There is a saying that goes prevention is better than the cure and it is no more relevant than in the area of hazards related to the use of computers.

Living in the electronic age has, of course, many great advantages and we literally now have the world at our finger tips.

However we must also be aware of the potential problems that it can also cause. Often the latter are only seen after many years of usage and if we just live for today they will come back to haunt us.

One thing that we do have is the knowledge; there is no excuse for not knowing the drawbacks of sitting at a computer screen all day.

Many of these facts are purely commonsense for example if you have sat in one position for a long period of time the soreness of your lower back will be an obvious sign.

If we know our bodies then we can recognize any signals that tell us when something is not quite right. But in reality it is better to take action well before our body has to intervene. As we age our bodies have become accustomed to how we work, rest and play.

General exercise and a good healthy diet is a good basis to start but by examining our daily routine often there is an area of change that we can make to improve.

We all know that we can not just stop working at regular intervals; our employers are likely to object. To avoid long term injuries from repetitive strain injuries it needs a bit more creativity.