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Long Computer Sessions Could Cause Blood Clots
kac5 writes "The Australian reports that extended stints in front of the computer can cause blood clots to form such as those that occur from Deep Vein Thrombosis. Researchers have named it e-thrombosis (what is it with naming everything to do with computers e something?). So /.'s get up out of your chair, slowly so not to make your body go into shock, and walk to the other side of the room and back. Now do that every hour and you should be right according to this article!"
But it truely was excessive amounts of time. Essentially what had happened was I threw one one of my knees vaccuuming the inside of my car (twisting my legs funny trying to get all the corners under the seats and all. Anyhow, because of that, my left leg was put into an immoblizer. So I basically couldn't walk very well, or very much. So I sat in my chair, almost the entire day for about a week while my knee healed.
:)
During that week, my right leg just hanged down off the edge of the chair all the time. Eventially I noticed it started to swell by my caff, and it hurt real bad. After a few days it was the size of one of them long watermellons, and deep purple colored. I went to the doctors, and sure enough it was a fairly large blood clot logged under my knee (where my leg was bent on the chair all day). The impaction from sitting at the chair all day caused the blood circulation to slow, resulting in a clot forming. It's a lot like a snowball effect, a little clot forms, and more and more platelets attach to it.
Once the doctor did an ultrasound on my leg and confirmed it was a blood clot, I was in the hospital for about 5 days with an IV drip of blood thinners. They came in about every 3 hours to take blood from me to make sure my platelet level was fine (don't want to thin the blood too much.) After the 5 days I went home to bed rest for about 6 weeks. During that 6 weeks I had to transition myself off the IV blood thinners to a pill called Coumadin. The only way to transition were shots of the stuff in the IV about twice a day in my stomach. Not very fun. I had a nurse come by the house once a day to take blood to check to make sure the levels were good.
During that time, the doctors kept telling me that if I felt in pain in my head, chest, or trouble breathing to call 911 immediately. Blood clots are very serious. If it breaks away and moves through the blood stream, it can clog somewhere in my body causing a heart attack, stroke, or pulminary embalism. It was funny, because the first night I was home, the nurse told me all about that, and kept saying, "And if you don't call 911 immediately you could die!!!" in this real strict voice. Then she took my blood pressure. "Your blood pressure it too high!!!" My father pointed out she had just scared the hell out of me hehe.
Anyhow, after the 6 weeks, I pretty much had to learn to walk again since my muscles were very weak. I had to wear funny stockings on my leg to make sure it keep my circulation good, and had to continue taking coumadin for about a year and a half. I had to wear a special medical alert bracelet because if I were in a car accident, it would alert EMTs that I'm on Coumadin, meaning any bleeding injuries wouldn't clot themselves anymore because of my thin blood.
It takes a very long time for the body to absorb a blood clot, so during that year and a half I had to make sure I paid attention to any chest pains, and not passed them off as heart burn. Also, during that year and a half, I had to go into the doctors office twice a week and have blood drawn to check my platelet levels. Not very fun, I looked like a drug addict from all the needle marks.
So, safe to say, I pay attention to how long I'm sitting, and how my legs are. I occastionally stand up and take 10 minute walks when I'm at work. I try and tap my food, or move my leg when sitting to keep blood flowing down there. My doctor also told me to pick up some horse chesnut extract. Apparently its been shown to help increase blood circulation. Due to the severe swelling in my leg, its now bigger than the other one pretty much perminately. The veins are also noticably bigger when I exercise. Also, the type of chair you sit in plays a big role. I make sure the chair I'm sitting in has plenty of padding and comfortable around the under paid of my knees, and that my legs don't hang off the edge, rather I'm low enough my feet touch the ground and support my leg.
The only good thing I say I got out of this I had plenty of time when I was in bed to learn C.
..There's a-dooin's a-transpirin'
1st of all, blood thinners do not affect platlets. Heparin, and fractionated heparins such as fragmin affect a lab known as ptt or aptt, which is a measure of one branch of the clotting cascade. Coumadin affects one of the other branches, and is measured by pt. These agents may be used at the same time because of this. Coumadin is also known as warfarin, and is the main ingredient in many rodent poisons for this reason. Blood should be checked frequently while on heparin iv because it has a short half life, and can increase or decrease pt dramaticly. Neither are "clotbusters" For a simple DVT a 'clotbuster' drug is unlikely to be used for the simple reason that the risks are too great for the benefit. Surgical intervention is possible to remove the clot, as well as placement of a device called a greenfield filter, which is usually placed in the inferior vena cava to catch any emboli which are thrown as the clots break loose, they typically are used in patients who get thrombosis frequently for whatever reason.
I had a blood clot in my leg, a DVT, deep vein thrombosis, I think it is called. I had to be in the hospital for several days. However, it got worse. The blood clot broke off and went to my lungs. That was possibly the worst pain I've ever had in my life. Every breath was a serious pain. I had a condition where I was losing a lot of blood which contributed to it. As a result of the condition I had to be bed ridden for several weeks. The inactivity also contributed to it. I highly recommend excercising every hour. It isn't just medical conditions that cause blood clots; movie marathons, all night computer sessions, plane flights... and don't cross your legs for a long time when you sit. hey, it might sound like silly advice, but it's worth not having a blood clot!
I am currently on medication for DVT. As somebody already mentioned, it is not just from the computer, but sitting in general.
I program long hours. I'm generaly considered to be fit and healthy. I've gained a few pounds since I got married a few years ago, but I'm certainly not overweight.
I started a company last year that relies heavily on my development efforts. I knew better, but I still spent 15-20 hours, 7 days, every week for three months. That gradually dropped to 12 hours a day, but no less.
