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Eight Hour Coding Session Causes DVT
NickFitz writes "The BBC reports that a UK programmer collapsed with Deep Vein Thrombosis after an eight hour programming session. The potentially life-threatening condition is more commonly seen in air passengers on long haul flights, but this should serve as a warning to many Slashdot readers (including me) that screen breaks aren't just for resting the eyes."
I'm waiting for the study of what happens if you check email for 2 hours, code for 30 minutes, surf the web for another hour or so, code for another hour, check email again, then sneak out early.
-Space for rent
You know, I've found there are ways to get your blood flowing to that "deep vein" without even getting up from your chair. Thank you, T1 and 21 inch monitor!
Not moving for 8 hours causes DVT. It doesn't matter what you were doing for that 8 hours of not moving.
This, right after I had an 8 hour long coding session yesterday night for a team project.... We may have slacked of a bit and sucked life out of vending machines... But still would have been good to know....
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
"I had absolutely no warning symptoms and I had no idea there was anything wrong at all," he said.
"I was sat at my desk and suddenly I was hit with the most excruciating pain in my lower back, I collapsed at the desk with my head on the keyboard, the pain was just so severe."
Collapsed with his head on the keyboard? No wonder he won the Obfuscated C Contest.
{for(x=A[1],i=calloc(strlen(x)+2,163840);
C-1;C3?Q=_= 0,(z[1]=*x++)?((*x++==104?z[1]^=32:--x)
They make it sounds like an "8 hour coding session" is some kind of monstrous abuse of your body. Uhhh... Don't many of us do this EVERY DAY? Just get out of the damn chair every once in a while! Was this guy pissing in a bottle or something?
What American Way of Life would you expect a programmer in the UK to have, exactly?
It's a strange world -- let's keep it that way
...take a break now and then, grab a coffee, walk around. Will do your body and mind a world of good. Chances are you'll come back feeling refreshed and working better than you would be on a non-stop session.
People that believe in their opinions don't post AC.
And then some jackass sues Blizzard...
- Just my $0.02, take with a grain of salt, your mileage may vary.
I'm pretty sure sitting in _one_ place for eight hours had something to do with it. His health of course is/was a contributing factor, but you're just not supposed to sit like that for eight hours straight.
Why not fork?
Active, healthy people can and do experience DVT.
d =526763
a soccer player: www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?arti
a skier: www.thrombosisjournal.com/content/2/1/8
Should've remained silent... the guy was from jolly olde England.
Here in the UK you legally get (at least) an hour break for an eight hour shift. If this guy wasn't using it, that's IMO his own fault for getting problems. You should always take what breaks you have, not only for obvious health reasons, but also because the more you do for people the more they expect from you.
Don't you just hate it when people reply to your signature?
He was one of those U.K. Americans, then?
The 3 major risk factors for a DVT are:
1) Venous Stasis. (Usually caused by not moving your legs/walking for hours at a time, such as in a long car/plane ride, or I guess 8hr. coding sessions)
2) Hypercoaguable state (Usually a predisposition to increased likelihood of clood clotting, such as being pregnant, having cancer, being on estrogen, smoking, certain genetic defects, etc.)
3) Injury to the leg.
So #1 was in play, but if he had risk factors such as #2 or #3, that would have makedly increased his risk for a DVT.
Ironically, he could have prevented venous stasis by a simple method such as this every 1-2 hours...
http://www.ntk.net/media/developers.mpg
Nah... Let's face the fact humans were never designed to be sitting down for 40 hours out of the week. It's simply not natrual. I'm in pretty decent health right now and I've noticed that having a desk job for the very first time does make my legs very uncomfortable when I sit for extended periods of time. It also appears that beign tall doesn't help. It seems like a pretty good concensous when looking up DVT that one of the causes is sitting down for extended periods of time.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
The UK isn't part of the USA. There's like some water between them.
There's a related story about an otherwise healthy teenager developing DVT after only 10 hours playing on a game console.
No word on any lawsuit, but the doctor is quoted as saying "However, it doesn't mean that the government should be putting health warnings on Playstations."
Is this not obvious? It may be interesting to know what position he sits in...I work/code with my feet up on the desk which, while more comfortable, puts a lot more weight/pressure on my tailbone region...I imagine DVT would set in much quicker in this position as opposed to the traditional feet-on-the-floor position.
I know most people can't be bothered to RTFA, but could you at least skim the summary?
No worries! The chance of this happening to anyone is very sma5ryh657
He was a Brit, stupid.
Help a man when he is in trouble and he will remember you when he is in trouble again.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/29/043425 4
0 099
These were my comments:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=52201&cid=518
That said, I still suffer from blood clots and have been taking warfarin for over 3 years now. I can say with some certainty that if he got a clot after sitting for eight hours, it actually only revealed itself then. He's been clotting for a while.
I'm more active now, cycling minimum 100km a week and lots of walking at work and at home... but I still sit for many hours.
I recommend to anyone who works as I do, even with breaks and regualr exercise, watch yourself. Not to be an alarmist but be wary of any pain or inflammation in your calves and thighs. The alternative just ain't worth not taking precautions.
My suggestion, is that you exercise or do yoga or something other than coding. Also take breaks every 45 minutes and get up and move around. It will also help with CTS.
Only 'flamers' flame!
