This past week, ask.healthfacts.ng/healthfacts had a short chat with a few staffs at a tech hub somewhere in Lagos. We discovered a couple of interesting facts about computer geeks, particularly programmers and we would love to share them with you!
In the course of discussing with them, we noted a few common health challenges they have experienced over time and on a daily basis. Some of the basic features common with computer geeks include:
- Little sleep and sometimes lack of sleep: Programmers and other computer geeks tend to stay up late as most of them are passionate about their jobs and are always up and running on one project or the other. As one of them stated, “I sometimes suffer insomnia, and I sleep very little on the average as when I start on a project, I am always eager to finish it. We also deal with a lot of deadlines, its all part of the job”.
- Eye irritations: All of the five people we spoke to complained about occasional eye irritations, from eye watering to itchiness. Half of them were using recommended lenses and the others testified of regular visits to the optician.
- Weight gain: Yes! A whole lot of computer geeks are overweight or well, let’s say they have added more weight on the job.
According to the tech hub’s lead programmer, he has recorded serious weight gain since he started professional programming. This he attributed to the nature of tech jobs. A lot of times, tech professionals opt for snacking, and hence they tend to consume too much calories. Also, they do not burn out the calories at the same rate because they are mostly stationary in one place with their workstations.
- High Blood sugar: The lead programmer at the hub told us how he suffered from high blood sugar because he regularly snacked and took a lot of coffee to enable him fight sleep when working. He had too much caffeine in his system and also slept very little. Somehow all of these amounted to his high blood sugar. He had to watch his sugar intake, cut down on the unnecessary snacking, and work out at the gym occasional to steady his blood sugar level.
Well, they were kind enough to offer a few suggestions to computer geeks on how they can stay healthy despite the nature of their job. Outlined below are a few of them:
- Good sitting posture: Although none of them complained of body aches. They all attributed it to good office furniture and taking out time in between work to stretch the body.
- Cut down on the snacks! It can be hard to resist snacking while working on a computer. However, you can train and restrain yourself to healthy snacking.
- Use of screen protectors to guard the eye and good office lightening.
The world has gradually turned into a global village driven majorly by technology. Hence, computer geeks, programmers, techies are all very important and highly valued in the system. These few tips if adopted religiously can help save you as a computer geek from the several health issues associated with the profession.
