RPM-Therapy is conducting a case study on preventing Carpal Tunnel Syndrome with massage therapy. if you are an individual who has Carpal Tunnel Syndrome or other Repetitive Strain Injuries symptoms or you are a Massage Therapist/Bodyworker who has clients that are affected by CTS or RSI injuries, sign-in to my email optin list to subscribe for a CTS ebook coming soon.

By taking breaks, Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI) and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) has been scientifically proven by Taft Laboratories of the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH), to be the most successful prevention strategy that sufferers of these symptoms can implement.

The common thought amongst most computer users is that Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and other Repetitive Strain Injuries are primarily caused by computer use. RSI injuries are commonly caused by localized inflammation resulting from forceful and repetitive movements. Whereas, CTS injures are caused by postural dysfunction or compression on nerves as a result from inflammation. Computer use does require some repetitive movements but the force in which we keyboard is not forceful. to cause RSI, nor is using the computer necessarily going to cause inflammation directly.

Underlying Causes: The Hidden Factors

In your daily functions and the movements required to use your computer does not require you to use any force. But the primary reason why long hours on the keyboard, is harmful to us is the constant static strain that our fixated postures are held in for prolonged periods of time. Fixed focal concentration and sustained muscle tension, gripping the mouse and holding the phone to your ear and our diet is more damaging.

There are many more factors that will contribute to your RSI and CTS related injuries than using the computer, here is a list of some of them.

• A lack of sleep, causing muscle to fatigue faster.

• Women who are pregnant and who are menopausal

• Slouching posture

• Your genetics, relatively small carpal tunnel and wrist

• A poor diet and lack of water intake.

The Need for Breaks, how effective is it?

The common approach to repetitive strain injuries and CTS injures have been geared towards ergonomically positioning workers and their computers correctly, with very little effectiveness. The UK Institute of Occupational Medicine reported this after adjusting hundreds of workstations and adjusting for age and gender. They found that the single most key factor for developing symptoms of RSI was the amount of time spent on the computer without taking any breaks.

In the NIOSH study described above the authors looked at the effect of introducing supplementary breaks to a working regime which normally included only a couple of breaks each day. The conclusions was,

”In addition to their positive effects on ratings of musculoskeletal discomfort supplementary rest breaks also led to decreased levels of eye soreness and visual blurring”.

NIOSH also found that

“Increases in discomfort of the right forearm, wrist and hand over the course of the work week under the conventional schedule were eliminated under the supplementary schedule”.

A very important finding was that

“These beneficial effects were obtained without reductions in data- entry performance”.

In fact, it was found that there was actually a slight increase in work rate after the breaks which I would think would more than compensated for any time lost taking more breaks. So taking more breaks can increase your production at work, now all you got to do is to convince your boss of this, good luck.

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