We provide this free health resource to visitors of the Community Room of SeniorSSuperStoreS in an effort to keep baby boomers, seniors and the elderly informed of matters that can affect their lifestyle.

Although your computer can do much to enhance the quality of your life, how you use it can bring you agony. Medical professionals and ergonomics experts say that incorrect posture puts you at risk for wrist, neck, back and shoulder problems, as well as a variety of other injuries.

You must be careful to sit properly in the chair, place your hands properly on the keyboard and feet on the floor, position the monitor on your desk where you do not strain your neck and where glare does not hit the screen directly, and keep the screen far enough away to not cause you eye strain. Usually, the problems are manifest in muscular-skeletal aches and pains and headaches.

Improper posture can create pain, and pain, and creates immobility because you don’t want to move when you have pain.Immobility creates degeneration, and degeneration creates a worse condition that can create more pain, according to physical therapists and ergonomics experts.

Following are some points to keep in mind regarding computer setup and your posture:

1. Sit comfortably in a chair that has solid back support, with your legs extended no more than three or four finger widths from the back of the knee to the front of the chair seat. If someone else uses the chair occasionally, the chair should be able to be raised and lowered, swivel and be locked at different angles.

2. Your feet should be in front of the seat and placed flat on the floor, and if your feet dangle, place them on a short stool or a stack of books. Try to keep a 90 degree angle between your thighs and torso.

3. Your shoulders and arms should be relaxed, with elbows at a 90 degree angle to your body. The mouse should be to the right or left of the keyboard.

4. If your wrists are not positioned properly while typing, you risk repetitive strains of the wrist, elbow, shoulder or neck, and possibly carpel tunnel syndrome. Wrists should be in a neutral position, not bent up or down. To prevent your wrists from bending or straining, locate the keyboard so that the key lines up with your navel. Also, position the keyboard so that it lies flat on the desk or table. Use the keyboard’s wrist rests to rest your wrists, and don’t lean your wrists on them while typing. And, as a little reminder, SeniorS SuperStoreS carries a number of wrist support products in our SUPPORT PRODUCTS department, and the IsoFlex Wrist Support and Exerciser in our HEALTH PRODUCTS department is a very popular item to support your wrists while typing.

5. Your computer screen should be placed the correct distance from your body. Screens of 17 inches or less should be an arm’s length plus 3 inches away from your fingertips. Screens of 19 inches or larger can be placed 7 or 8 inches away from your fingertips when you extend your arm. When the screen is too close or too far away, you may start shifting your body to seek a more comfortable position, risking improper body alignment.

6. Your eye level should be parallel to the top of the computer screen. Looking up may cause repetitive neck strain, which may lead to improper neck posture.

7. To prevent eye strain, try to rest your eyes every 20 minutes. Focus on an object 20 to 40 feet away for 10 to 30 seconds.

8. Glare on your screen causes your body to shift and creates eye strain. To reduce glare, place your computer in front of a window, with its back facing the window. The computer can also be placed near a wall opposite the window, again with its back facing the window. If glare is still a problem, try tilting the screen down, provided the top of the screen is still at eye level.Or, get a screen visor that sits atop the computer monitor.

9. Overhead lighting is preferable to desktop or table lamps or lights.A fluorescent light is fine, as long as the fixture is covered by a grid or shield. However, if there is still glare on the computer screen, the screen visor also solves that problem.

Excerpts provided by physical therapist and ergonomices expert, Rich Epstein, who is the director of the Moore Center for Rehabilitation in Stamford, CT., and a founder of the Moore Center for Ergonomics and Injury Prevention.