Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) is the disorders of muscles, tendons, ligaments, joints, cartilages, vessels and intervertebral disc which are supporting the whole body structure. These injuries are often long-term accumulation induced, rather than an unexpected slid fall.
The musculoskeletal system is composed of about 206 bones, 700 muscles and ligaments, joints and cartilages, accounting 60% of a human body and their main task is to move. But if you move them all the time or in an incorrect position, they will get hurt.Musculoskeletal Disorders is becoming a widespread disease al over the world. Nowadays more people use high-tech electronic equipments at work. However when enjoying the convenience and entertainment which these equipments provided, you certainly do not know that they would harm your health. Such as “mouse hand”, a popular disease among white-collar workers and a typical Musculoskeletal Disorders, is caused by using computer every day. While others who are not using these equipments but pay pure labor force also suffer from Musculoskeletal Disorders. It is not surprising to find most of taxi drivers have lumbar disc herniation due to their all-day sitting in the car.
Typical Causes of Musculoskeletal Disorders:
- Repeatability of the same action
- Repeatedly using a certain part of the body in a longer time will damage the body’s muscle structure, though every single time can not lead to injuries. And the larger and faster the action is, the more likely to cause injury.
- Body posture
- Keeping unnatural posture in a long time, the muscle can not restore and get damaged.
- Weight of bearing
When the use of force or the weight of bearing the muscles to withstand exceeds the limits that they can withstand, a one-off injury is made. For example, if a worker continues operating an object more than 10 minutes, then the weight of the object should not exceed 25% of his maximum power, otherwise he will get injury.
Symptoms of Musculoskeletal Disorders include:
Musculoskeletal Disorders represent as injuries of soft tissue and muscle tendon, joint pain, muscle aches mainly in the lower back, neck and arm.
- back pain
- shoulder and neck diseases
- lumbar disc herniation
- carpal tunnel syndrome
- tenosynovitis
Treatment of Musculoskeletal Disorders:
- Maintain the correct posture of the neck, shoulder, elbow, wrist, back and legs
- Regular stretch and relax during work
- Optimize the working environment, like adjust the angle of chair and desk to make a correct sitting position
- Optimize the work equipments to avoid excessive exertion