Every day of the week, we are visited by patients complaining of lower back pain, neck pain, head-aches, shoulder, elbow or wrist strains.

Many of them are busy professionals from companies and organisations in the Uxbridge and Hillingdon area. As we gather background information relative to the causes of injury, many of these patients will rather insightfully say

“it must be posture-related”.

In a sense, they are right: as office workers sit at their desk all day, increasingly hunched over their computer screen, so their chest and neck muscles tighten, compressing the vertebrae in their neck, straining their mid and lower back muscles, causing their shoulders, elbows and wrists to function at unnatural angles, and to sustain repetitive strain injuries; and as they cross their legs in these interminable meetings, so their pelvis may become twisted, resulting in lower back pain and lower limb complaints. The current prevailing mood of heightened stress is but an extra potential trigger of the injury process…

However, there is a degree of fatalism in incriminating posture, in other words it is often seen as an inevitable fact of life.

As osteopaths, we hope you would expect us to disagree strongly: with a little awareness focussed on understanding the mechanism of injury, altering the layout of work stations, improving working posture and implementing some basic lifestyle and postural exercise routines, the frequency of work-related injuries can be radically altered.

Over the coming weeks and months, Bridge to Health’s osteopaths will be stepping up their campaign to increase public awareness of how to prevent these types of injuries.

Our June health offer to local employees living or working in and around Uxbridge will centre on a postural assessment and osteopathic treatment, coupled with some practical exercises to enhance posture.

We will also be speaking to our corporate clients to encourage them in a pragmatic approach to work-station ergonomic assessments, coupled with employee training in workplace injury prevention practices.

If you believe you’re suffering from the effects of poor posture, feel free to contact your local osteopath on 01895 20 00 50 (the address for our Osteopathic Clinic in Uxbridge is here). If you think that a conversation with your company’s health and safety representative would be helpful, they are welcome to visit our website www.bridgetohealth.co.uk and then to contact us on the same number.