Handling Your Arthritis at Your Desk Job

Injuries happen all the time at work, but most often people associate them with highly physical occupations like construction, factory jobs, or roadwork. However, statistics show that of the 4,600,000 injuries people experience annually, the most common types associated with lost work time are prevalent in several occupations, regardless of the level of labor.

Office work, for example, may not be as labor-intensive as other types of work. Still, several factors in your workday routine can lead to injuries bad enough to prevent you from coming in, including different types of arthritis. So, to keep you from losing money and time on your job, let’s go over ways to manage and prevent arthritis issues at your desk.

Drs. Glen Beede and Gregory Jaryga of Trinity Foot & Ankle Specialists have years of experience serving the Fort Worth and Weatherford, Texas, areas, helping to alleviate symptoms associated with arthritis caused by work and other factors.

Types of arthritis that office workers deal with

Multiple forms of joint inflammation lead to damage in your musculoskeletal system, including arthritis, and in an office environment, these are the common types:

Osteoarthritis

Also known as degenerative arthritis, this is the most common type of the illness. Wear on the joints eventually destroys the cartilage that cushions joint movements, causing them to slowly break down.

Rheumatoid arthritis

An autoimmune condition where the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy synovial joint tissue, leading to several unpleasant symptoms.

Either type of this joint problem can cause symptoms like stiffness, joint swelling, pain, limited mobility, joint deformity, joint instability, redness, and warmth.

Common causes

Office work environments are the opposite of more laborious jobs; the focus is on limited movement because people spend hours at their desks, which still stresses the body, but in different ways. The combination of staying in fixed positions for hours and constantly straining the same parts of the body leads to repetitive strain injuries.

This means the same groups of muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones are being strained or otherwise damaged through performing the same tasks with your joints in the same positions, which is enough to wear them down. At your desk, this can frequently lead to issues in your fingers, wrists, elbows, neck, knees, and ankles, which can result in arthritis in those joints over time.

Prevention and management

To treat ankle and foot issues associated with the pain and prevent further problems with arthritis, options include:

Ergonomic office equipment

Office chairs that help maintain good posture in your lumbar spine can prevent further strain on the lower body, easing foot and ankle issues.

Footrests

Keeping your feet on the footrest can help stabilize your posture and prevent foot and ankle issues from worsening.

Moving around the office

Getting up and walking is essential at a job that involves a lot of sitting to keep joints healthy.

Office work can be hard on joints over time, but if you have conditions like arthritis affecting your feet and ankles, make an appointment with Drs. Beede, Jaryga, and Trinity Foot & Ankles Specialists today to find relief.