Is Back Pain Hurting Your Career?

Feeling the tension of work starting to affect you physically? Try to reduce stress by exercising regularly, drinking enough water and practicing breathing exercises.

Low back pain, more commonly associated with jobs involving physical labour, is now afflicting an increasing number of white-collar workers. Usually associated with heavy lifting, turning, bending and repetitive motions, back pain is becoming a plague among those who lift nothing heavier than a stapler.

While workplace design and employee fitness are factors in office workers developing neck and back injuries, overlooked elements are psychosocial factors:

• How positive a person’s mental outlook is
• How much they like their career

Improving the Psychosocial Factor

Instead of taking drugs to reduce back pain symptoms, more and more recommendations involve reducing the amount of stress and taking steps to increase job satisfaction. In fact, experts say that up to 80 percent of adults will seek treatment for work-related neck or back pain at some point in their career.

Interested in learning more about what you can do to save your back? Ask us at your next appointment.