chair and table position etc which is not well adjusted.
• However, some preventive measures and treatment of the side effects of using computer can be applied everyday and as well as regular exercise in the office.

Side Effects of Using Computer

A prolonged daily usage of computer has many side effects. But the good news there is that preventive measures can be applied personally to get rid of the side effects and also to eliminate health issues which is caused by long sitting and working on the computer monitor. Let get started with knowing those side effects.

1. CVS (Computer Vision Syndrome)

One of the specific problems of the eyes is CVS. This problem contains pain and eye strain issues which people using computer face: red eyes, dry or wet eyes, double vision etc. The causes of CVS includes inconvenience in sitting, poor light, too long or short viewing distance, digital screen glare, problems of vision etc.

2. Pain in the Shoulder, Back and Neck

These problems are common because of sedentary way of living. If to find out the foundation of pains in the shoulder, back and neck (as well as leg pains) of bad muscle tone, white collars, improper blood flow as well as sandwiched nerves are those that spread widely. Let take for instance, when the spine muscles are weak, it can result to displacements of vertebral, which may attack blood vessels or nerves resulting to pains in the back and similar health problems.

3. RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury)

RSI is a common term which is best use to express pains in the nerves, muscles and tendons resulted from frequent locomotion and excessive usage. This affects mostly the upper part of the body: wrist and hands, neck and shoulders, forearms and elbows.

4. Heart Diseases

Sedentary way of living and absence of physical activities causes muscles depression. A weak muscle causes reduction in fat burning. Blood circulation becomes slow, allowing easy clogging of fat acid to the heart vessels. When the quantity of oxygen (O₂) transported with blood is not sufficient, arrhythmia might occur occasionally and vital health issues like stroke and Heart attack.

5. Loss of Brain Blood Circulation

Metabolism in the brain might malfunction because of sedentary lifestyle. Brain of a nomal person obtain 15% output of cardiac blood and make use of 20% of the total oxygen in the body and 25% of the glucose in the body. Accordingly, heart diseases are triggered by loss in blood pressure (BP) through the cerebral circulation.

6. Metabolic Disorder

Long sitting is associated with increase in weight and related biochemical changes, which includes metabolic malfunction, changes in hormones, inflammation and leptin disorder in which all of this can result to cancer.

Let take for instance, long sitting result to mushy abdominal muscles, which later gives birth to different problems in the stomach promoting obesity, making breathing difficult and encourage related health problems.

7. Leg Degeneration

Legs are not left out in the side effects of using computer. Blood clots and varicose veins can result from bad blood circulation in legs. More so, sedentary lifestyle and poor motion can be caused by hip disorder and weak bones. All these entirely have effects on our sustainability and can also result to fractures when there is falling

8. Depression

Depression is often caused by constant work and mental stresses of staff in office. When a project is getting close to the deadline, getting a short break from the computer work becomes difficult, in which mental stress is also involved. Depression may cause harm physically when there are no preventive measures for increasing one’s spirit condition.

9. Cyber Addiction

Cyber Addiction is a psychological problems associated with prolong daily use of the computer. Decrease in our cognitive ability occurs in every activity that is being undertaken through the use of the internet: banking, socializing, shopping etc. cyber addicted individual have reduction in focus and concentration when undertaking a work of a computer, in which this makes it dangerous and uncomfortable for the environment they find themselves.

Ways to Tackle the Side Effects and Symptoms

It is not too late to begin taking care of yourself! Whether your computer is being made use for office work, daily usage for pleasure or education for a very long period of time, then the mentioned ways below of tackling the side effects of computer may be indeed handy:

1. Overcoming CVS (Computer Vision Syndrome)

Arranging appropriate working environment it’s not that difficult so as to prevent CVS. With reference to America Optometric Association, the preventives measure includes:

• Share light with the aid of desk lamp
• Making use of monitor glare filter
• Proper position of the monitor a little bit below the eye level, about 20 to 28” far away from the eye view
• Avoid straining of your eye to view the screen
• Take away your eyes from the screen for like 20 minutes interval

2. Pain in the Shoulder, Back and Neck Reduction

To reduce pain in the shoulder, back and neck after long sitting, the mentioned preventive measures should be adopted:

• Regular physical exercises
• Balancing in seating position
• Frequent break
• Adjust working environment properly
• For every prolonged sitting posture, regardless of the comfortable position you are always remember to take a break by standing, stretching and walking for like 2 minutes for every 30 minutes interval.

3. Reduce RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury)

It is a well known fact that bad posture or long routines undertaken in an awkward posture promote the risk of getting muscles or nerves strain. First thing to do when strain injury in being prevented is to identify and edit the activity or work that is bringing the symptoms. Change your daily routine also help (for instance taking a walk to a fellow staff table instead of making a phone conversation), and also improve your posture when seated.

