Those of us who sit at computer screens for long periods every day are already in danger of unsettling our health if this sort of activity is not balanced by a whole lot of contrasting activity. An addict is one who will concentrate their mind and body around one sort of activity to the exclusion of almost all others.
The main health implications of Internet Addiction are as follows;
1. Posture and Tension:
Sitting or slouching in front of a computer for long periods of time and making repetitive small movements with our fingers and wrists will affect our structure. Some of the effects will be direct, as in placing unusual strains on our spines and the ligaments in our wrists. More importantly, long periods of immobility will introduce habits of muscular tension, which may affect us throughout our lives.
What Can We Do?
We should spend 10 or 15 minutes of every hour doing contrasting activities, which involve bending, stretching, moving about and generally all those things which we are not doing in front of the screen. .
2. Breathing and Blood Circulation:
When holding ourselves still for long periods of time and doing low energy work, we tend to breathe in a very shallow manner. Long periods of shallow breathing means that a lot of stale air remains in our lungs and the efficiency of oxygen uptake from our lungs into our blood is reduced. Our blood oxygen levels drift lower and lower and the blood supply to our muscles, our digestive system, internal organs and to our brain is affected. Our bodies and our brains are unable to work at optimum levels. This can effect everything from the number of headaches we experience to our mental efficiency, our resistance to common illnesses, our physical fitness and our hearts.
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What Can We Do?
Practice taking a few deep breaths, often while working at your computer. Get up and move about regularly, try to introduce some aerobic exercise into these breaks. Do whatever it takes to get the blood moving around in the body, to get your lungs opened up and cleared out.
3. Digestive System and Skin Health:
Even if we eat the best, freshest and most wholesome food, healthy digestion depends on our stomach and abdomen being relaxed and mobile. Waves of movement travel along the tube, which makes up our gastro-intestinal tract. These waves must be able to travel freely without being affected by tension or our abdomens being compressed by hunching over ourselves.
Smooth muscle movement, light exercise and even breathing, drive our lymphatic system, which is primarily responsible for waste removal from tissues and cells throughout the body. If our digestion is sluggish we feel just the same and whatever we put in our mouth is not digested properly. If our lymph is sluggish, our skin health is poor, our breath and body odour may stink and our pimples will be worse.
All these effects can result even if your food is fresh and wholesome. Imagine how much worse they will all be if most of your food is junk and most of your drink is coffee or Coke?
What Can We Do?
Eat away from the computer. Take a break, walk to the shop and buy some fresh food, prepare it yourself, eat it in a relaxed manner. Focus your attention on the food and the enjoyment of it. You can''t do this when you are on the Net.
Drink regularly. Keep a large jug or bottle of fresh water on the desk. Get up frequently and make a herb tea drink like Chamomile or Rosehips or Mint for example.
4. What about the Electromagnetic Radiation?
Be aware that sitting in front of a cathode ray tube which is beaming electrons directly at yoface and brain is not a good idea.
Those of you who get headaches from sitting in front of your screens, on your mobile phones or under fluorescent tubes beware, your bodies are trying to tell you something is wrong.
What Can We Do?
Take regular breaks from your computer and don''t take these breaks in front of the T.V.
5. What about Eye Health?
Our eyes were provided with a lifetime warranty which explains that to maintain optimum health and efficiency we should use our eyes to look around and about at all shapes and sizes and colours. We should frequently look at things close to us and far away. We should look at things in all sorts of light from starlight to bright sunlight.
What Can We Do?
Have your favourite pictures or photographs behind, beside and above your screen and at various distances away. Have a window in front of you so you can focus on more distant objects regularly. Have something else very close to your face, less than 10 inches away. This can be a picture or some wording and glance at this regularly also.
Cover your eyes regularly with the palms of your hand and open them into the darkness to let them rest. Blink rapidly while looking directly at the sun for short periods.
So friends take care of your health which is far more precious than anything in the world