Understanding and Preventing Workplace Injuries with Chiropractic
By Dr. Tim Fargo, Chiropractor
There is no accounting for the acts of God or nature that leave workers injured. Earthquakes happen and buildings collapse. There are floods, tornadoes, and wildfires. As horrifying as these events are, the bulk of workers are injured by lifting or by repetitive stress associated with their ergonomics. What we often see is that a worker will come to us and state that they were doing something on the job and, subsequent to that activity, they became injured. Perhaps it was lifting a box or unloading a van or twisting and turning in some way. Quite often these are activities that they have done 10,000 times before.
The situation that I describe above is incredibly common and there is often a distinct difference between the apparency and the actuality of the injury. In most cases the person injures themselves doing something that they’ve done many times before. What this speaks to is the fact that they were already compromised, functionally or structurally, before the offending incident took place. The “apparency” is that the injury was the sole cause of their complaints. The “actuality” is that pre-existing circumstances predisposed them to being injured. Perhaps they have been lifting repetitively over the course of weeks, months and years and they finally reached a point where the accumulated dysfunction caused a failure in their system. This is what is known as a “fatigue failure”. Rather than waiting until such a failure occurs, the best money would be spent on identifying functional and structural issues and correcting them so that the person can better withstand the rigors of their life and job. That is what chiropractors do. We prevent workplace injuries, and those associated with sports and daily life, by accurately identifying areas that don’t work properly and then restoring functionality, strength, and flexibility.
There is another prevalent category of workplace injuries which, likewise, are very much amenable to chiropractic intervention. While it is easy to understand how a person could injure their back lifting something, it is less obvious how a person could be injured to the point of total disability from clicking a keyboard or computer mouse. What these injuries lack in intensity and force, they make up for with the power of repetition. Repetitive performance of activities which are inherently imbalanced can cause tissues to become inflamed, scarred, and unusable. An example of this is carpal tunnel syndrome. Carpal tunnel syndrome occurs, at least usually, from repetitive stress on the wrist, hand, and elbow from such things as typing, computer mouse, assembly line work, etc. What chiropractors do is counsel patients on proper ergonomics and, once again, restore normal function to areas like the neck, low back, knees and feet, wrists, and hands. When people can finally work with better, and less stressful, ergonomics and their relevant body parts function the way they should, then the worker becomes less susceptible to repetitive stress injuries.
The bottom line is that chiropractic care has a role to play, not only in treating injured workers, but also in solving the circumstances that ultimately lead to workplace injuries. If you, a family member or friend works at a desk and in front of a computer, or engages in repetitive bending and lifting, then you should be checked by a chiropractor. We are here and ready to help you.
