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Question: Colm, My wife suffers from cervical root syndrome - a nerve entrapment disorder in the cervical spine which is the result of many years of cervical hyperflexion, required to observe security monitors in her previous job. Now, as a medical billing consultant she spends most of her day in front of a computer like the rest of us and attends a chiropractor frequently to maintain her spinal integrity, which is proving to be less and less effective. Would one of your office chairs help in this situation? I am located in Tampa, FL. I am a PhD ergonomist . Very best regards, John Lloyd. (February 12, 2001).
Answer: John, your wife is typical of most back sufferers I come across. They seek help from a wide range of people working in this area. These vary from chiropractors, acupuncturists, physiotherapists, to orthopaedic surgeons, osteopaths etc. Go to any of these and they will start applying their own expertise, and in most cases do a good job of work. The ones to be careful of are orthopaedic surgeons who in many cases advise a spinal operation. If an operation is suggested not only get a second opinion but get a third. I have been working in the area of back pain relief for more than 25 years and have not encountered even one completely successful operation. The Mayo Clinic even goes as far as stating that the result of having an operation would be the same in the long term as not having one.
I can reduce the whole subject of ergonomics to one sentence.
Always, always, work and go through life, with the spine in its own unique S-shape.
Take your wife. Sitting at her desk, the spine must be in her S-shape. (I have a ninety percent success rate with office chairs, and by that I mean the person using a Spinal System-S chair can sit for seven or eight hours pain free. The success rate with home chairs is eighty percent, and I nearly always succeed with car seats, about five or six failures in over 25 years).
Try picking something off the floor with your spine in its own unique S-shape. The only way to do this is to bend your knees. How many reams of theoretical rubbish is written on this simple procedure? Let me know if any of this is of interest. Colm Campbell.