Speaker 1: Whow spoonful of sugar helps them leson go down, the medicine,
Speaker 1: go down, go down. Just a spoonful of sugar helps
Speaker 1: the dark a most delayedful.
Speaker 2: Well on afternoons talking health, Okay, now let me ask
Speaker 2: you this.
Speaker 3: How many times a day do you find yourself looking
Speaker 3: down at your phone or leaning forward while you work
Speaker 3: on a computer or a laptop device something like that.
Speaker 3: It turns out more Aussies are finding themselves with what
Speaker 3: they call technic. It's kind of a catchy name as
Speaker 3: it sounds a tech related neck problem, prolonged periods of
Speaker 3: working or looking at screens. It has affected individuals posture,
Speaker 3: and it seems it could actually have long term effects. Now,
Speaker 3: the average person spends three hours and fifteen minutes or
Speaker 3: more on their devices. That's daily, while others who may
Speaker 3: rely on technology their work are spending up to eight
Speaker 3: hours on top of that during your standard work day.
Speaker 3: So it's the majority of the waking hours for some
Speaker 3: people spent staring at a screen of sorts. Now, that
Speaker 3: generally affects your posture, and so the health specialists are
Speaker 3: waving some warning flags here because if people don't act now,
Speaker 3: it could have prolonged effects down the line, so much
Speaker 3: so that it's becoming the fourth leading cause of disability.
Speaker 3: Just think about that now. The question therefore, is how
Speaker 3: can we prevent these issues from turning from what is
Speaker 3: already bad to worse. Well, let's turn to the people
Speaker 3: who know a bit more about this than we do.
Speaker 3: Helen Gents is the CEO of Musculo Scleito Health Australia. Obviously,
Speaker 3: hence the name suggests they know a bit about this,
Speaker 3: and Helen's with me on the line. Helen, thank you
Speaker 3: for your time. I appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Him Michael, how are you.
Speaker 2: I'm all right.
Speaker 3: I try to avoid the technology as much as possible,
Speaker 3: but you can't. You can't wipe it away from your life.
Speaker 3: It's the nature of the way we live these days.
Speaker 3: So just how bad a problem is this? This technick?
Speaker 2: What are you seeing?
Speaker 4: Well, Michael, I think you pointed out it's the fourth
Speaker 4: leading cause of disability globally at the moment. But a
Speaker 4: really good point around muscular scletal disease, or as they
Speaker 4: call MSDS, is that back pain is actually the leading
Speaker 4: cause of disability globally, and it's also the leading cause
Speaker 4: of early retirement globally. So muscular scaletal health is such
Speaker 4: an important thing that is often overlooked in a lot
Speaker 4: of our health literature, a lot of the health priorities
Speaker 4: that our government has, and it is so very important
Speaker 4: to your overall health because, as you noted, these sorts
Speaker 4: of things can actually have really bad long term impacts
Speaker 4: with other morbidities, and I'm talking cardiovascular diabetes. If you
Speaker 4: don't have good muscular scletal health, you can actually be
Speaker 4: in pretty big trouble.
Speaker 2: All right, let's just unpack that then.
Speaker 3: Okay, So someone spends eleven hours a day, let's say,
Speaker 3: bent over a laptop or a screen, and then they
Speaker 3: spend the rest of the time swiping left and right
Speaker 3: on dating apps and they're scrolling up and down on TikTok.
Speaker 3: Their whole life has spent hunched over a device. How
Speaker 3: does that then get you to a point where other
Speaker 3: comobilities become particularly problematic.
Speaker 4: Well, it's things like when you have muscular skeletal conditions,
Speaker 4: like as you said, the newly coined tech nek. What
Speaker 4: happens is your posture is adversely affected your movement, your
Speaker 4: ability to get around and just go about your daily activities.
Speaker 4: Without pain is severely affected. And when you can't move
Speaker 4: and be active, then there are those other comorbidities that
Speaker 4: come into play. Your weight can be impacted, and when
Speaker 4: your weight is impacted, things like diabetes comes into play,
Speaker 4: things like cardiovascular disease. So having good muscle, joint, bone
Speaker 4: health is so important to everyone. And as you said,
Speaker 4: spending you know, eleven hours most of your waiting day
Speaker 4: looking at computer screens, looking at telephones, and having that
Speaker 4: adversely affect your posture and the way you can hold
Speaker 4: yourself and your muscle, bone and joint health, it's becoming
Speaker 4: a bit of a crisis.
Speaker 3: Michael, seems to be okay now with that established, I
Speaker 3: guess the obscusion is what do we do about it?
Speaker 3: I mean, yoga seems to stretch and flex your muscles,
Speaker 3: bones and joints. Having done it once or twice rather poorly,
Speaker 3: is that part of the answer. I've read the other
Speaker 3: day that adults are being total some are being told
Speaker 3: to embrace tummy time.
Speaker 2: Tummy time like babies.
Speaker 3: Get on your tummy and put your neck up in
Speaker 3: the air, that you reverse of technique.
Speaker 4: Well, I think, I think, as you rightfully point out,
Speaker 4: prevention is really important. So limiting your tech time is
Speaker 4: a good start. But obviously a lot of us can't
Speaker 4: do that for work, for all other commitments that we have.
