Sitting too long in front of a computer screen or moving in the wrong position for a long time causes about 80% of office workers to have one or more times symptoms such as neck and shoulder pain. Common neck and shoulder pain is not dangerous, but it can cause a lot of anxiety and discomfort for patients and reduce the quality of life.

In this month’s Health Newsletter, Insmart sends you and your family some useful information about neck and shoulder pain, causes and effective neck and shoulder pain prevention measures as well as osteoarthritis caused by neck and shoulder pain syndrome.

Part 1. What is neck and shoulder pain syndrome?

Neck and shoulder pain syndrome are symptoms of muscle soreness, accompanied by difficulty with movement in the neck and shoulder area due to stretched muscles. In addition, the disease usually appears in the morning after waking up. Soreness can spread down the shoulders and arms. The pain increases with walking, prolonged sitting, coughing, sneezing, the weather changes, and the pain decreases with rest.

The patient may be accompanied by dizziness and dizziness. Or you feel pain and cramps or difficulty moving your neck and shoulder area.

Part 2. What causes shoulder and neck pain for office workers?

According to experts, the reason why office workers are prone to shoulder and neck pain is due to:

• Wrong posture: Office people often have to work at least 8 hours a day, they have shoulder and neck pain when sitting for a long time with improper sitting position. Part of the reason is that due to not using quality seats such as swivel chairs, director’s chairs, so there is often back pain and numbness. Not only that, at lunch break, office workers, due to not having a proper resting position, often put their heads on the table, lean their heads on chairs, lie on their sides,… These postures also lead to soreness, muscle tension, shoulder muscle bundles, painful neck and numbness, difficulty operating.
• Sedentary or overworked: Sitting in place throughout the day of office workers not only causes the muscles to be stretched but also causes an imbalance of micronutrients in the muscles and causes numbness and pain for many days.
• The body is infected with cold: Office people often have the habit of sitting for a long time in the air conditioner, this causes difficult blood circulation, muscle dysfunction, affects the nerves that control the muscles of the shoulder and neck due to lack of nutrients, thereby causing shoulder and neck pain.
• Nerve dysfunction: If the nerves of your neck are stretched or stretched excessively, it can also cause neck and shoulder pain.
• Blockage of blood circulation: One thing most office workers with neck and shoulder pain have in common is that sleeping and sitting in the wrong position cause compression of muscles and blood vessels in the shoulder area. When blood vessels are blocked, poor blood circulation makes the flesh of the neck and shoulders area not nourished and protected, causing pain, fatigue, numbness.
• In addition to the above reasons, some habits in daily activities such as sitting for a long time in front of fans, air conditioners, or walking in the rain, not wearing hats when going out in the sun,… can be agents that reduce oxygen supply to muscle cells, causing ischemia leading to neck and shoulder pain.

Part 3. Shoulder and neck pain warns of dangerous osteoarthritis

Any abnormal manifestation of the body reflects our health problems. According to musculoskeletal experts, neck and shoulder pain can be a sign of bone and joint problems such as:

• Cervical spondylosis: The vertebrae, cartilage tips, intervertebral discs, and synovial organs show signs of degeneration or damage, causing aches and pains. Especially when moving the neck area.

• Herniated cervical vertebral disc: The disc is deviated from the position inside the vertebrae, pressing on the spinal cord or nerve roots around the neck area, causing pain.
• Calcification of the cervical spine: This disease also causes the formation of bone spurs, they compress nerve roots in the spinal canal causing neck pain, neck and shoulder pain.
• Adhesion of the shoulder blade joint: The joint in the shoulder becomes inflamed, forming scar tissue that makes it difficult to move, move the shoulder joint

If shoulder and neck pain caused by osteoarthritis is not prevented and treated promptly, in the long run, patients may lose their function, seriously affecting movement as well as daily activities.

Part 4. Preventive measures Neck and shoulder pain for office workers

According to experts, to avoid neck and shoulder pain, you should follow the recommendations of living habits as well as eating:

• Do not sit at work for too long, especially in front of the computer. There should be a minimum interval every 30 minutes of work, it is recommended to stop for breaks to perform gentle exercises of the cervical spine, shoulders and hands.
• When working, it is necessary to keep the neck straight, not to bend for too long. When sleeping, avoid too high head pillows, choose low pillows, less than 10cm.
• When shoulder and neck pain appears, you should rest and relax, you can combine massage and massage to help blood circulate.
• Do not break the neck with “teeth sprinkling”, because if the disc has degenerated when broken or twisted hard, it will create momentum for the herniated disc to come out and aggravate the disease.
• It is necessary to eat with a diet full of minerals, calcium, potassium and vitamins C, B, E, warm baths capable of inhibiting the activity of free radicals, thereby reducing inflammation, soothing and effectively improving pain symptoms.
• Regularly practice appropriate physical exercise at least mid-time exercise, apply movements in motor exercises of the cervical spine to increase endurance, increase the endurance of the muscular tendon system, ligaments around the spine to help relax the neck area,  shoulders and back.

References: benhviensuoikhoang.com; phongkhammaple.vn &suckhoevadoisong.vn

Part 5. Health Screening Program Administration service

Insmart is the leading management unit and corporate health examination organization in Vietnam. We always aim to ensure the sustainability of corporate health. Insmart provides a full range of utilities to support customers before, during and after the examination, ensuring customers receive dedicated and attentive care throughout the process of using the service.

With more than 12 years of experience working with medical providers and owning a network of links in many provinces and cities, Insmart has been providing the most professional, convenient and superior health examination management and organization solutions. Through this service, we bring professional health examination programs, helping to save human resources in the step of reconciling and synthesizing costs with medical providers, helping businesses enjoy preferential prices for medical examination and treatment services at medical providers and improve the experience for employees about the welfare regime at the company.

If you are planning to organize a regular health check program for employees, please contact us via email: mkt@insmart.com.vn for detailed advice on organizing the program.

Fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/insmartvn/

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/insmart-vietnam

Website: www.insmart.com.vn

[Marketing Department -Insmart JSC]