At Work

If you enjoy eating, wearing clothes, and having a roof over your head, chances are you have, or will get at some point in the future, a job, as working is the manner in which we earn the money to pay for such things. Some of us sell Richmond Hill, Ontario real estate, some of us write faintly amusing yet largely irrelevant web articles, but we all have a common goal: to not die. Yes, jobs are necessary, but in addition to their benefits (i.e. money and having something to do all day) jobs also come with their own special set of drawbacks. After all, if we didn't have to earn our perks, it wouldn't be called going to work.

The particular set of drawbacks we'll be talking about here on Balance Body is the detrimental effect working can have on your body. Your 9 to 5 job hefting boxes in the auto dealer supply warehouse is how you afford the food that keeps your body running, which is a benefit, but what is all that hard labor doing to your life expectancy? Does the exercise keep you in shape? Is the lifting artificially curving your spine? Are those boxes you're carrying contaminated with harmful substances? What about the fast food you order in for lunch?

You may think you don't have to worry about the physical effects of your job because it's a sit-down or office job, but getting away from industrial rotary valves doesn't mean you're getting away from any possible harm. All that sitting causes a whole new set of physical issues that are only now being studied intensively by scientists and health professionals. Look, for instance, at the recent rise in cases of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome among office workers in recent years. It correlates directly with the increasing use of desktop computers in the workplace.

You see, there is no possible way to avoid affecting your body as you go about your life, short of wrapping yourself in a plastic shrink sleeve for packaging sandwiches and flash-freezing yourself until your consciousness can be downloaded into an indestructible robot form. Everything you do affects your body. Working affects it by exposing you to certain conditions that occur after persistent or repetitive action. Not working affects it by making it impossible to afford the food that fuels it or the proper health care that keeps it from getting diseased.

All you can really do is study the effects that each type of job has on your body - effects that we will lay out in this series of articles - and weigh the consequences of continuing the job versus quitting or looking for a new one. In some cases, such as working in a diagnostic imaging lab where the MRI shielding is faulty, the decision should be a no-brainer. In other cases it's more complicated. Through our articles, we'll try bring you up to date on all aspects of the problem so that you can feel confident enough to make the decision for yourself.