In October 2002, I went to the ER for some pain in my calf. They did an ultrasound on my leg and then decided that they would hospitalize me for three days to see how I would respond to high amounts of Coumadin they then gave me. The injections made my stomach look like someone beat me repeatedly with a crowbar. Pricks. According to my doctor, if I'd left it any longer, I risked death, plain and simple.
The Coumadin I take now is in pill form, and the doctor says I will be on it for another six months or so. I get blood tests weekly (and I am so sick of being poked and prodded) but my INR is steady, though I think kept balanced only by the meds.
These days I walk more. I code just as much, but until my company can afford to hire someone to replace me, there's no way around that... But I've managed to train myself to at least stand up and stretch every 20-30 minutes, and I move about every hour or so.
It sucks. Period. I recommend just avoiding it in the first place.
In the EU there has been legislation for 10 years regarding the use of computer workstations. Employers are obliged to carry out risk assessments of all work stations, and to re-assess them if anything about the workstation changes. You have to assess seating (which must be fully adjustable), provide footstools if required to relieve pressure on back of legs, reflection and glare, lighting, desk space, ensure operators take regular breaks....
Our tiny 20 desk operation took half a day to assess - I'd hate to have to do it in a call centre!
"Blood thinners" is a very general term. Blood clotting is a fairly complex process, involving one of two clotting cascades (intrinsic and extrinsic). One can inhibit one of these two protein pathways, or one can attack the platelets themselves. Platelet inhibitors are often lumped into the general category of "blood thinners" (asprin is a platelet inhibitor).
Coumadin attacks the vitamin-K-dependent clotting factors (factors 2, 7, 9, and 10) where they are manufactured in the liver. This is why coumadin takes a bit of time to take effect. Heparin is much more immediate, but requires close monitoring of the Partial Thromboplastin Time to ensure adequate anticoagulation. However, there is a different preparation of heparin, called "Low-molecular-weight heparin" that is preferred, since you don't have to monitor it, and as a result it's often used in the outpatient setting to treat DVTs.
The factors that contribute to DVT formation are stasis, injury (I've seen a DVT from being hit in the leg with a baseball), and hypercoagulable state (blood is too thick, or platelets are too sticky). The more factors you have, the greater your risk... but sometimes it's not simply additive. For instance, young women that smoke AND take birth control pills (both make you hypercoagulable) are at greatly increased risk for clots... those two particular risk factors seem to have a synergistic effect.
Most geeks should not get these... Pulmonary Emboli are rare in healthy people. However, if you get a big one (a so-called "saddle embolus") it can turn you out like a light. In the case of large emboli, "clot buster" thrombolytic drugs ARE used, but usually only on a truly unstable, dying-in-front-of-your-eyes patient. Clot buster drugs are NOT benign, and can cause strokes, and uncontrollable bleeding. You'd hate to fix a guy's emobolus, only to have him die from an intracranial bleed. There's a reason those drugs are given very cautiously.
Certain genetic susceptibilities also exist that can make you prone to DVT/PE. Protein C, Protein S, Antithrombin III, Factor V, just to name a few (I'm not a hematologist). If someone in your family gets an unexplained DVT, your doctor will probably be checking all of these and more. If a first-degree family member has one of these that is abnormal, you might consider getting your own blood checked.
one more thing... I have to take issue with the name "E-thrombosis"... sheesh. Why couldn't he just call it a Pulmonary Embolus? Then any doctor would know immediately what he was talking about... God save us from neeto buzzwords.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
Though not mentioned, genetic conditions related to clotting factors might also be a factor (pun intended) in the development of DVT. For example, those most prone to problems on long flights are people with conditions like Factor V Leiden (3-5% of US population has this condition, most don't know about it) are likely to contribute to this. My hunch is that the guy with problems mentioned in the article likely had a clotting factor condition, which predisposed him to trouble, and he (unintentionally) found it working long periods of time at his desk.
If your clot was in the portal venous system, a sedentary lifestyle should have had absolutely nothing to do with that particular thrombosis.
So they never came up with anything? Most people that get PVTs have cirrhosis (probably why they did the liver biopsy), some kind of intraabdominal infection... something.
Check out this article
What you had is extremely rare in normal people...I'm not presuming to tell you what to do; your doctor knows you better than I do. Still, you might consider following up on it sometime, just to make sure everything is kosher.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
Sitting in front of a computer for 12 hours a day is 'less a "sedentary lifestyle"'?
/. there are people who actually think that banding together to assaut a keep on Dark Ages of Camelot is a productive endeavor. The mere fact that I know that DAOC exists makes me think Ted Kaczinsky was more correct than we know (except for the killings, of course.)
The word sedentary is derived from the Latin sedentarius -- the present participle of the verb "to sit." There is this thing called a dictionary, use it. Yes, they are available online, but guess what, they also comes as books. You remember books don't you? I shudder to think what your life was like before computers.
I won't even touch the "more productive" assertion, because on
The long and short of your tirade is this: you can sit and be productive. The two processes are not mutually exclusive. Duh.
BTW, my brother lives in Wellesley just down the street from Babson. He needs someone to shovel his walk and mow the grass. You can supplement your "non-sedentarian," yet somehow still "sitting" lifestyle if you wish.
Comparing it to Windows will be a moot point, since El Dorado is going to have a 40% larger code base than XP.
lol.
Not always. I do it too, but I have CFS. I lost a lot fo the muscle I had on ly legs during a particularly bad virus a few years ago, and ever since have had this 'restless leg' thing. Especially when I'm concentrating I have to jiggle my legs, which is so frustrating, but I guess safer now! And forfty percent of the time I'm doing it is just cos of the music anyway.