Does slashdot hate my posts?
He doesn't let pesky facts get in the way of his America bashing. :)
Humorless sig goes here.
Those days when you actually work, you get complemented on how amazingly productive you are.
Now Mr Simmons, 42, is calling on other desk-bound workers to get up and move around to cut the risk of DVT.
like, duh..
MilkMiruku
Eight hours straight in a chair? I can't go more then a hour without having to go potty. The guy must have a bladder the size of a basketball.
The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer. - Edward R. Murrow
Not funny, but not a great hassle either. I have to get my blood tested every three or four weeks, and get my warfarin dose adjusted. It's a nuisance when I fall off my bike, because I tend to bleed a lot.
I'm supposed to get up and move about fairly regularly during the day, and mostly I remember to do that. And I do need to take regular exercise (which is why I cycle a lot). But it's something you can live with. I don't like having to take warfarin, but it isn't the end of the world.
I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
Long story short, I used to spend long hours in a NOC (like half the people reading this). After one particularly long day of work with little stretch-time, I was walking home and boom, felt like I had a crack in my pelvis. A hospital visit revealed DVT.
A week of self-administered heparin (sp?) injections, three months of warfarin/coumadin with bi-weekly pt/inr blood tests (to adjust the coumadin dosage) and the lifelong worry that it'll act up again. I've had it reappear three times so far though I've been able to keep out of the hospital.
And it can definitely kill you. If a clot travels to the lungs or your heart you're in for a rough time. David Bloom, a reporter in Iraq, (somewhat) recently died from DVT due to sitting in a cramped M88 for days, hours at a time.
I guess what I'm saying is trust me, get up and walk around every hour or so. DVT blows.
My
Limekiller
That is why you get up once per hour to go outside and get a smoke.
This comment does not exist.
I have a nervous habit. When I'm sitting, I'm constantly shaking my legs. Restless leg syndrome I think they call it. Anyway, I'm willing to bet this habit prevents me from getting a DVT by keeping my legs moving. YMMV.
He might, but then HR will nail you with OSHA and EPA actions due to the improper disposal of genetic material on kleenex in your trash bin.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
Drink. More. Water.
The UK isn't part of the USA. There's like some water between them.
In your face, Hawaii!
That green slime had it coming.
After a few months, you won't need drugs and you won't have to worry about DVT. And you'll end up really good at it, :-). Anyway, I have a similar job and that was the most economical solution that I found.
In the UK they speak the same language as in the US, they watch the same stuff on TV, they have lots of identical place names, they trace their legal systems back to the Magna Carta, and whatever country the US President chooses to invade, the UK Prime Minister is sure to follow. In what way isn't the UK a province of the US?
-- SIGFPE
Enjoy your promotion.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Speaking out of experience...Long haul driver...Undiagnosed DVT that moved to my lung...Called a Pulmonary Embolism (PE).
5 days in hospital on Heparin with little or no movement allowed, because the clot could move to your heart (heart attack) or brain (stroke/aneurysm); one year on Coumadin (warfarin, btw is also a rat poison) with twice-weekly to monthly prothrombin checks to guarantee no wild swings (too much clotting vs hemophiliac-like bleeding); and, up until recently, aspirin regimen to decrease normal clotting once I was taken off the Coumadin.
I say up until recently because now, after being off Coumadin for 2-1/2 years I now have venous stasis in my other leg - I knew the symptoms of pre-DVT. Now currently taking Plavix and am getting compression stockings. I seem to be too good at sitting at my job!
Important to know: Once you get it once you are at a very high risk for getting it again!
I can be moderated as Inciteful...
Each day I sit down at 7:30am and then get up at 4:30pm. I never suffer from aches or pains because I do not remain in one position for any length of time. Simply bending and straightening your legs while coding is sufficient to promote the flow of blood.
Even wiggling your toes increases blood flow.
Looking at certain images on the net can increase blood flow (but to other parts of the body).
it is only after a long journey that you know the strength of the horse.
"I was sat at my desk and suddenly I was hit with the most excruciating pain in my lower back, I collapsed at the desk with my head on the keyboard, the pain was just so severe."
...and when his head hit the keyboard, he pushed CTRL+ALT+CANC, vaporizing at once eight hours of hard work.
Why don't you just apt-get install workrave?
& Get out more.
Back when I used to play Batmud, 8-16 hour sessions with almost no movement from the keyboard were not unheard of...
Gotta clear this up 'cos it's a pet hate to me (used to run DVT clinics as part of my Medical Assessment Unit duties in the UK). Patients often are reluctant to take warfarin because they heard it was a rat poison. The reason warfarin's a 'poison' isn't because it's toxic to rats, it's because it does the same thing in rats as in humans - prevents blood clotting and helps dissolve existing clots. Everything in moderation - anticoagulants included; I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to imagine what happens in overdose, particularly to small, furry rodents...The brief answer is that you won't see a poisoned rat with a DVT ;-).
Have any studies been done on this? Or is this a particular case? If no studies have been done on this, then it certainly warrants an analysis with the ergonomics perspective in mind.
What, you think his bad teeth caused it?
Just give it more time and a discovery of oil off the coast of Britain....
this guy is way over weigth and a vegtable has not touched his lips in 15 years! blame your bad health on the machines!
That's what Twinky breaks are for.