Bad News: Laptops Can Damage Your Spine

Oh noes! You may remember a while back, I wrote a post about the perils of bad computing posture. Many of you probably read it, shuddered, and carried on merrily with your poor postural habits... yes? (Trust me, I am not nearly as much of a model for proper ergonomics as I wish I was. I count myself among those of you who did not rush out to change your entire set-up.)

Well, today, via my friend the Instapundit (who has kindly linked to me on a number of occasions), I came across this quite distressing article.

Read 'em and weep:

• Back specialists say as many as four in five patients have chronic nerve damage caused by working on portable PCs.
• One expert said he had seen dozens of Xrays showing signs of degeneration in the joints of regular laptop users.
• He is also quoted as saying: "I also see many people in their twenties and thirties with a dowager's hump - a rounding at the base of the neck - after only a few years of looking down at a small screen while sitting slumped on a chair for long periods."

Watch out, my friends. You only get one body in this lifetime.

So what can you do?

• Take regular body breaks. Stand up, move around. Do some stretches right in front of your desk. (Look for the Yoga for Geeks podcast coming soon, I promise.)
• Get a raised laptop stand and external keyboard for the bulk of your computing. Try not to spend hours in compromising positions (like slumped in a chair with your laptop on your knees).
• Get a good chair. I didn't really understand the power of a good chair until I started borrowing one belonging to a friend where I work... and completely fell in love. I have never felt anything like this chair (it's a Keilhauer and sadly retails for $1200) and I swear I could sit for hours in it without getting most of the weird pains that other chairs cause. I actually spoke to an industrial design / human factors / ergonomics guy recently who told me that you really do have to spend at least $500 to get a quality desk chair. Start saving. It is worth it. If you spend as much time in your chair as you spend in your bed, shouldn't you make sure it's supporting you?
• Take stock of where you could be more effective with your time. If you find yourself wasting time online a lot, you might as well be going for a walk, or doing anything else that gets you out of your chair. Laundry! Play with your kids! Take a yoga class! Your body will thank you.

I really can't stress enough how important it is to take responsibility for your body before things get bad. Sometimes we avoid making changes because the scope of the issue feels too big (ie, you don't know where to start). So take a deep breath, accept the way things are right now, and start to make small changes. You deserve to be comfortable in your one blessed body.

(This was cross-posted from Yoga for Geeks.)

UPDATE: I also really recommend checking out this book, to address both general and specific pain caused by repetitive stress.