One More Thing to Worry About: DVT from Sitting Too Long
March 14th, 2007 (5:31am) Mike Gunderloy 6 Comments
As if carpal tunnel syndrome, vision woes, and back pain weren’t enough to have one our minds, now web workers are supposed to get the jitters about deep vein thrombosis (DVT) - those deadly blood clots that can form in your legs, travel to your brain, and end your life prematurely. A widely-reported study hit the wires yesterday with headlines ranging from “Office Workers More Clot Prone” to “Deadly Threat in the Office” depending on the inclination of the particular writer.
In any case, the news comes from the work of Professor Richard Beasley of the Medical Research Institute in Wellington, New Zealand, who’s been studying this issue since 2003. It turns out that some people who sit still for long periods of time develop DVT, which you might know as “economy class syndrome” because it’s also been associated with long flights in cramped airplane seats. In his most recent study, it turns out that 34% of the 62 patients with DVT had been seated at work for long periods of time, as opposed to only 1.4% who had been on long plane flights.
Something to View With Alarm? Perhaps. But statistics are slippery things. Remember, that doesn’t mean that 34% of all office workers will get DVT. And since many more people work in offices than take long plane flights, it doesn’t even mean that office work is a higher risk factor for DVT than flying. The best advice? Same as ever: get up and walk around every once in a while. If you’re living the web worker lifestyle, those trips to the counter to order another latte are better for you than you knew.
6 Comments Post your own comment
Nicola Larosa says: March 14th, 2007 7:16am
Maintaining a decent level of body activity is very important. I have another suggestion: do as ancient Romans used to, don’t sit, lie down.
That’s what I do most of the time (I work at home), in a wooden, garden chair that I confiscated and put in the studio. It’s worked wonders for my back ache.
The laptop stays on the lap, with a hard-top cushion for comfort, and to interpose some distance between it and the lap itself.
Now that I think of it, I’ll better put a lead screen in between, to stop electromagnetic radiation.
Mike Han says: March 14th, 2007 10:04am
I’ve recently switched from an office chair to one of those inflatable exercise balls (yes, like the one that Dwight used on The Office).
Since it’s impossible to look like a reasonable human being while slightly bouncing around on an inflatable ball, I’d never use it in a professional environment (I work at home too); but so far it feels a lot better than a standard office chair and even relieves stress (bouncing IS fun, after all).
There also seems to be some evidence to point to these exercise balls reducing the likelihood of DVT. Maybe. Maybe not. But, I recommend trying them out (just don’t let anyone you’d like to impress or date see you on it…)
Geoff R. says: March 14th, 2007 11:00am
Do you think an exercise ball would help prevent this? I wrote an article a couple weeks back on 10 reasons exercise balls are better than chairs. Maybe I should add this as #11…
Read the article: http://www.gearfire.net/10-reasons-to-use-an-exercise-ball-as-your-chair/
GigaOM » What’s on GigaNET says: March 14th, 2007 11:26am
[...] WebWorkerDaily: Sitting for too long can be injurious to your health [...]
Art says: March 21st, 2007 8:36pm
Anti-Gravity support socks - the answer to increased DVT risk with IT workers.
Art says: March 21st, 2007 8:37pm
http://healthylegs.com/agsupportsocks.html
Anti-Gravity Socks