Work Injuries

Work Injuries

Hulen Chiropractic takes pride in being able to provide diagnosis and treatment for work-related injuries. Work Injuries are not typically from major accidents, but rather from overuse and repetitive stress injuries. However, there are many ways to suffer serious injuries at work depending on the type of work you do. When dealing with a work-related injury.

This page explains some of the risk factors involved with common work injuries and how chiropractic care can help you to heal from them.

Repetitive Stress and Overuse Injuries

Most commonly, work injuries are from overuse, awkward postures, and repetitive stress injuries.

Over some time, doing small tasks with poor posture can lead to acute and chronic pain, resulting in reduced productivity, increased sick days from work, and disabilities causing inability to perform basic job tasks.

A type of injury common to fingers, hands, wrists, and elbows is called occupational overuse syndrome or OOS. It is caused by repetitive movements or awkward postures.

OOS is also known as repetitive strain injury or RSI

Twisting and turning while moving furniture, equipment or inventory boxes can cause muscle strains.

Continuous sitting while typing with bad posture can cause both acute and chronic pain to arise. If you are using the correct posture, the simple act of doing the same motions day in and day out can still create problems over time.

When tendons are overworked they can become inflamed by repetitive manual tasks such as typing, working on an assembly line, playing a musical instrument, or driving. Symptoms include swelling, pain, and deficiency in affected joints.

Some of the most common repetitive stress or overuse work-related conditions are:

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Frozen Shoulder, Sciatica, Arthritis, Slipped or Herniated discs, Neck and Back Ache, Muscle weakness, Swelling, Numbness, Restricted mobility.

If you are concerned that you may begin to develop an OOS due to the nature of your work, it is important to start preventative measures and early treatment to ensure the issue does not progress to something more problematic. Sometimes poor workspace layout or work practices contribute to OOS. Making minor changes can alleviate or prevent the condition. Ignoring a work-related injury will cause more problems over time. Initially, the pain and stiffness may be minimal and noticeable only while the particular manual task is performed, but if you ignore the symptoms, the minor discomfort will escalate until the joints, muscles, and tendons are painful even when you are not working.

Some of the occupations that are most at risk for work-related injuries are:

Typing and clerical, Assembly line and packing, bricklaying, and carpentry.

Some of the ways to reduce the risk of obtaining a work-related injury are:

• Making changes to the design of a workplace. Adjusting workplace practices such as time spent sitting at a desk. Investing in adjustable furniture such as standing desks.

• Rearrange the workspace to keep everything needed within easy reach.

• Keep benches at waist height, so that shoulders can relax and arms can bend gently at the elbows.

• Schedule work to include frequent breaks.

• Vary tasks so that repetitive hand movements are alternated with other work.

• Adjust the height of your chair until your elbows are level with the keyboard. (Life hack: use a footstool or box to raise the level of your knees to your hip level or slightly higher than your hips, if you cannot make adjustments to your desk and chair.)

• Use a chair with a lumbar (lower back) support.

• When using a laptop instead of a desktop computer, raise the entire machine to eye level.

Work Injuries in Fort Worth

The bones particularly the spinal column are impacted when these types of work injuries occur. When your spinal column and other bodily joints are “out of whack” from repetitive stress injuries, it puts pressure on the nerves that surround them and this can cause pain across the entire body. Your bones need to stay properly aligned for the proper flow of oxygen and blood in and around your body. Chiropractic care from Hulen Chiropractic in Fort Worth can create a treatment plan to correct these conditions.

The success rate for chiropractic care in treating with treating work-related injuries is very high, especially when paired with lifestyle changes or medical care. Our chiropractors will evaluate to assess your current condition and locate the source of your pain. Once the cause of the pain has been determined, the chiropractor will work with you to develop an individualized treatment plan. The next step is to reach out to us today for your custom treatment plan. The longer you wait, the more severe your condition can become.

If you or someone you know has suffered a work-related injury such as the ones listed above contact our office today for more information at 817-346-0453. Our friendly staff will be happy to answer any questions you may have regarding your injury and the treatment options we can provide you.