Speaker 4: So there are some simple things we can start to
Speaker 4: introduce with our everyday activities. Ever heard about chair based exercise, Michael,
Speaker 4: I have? Yeah. Chair based exercise is a great way
Speaker 4: to think about moving differently. Think about your posture, think
Speaker 4: about moving your arms, your legs, all while seated, and
Speaker 4: you can do that in front of your computer. So
Speaker 4: introducing movement like that throughout your day where you have
Speaker 4: that break from looking at your screen, looking at your
Speaker 4: telephone and doing some really simple movements. And I'll do
Speaker 4: a plug for us here, Michael. On our free YouTube channel,
Speaker 4: we have a series of great share based workouts that
Speaker 4: people can access whenever they want, from a five minute
Speaker 4: workout to a thirty minute workout, and they're a really
Speaker 4: good way during a work day to just keep yourself moving.
Speaker 2: Okay, So che check out that YouTube link.
Speaker 3: Okay, So I mean I wonder if we've got to
Speaker 3: look at this a little bit, be a bit more
Speaker 3: conscious like we are when we go on a flight.
Speaker 3: You know, you sit down in an economy and you're
Speaker 3: cooped up there like a battery. Hen we're told be
Speaker 3: careful of DVT, get up, move around occasionally, do those
Speaker 3: chair based exercises to get the blood pumping, the muscles moving,
Speaker 3: and that sort of drilled into you when you get
Speaker 3: on the long haul flight. I suppose these same messages
Speaker 3: haven't been drilled into us when we go for a
Speaker 3: long haul tech session at work, followed by all the
Speaker 3: social media at home.
Speaker 4: Exactly. You've spot on, absolutely spot on, And this is
Speaker 4: what I was saying about the fact that muscular skiletal
Speaker 4: health has to become an absolute top health priority. People
Speaker 4: need to be aware of how moving regularly, from simple
Speaker 4: things like share based exercise to walking around the block,
Speaker 4: just moving. If you don't like walking or walking is
Speaker 4: too painful, think about some warm water exercises. Get yourself
Speaker 4: off to one of the many pools around the cities
Speaker 4: that offer warm water exercises. They're great for your muscular,
Speaker 4: skleetal health and to keep moving and just be active.
Speaker 4: And that's the fundamental part of prevention and keeping good
Speaker 4: muscle and bone and joint health.
Speaker 3: All right, let me ask you this about from an
Speaker 3: employer point of view, because They've got.
Speaker 2: Duty of care here.
Speaker 3: I mean, if the role and they're paying people to
Speaker 3: do the role involves them being hunched over a screen
Speaker 3: all the time, there's a I suppose a legal duty
Speaker 3: of care that comes into play. So we're speaking of
Speaker 3: chairs earlier. Some workplaces have spent some money on quality chairs,
Speaker 3: standing desks, these sort of things for their office based teams.
Speaker 2: But do they need to go further? Do you think?
Speaker 4: What I would say first up is I'm not a clinician,
Speaker 4: so I'm not coming at this from a clinical perspective,
Speaker 4: but from an employer's perspective. I think anything that you
Speaker 4: introduce into the workplace you have to ensure has a
Speaker 4: solid evidence base to it. Because there are a lot
Speaker 4: of things out on the market and a lot of
Speaker 4: people touting things that don't have the qualifications that they
Speaker 4: need to have to cout solutions to muscular skeletal pain
Speaker 4: or to ensure muscular skeletal health. I think what you
Speaker 4: need to do as an employer is make sure you
Speaker 4: are looking at the research behind what is being presented
Speaker 4: to you and making sure that is clinical and evidence based,
Speaker 4: hopefully with some significant clinical trials behind it, and that
Speaker 4: what you're implementing, your team is understanding why you're doing it,
Speaker 4: what it's going to do for their muscular scletal health,
Speaker 4: and how it can actually make them more productive. Because
Speaker 4: you've got to admit, Michael, if staff is feeling a
Speaker 4: bit of pain during the day because they've been sitting
Speaker 4: too long, or their necks a bit because they've been
Speaker 4: looking at a screen, surely making them feel better in
Speaker 4: terms of their muscular skeletal health is going to improve
Speaker 4: their productivity as well. So it's a win win.
Speaker 3: They can be a pain, You're quite right, but I
Speaker 3: shouldn't say I try to buy their love with cakes
Speaker 3: and things. I assume that's not the sort of rectification
Speaker 3: you had in mind.
Speaker 4: Probably not. I'm a big fan of cakes, I can
Speaker 4: tell you. But you've raised another really good point that
Speaker 4: it's not only exercise, it's also nutrition that's really important
Speaker 4: in this and there are a lot of foods that
Speaker 4: you can actually eat that help your muscular scaletal health.
Speaker 4: And once again another plug head to our website. We've
Speaker 4: got many recipes free once again on our website that
Speaker 4: help with lowering inflammation, help with improving bone density, all
Speaker 4: of those sorts of things and they're actually really.
Speaker 2: Delicious donuts on that list.
Speaker 4: No, but I might work on that for you. Might
Speaker 4: see what I can come up with.
Speaker 2: You do something there that'd be wonderful. Helen. I appreciate
Speaker 2: your time. Thank you so much.
Speaker 4: Thanks mich I'll have a good afternoon.
Speaker 3: You too, Helen Jensen said, see of musculo skeletal health Australia.
Speaker 3: It's an important issue. It's only going to become more important.
Speaker 3: We've got to deal with it. And maybe indeed you're
Speaker 3: already dealing with it in your own way. But as
Speaker 3: we go to the break, maybe we should all if
Speaker 3: we're in our chairs, we should all just do the
Speaker 3: YMCA mooves or something and just limber up a little bit.
Speaker 3: And actually, having just spoken to hell And I'm noticing
Speaker 3: there's a bit of pain in the back and whatever.
Speaker 3: This wouldn't be the first time I've been described as
Speaker 3: a pain in the neck or the back. But anyway,
Speaker 3: it's ten to two