Health Concerns of IT Professionals

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This article, authored by Cory Popescu, SIP Writers Forum, is for the IT / Internet professional, but it is equally applicable to anyone, as we use computer and mobile devices in all aspects of our lives regardless of our profession.

IT people spend most of their lives at the office, sitting at the desk with the eyes on the pixeled screens. While IT work is only office work, many times stretching after regular business hours produces a significant number of health issues, whether related to physical or mental diseases. In essence, solutions to correct these health issues exist and this article presents some of the issues along with their possible remedies. The article is based on several actual cases from daily life and on the research described in the references of this article.

Some of the health concerns for people who spend long days, perhaps weekends and their entire working life in an office environment, could be related to physical and mental illnesses. In general certain areas of the body are affected and in particular it weakens the vital organs of the body.

Most common health issues, according to the research exposed in the references material below, seem to be the musculoskeletal disorders of wrists, arms, shoulders, neck, back, other ailments  such as cardiovascular disease related to vital organs, and others related to the mental state.

In the upper part of the body, eyes represent a crucial part to helping IT professionals succeed in their work. When eyesight gets weaker while intensively using the computer screens, the employees require eye protection and aids for reading earlier than workers in industries where the use of the computer screen is not so extensive. There are IT professionals undergoing vision improvement due to regular use of yoga exercises with a mix of mental alertness and relaxation techniques.

The vital organs that could be affected more refer to: liver, stomach, kidneys and heart. These ailments may be connected to eating significant amounts of junk food at irregular hours and to continuous loads of stress to meet the frequent deadlines. Due to longer hours at the office and sedentary lifestyle, healthy eating and healthy sleeping habits are often neglected. More so, in time, tight deadlines and constant top-down or sideways pressure to meet the requirements for customers, management, or other departments of the company  in the case of large corporations, lead to heart diseases found in a large percentage of IT professionals.

In order to heal the sickness, people visit the family doctors and/or the specialists in hope of a quick cure. Sometimes, it takes long before the body recovers, and sometimes it does not become completely healthy again. Some IT professionals have become acquainted with alternative ways to heal the body and keep it at a constant level of good health. These ways refer to easily accessible practices such as meditation and yoga which can even cure, if applied constantly and correctly under proper guidance, and they are favorably fit to prevent the ailments while developing your acute sense of awareness.

As we already know, it is far easier to prevent illnesses than to cure them. Therefore, the discipline to follow instructions to prevent musculoskeletal disorders and further on other illnesses is crucial to help your body cope with long hours at the desk using the computers. Some companies create special rooms for relaxation and exercise and some have included gym rooms in their buildings. Use these facilities at your will, consult with your management as a harmonious combination of physical workout and intellectual projects can only lead to effective results as concerns your health and work productivity.

References:
National Database of Indian Medical Journals: Prevalence  of  Occupational  Diseases  in Information  Technology  Industries  in  Goa

US National Library of Medicine. National Institutes of Health: Health problems and stress in Information Technology and Business Process Outsourcing employees

Computerworld: Health hazards for IT workers -- how that desk job wears your body down

Cory Popescu

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