4. Avoiding Heart Stress

An estimation of 80% has been concluded that stroke and heart occurrence can be stopped by changes in lifestyle and education, as enumerated by America Heart Association. Cardiovascular therapy involves staying healthy and eating regularly, regular exercises and frequent intake of oxygen and also avoiding tobacco and too much cold or heat temperatures, reduction in the quantity of alcohol and maintaining mental health. Taking office staffs into consideration, frequent tea breaks, free meditation once in a while, coupled with stair case to replace elevator, providing fruit to replace cigarette considering the choice of the staff.

5. Maintaining Normal Brain Blood circulation

The brain controls various functions in the body like mental, physical and chemical functions. This is the reason why any risk concerning brain metabolism need to be reduced to the minimum level in advance. With reference to National Center for Biotechnology Information, the benefit of auto-regulation of cerebral blood which is made sure by water homeostasis and regular supply of blood. To back these up the processes, maintenance of the blood pressure and straighten blood vessels through proper balanced diet, fresh air oxygenation and regular physical activities.

6. Metabolism Improvement

The metabolic ability is the platform for immunity, physical strengths and digestion. To improve the three major function of metabolism the transformation of food to energy to keep cellular process in motion, the transformation of food to building materials for lipids/nucleic acids/proteins, as well as termination of intracellular wastes. Doctors advise us to adhere to 5 simple rules when performing office work:

• Exhibiting simple physical exercises on a daily basis
• Eating balance diet regularly
• Taking water or tea frequently
• Breathing fresh air
• Maintaining a good posture and sitting position while working and also working in a good and conducive environment

7. Leg Power Generation

To avoid our leg muscles from degeneration, frequent physical exercises need to be undergone every day. In reference to one the journals published by Forbes journal, it was mentioned that sitting in an office for eight hours together with evening recreational activities like watching movie is a recipe for ruin. National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion carried out a survey, and they state that almost 50% of adults in United State (US) said that they don’t perform the recommended 30 min, five days within a week of balanced physical activities or the recommended 20 min, thrice a week of vigorous activity.

8. Overcoming Depression

Psychologists suggest that physical body functions may be affected by low mood state, people who are depressed experience: reduced level of energy, overeating or loss of appetite, remembering problems, fatigue, too much of sleeping or insomnia digestive problems and many more. Prevention of both mental and physical health stresses, - meditation, mental therapy as well as spiritual exercises can be undergone. Individual performance is needed here: read or watch humorous stuff, listen to your best music, and performing yoga exercises during short break at work

9. Overcoming Cyber Addiction

To overcome cyber addiction, you need to know how much time that is being spent on time wasting activities on computer like social media (for example Twitter, Facebook, etc). Computer monitoring software which tracks the Internet as well as software usage may be very useful in analyzing one’s habits of using computer. When someone gets the data, it is needed to be applied some away of the addiction. More so, normal face-to face interaction with fellow human solves the problem, and also paper publications reading and fresh air walks.

Easy Office Remedies Examples

I wonder why some people cannot even invest the minimum efforts in preventing health issues associated with sedentary way of living and use of computer: As a human beings, who is occasionally lazy or not mindful of frequent exercise, and seldom  stressed up to take care of ourselves.

Examples of these easy exercises recommended for offices are explained here – develop to sustain and make your health better when working a computer system:

1. Simple physical exercises

First Example: Physicians stated that being in the correct postures cures 70% of health issues associated with long sitting. The key to healthy living is apply the rule “90-90-90 degree of body postures when sitting in from of a computer”

Second Example: To heal back problems, sit well, hold the left knee, carry the left leg up from the flow, bend to the front (curling the back), let your nose move comes in the direction of the knee. Do this 3-5 times. And repeat the above steps with your right leg as well.

2. Minimizing Mental Stress:

First Example: Meditating or relaxing like thrice a day, using up to 5 min each time, plays a major role in harmonizing your inner state of mind. What you need is just to take a sit in a comfortable condition and relax taking a calm look on the pictures of nature.

Second Example: Eliminate stress and acquire some energy with the aid of quick seated dance in the absence of nobody while listening to your best music in a few minutes of break.

3. Natural Advice for Computer Use Harm Reduce

First Example: When you sit in front of computer for a prolong period of time, blood flows slowly and there Is reduction is amount of fat the muscle burn, which gives room for fat acids to clog the heart more easily. Allow your body with oxygen (O₂) by giving space for fresh air to flow into the room.

Second Example: Reduction in concentration and focus when perform hourly routine on a computer is eliminated by taking a break to the restaurant for a cup of an apple or green tea.

When an individual doesn’t show concern about preventing sedentary way of living problems OR he/she did not remember to perform daily mental and physical exercises to prevail over health problems, this can have effects on overall quality of life. This may involve consequent relationship problems, health problems and reduced abilities to perform work effectively (reduced output and increase in number of professional mistakes due to health stress and physical fatigue). This is the reason not to forget to take care of yourselves so as to maintain a full life.