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January 9, 2012 – 12:22pm

ALBANY, N.Y.—A car salesperson injured while driving to retrieve spaghetti dinners on a break is entitled to workers compensation benefits, a New York appellate court ruled Thursday.

The claimant in Richard Potter Jr. vs. Paolozzi Imports Inc. suffered an injury while driving his personal car after receiving a supervisor’s permission to leave work briefly.

Mr. Potter was returning to his worksite after retrieving two spaghetti dinners when the accident occurred, court records show. A finance manager where he worked had purchased the dinners as part of a fundraiser sponsored by a football team that Mr. Potter helped run on a voluntary basis.

No interruption of employment

A workers comp judge found that Mr. Potter’s injuries arose from his employment and awarded him benefits. In October 2010, a workers comp board affirmed the judge’s finding, and Paolozzi Imports appealed.

But the 3rd Judicial Department of the New York Supreme Court’s Appellate Division agreed with the workers comp board.

The appellate court cited case law finding that short breaks are so closely related to job performance that they do not constitute an interruption of employment, and another finding that benefits are awarded on the theory of an employer’s control of the employee during off-premises activity.

In this case, the appellate court said it found substantial evidence supporting the board’s determination that claimant’s short break did not constitute an interruption of employment.

A combination of poor diet, bad posture and lack of exercise can lead to chronic spinal problems

An estimated 70-80% people will suffer from significant backache at some point in their lives—and more and more youth are now beginning to suffer from it.

That’s what Mihir Bapat, consultant spine surgeon at Mumbai’s Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital and Medical Research Institute, says. It’s an opinion that’s shared by several doctors and orthopaedic surgeons, on the basis of anecdotal data.

Having a spine, a character virtue, unfortunately can also lead to health issues. A combination of careless diet, poor posture and lack of exercise has made backaches an increasingly common, and disturbingly unconnected-to-age, trend.

Raison d’être: Muscle imbalance is the basic source of pain in the back.

Though there are no known studies in India specific to back problems, doctors use data from other countries when estimating the high number of people likely to be affected by them. For instance, a New York Times article, Sit Up Straight. Your Back Thanks You, in June said up to 80% of Americans experience back pain at some point in their lives.

It’s the long hours at work, mostly spent in front of a computer, and the natural tendency of the human body to bend forward, that leads to a poor posture. The hunched slouch of James Dean in the poster of the 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause might look cool but it does the back no favours. Muscle imbalance is the basic source of pain in the back, shoulder and neck, says Abhishek Srivastava, consultant, centre for physical medicine and rehabilitation, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital and Medical Research Institute. “It leads to more stress on the spine, the disc comes out, leading to nerve compression,” adds Dr Srivastava.

Dr Bapat says the second reason young people, some still in their teens, are falling prey to spinal problems is poor diet, and the fact that they don’t spend enough time outdoors. There are two outcomes of this: overweight and calcium/vitamin D deficiencies.

Abhay Nene, a consultant spine surgeon at Mumbai’s Hinduja Hospital, says up to 80% of the people who come to the hospital with aches and pains are deficient in vitamin D. A survey by doctors at the hospital in early 2011 found that 77.5% of 561 males and 72.68% of 443 females who had come to the hospital for routine health check-ups were deficient in vitamin D, a surprising statistic for a city that’s predominantly sunny. For the sun is the best source of vitamin D.

“Vitamin D and calcium deficiency is an urban epidemic,” says Dr Nene. “It leads to poor muscle tone. That’s because we are not exposed to sunlight enough. Even an hour outside a day is not enough because we are anyway mostly covered up.” Dairy products, Dr Nene adds, are good sources of calcium, though major deficiencies can be addressed with supplements.

An improper diet, doctors say, also increases weight, which puts a constant load on the spine. “Controlling your weight is most important,” says Dr Bapat. “Particularly after the age of 25, you need to maintain your muscle strength as well.”

Some back problems are inevitable, like disc degenerative diseases (as the spinal vertebrae naturally degenerate over time). For the rest, there’s hope.

… And ways to win it

You are what you eat

There is a reason why women suffer from backache during pregnancy—too much weight adds a constant load on the spine. It’s also the reason men with potbellies would have a similar problem. In addition, calcium and vitamin D deficiencies weaken the bones. Cod liver oil, milk products and eggs are good dietary additions, besides supplements which can augment your diet.

Get some sun

The urban lifestyle keeps people indoors—in air-conditioned offices, cars and homes. That Goa beach holiday would be timely; alternatively, just sun yourself in the balcony. Dr Nene suggests taking regular breaks from the city to take to the outdoors.

Sit right, sit tight

Dr Nene says that while sitting, the back should form a convex rather than a concave form, which means your lower back should be curved inwards towards your front rather than the other way around, with shoulders pushed back. Long hours on a desk or in front of a computer can lead to slouching.

The centre of the computer screen should be at eye level, at least 20 inches away, and the desk height should allow your forearms to rest comfortably at a 90-degree angle. Keep your feet flat on the floor and your back against the chair. Use a cushion at the bottom of the spine if your chair is not well-designed – or while driving. Get up and stretch every hour; sitting for long periods puts pressure on discs and fatigues muscles. Roll your shoulders backwards 10 times and tilt your neck up and down and sideways in both directions 5-10 times.

Exercise

Prescribed: Yoga helps prevent and reduce backache.

Former Australian cricketer Matthew Hayden, in his 2011 autobiography ‘Standing My Ground’, quotes his mantra: “The pain of disappointment is much more than the pain of discipline.” Sure, it’s a drag to get to the gym or do 20 laps in the pool or walk among noisy cars and bikes on busy roads. But these activities will get your heart rate up, keep your weight in check and get you those precious moments under the sun when outdoors.

Dr Nene says a gentle use of musculature, like brisk walking, is enough, so you don’t have to necessarily grunt under a barbell. Dr Bapat says it’s best to start easy, with 40-minute walks for three-four months, before increasing intensity as desired. This year, like every other year, make that resolution to exercise, but this time, ensure you stick to your plan.

Yoga is great at preventing and controlling back pain as it has specific exercises aimed at improving core strength—abdominal muscles and lower back.

The good news, if it can be considered that, is that just 5-10% of the people with back problems will need surgery. In most cases, say experts, an understanding of the problem, and rehabilitation (physical exercises targeted specifically at the back) will do the trick. “Rarely do we intervene as surgeons,” says Dr Nene. “These weekend ailments (occasional, and therefore treatable) can be managed.”

(Reuters Health) – Soccer players with “hypermobile” joints may have a higher injury risk than their less flexible teammates, a study of one professional team suggests.

So-called benign joint hypermobility syndrome is diagnosed when a person is found to have at least four abnormally flexible joints — based on tests of whether knees or elbows can bend backwards, the thumb can be flexed to touch the forearm, the pinkie finger can bend backward beyond 90 degrees and they can place their palms on the floor without bending the knees.

Hypermobile joints are not as stable as less-flexible joints, so in theory they could be more vulnerable to injuries like sprains. But researchers have come to conflicting conclusions on whether hypermobile athletes do sustain more injuries.

For the new study, UK researchers followed 54 men on an English Premier League soccer team over one season.

Of the players, 18 (one third of the group) were deemed hypermobile. And over the season, those 18 men suffered 72 injuries — for a rate of 22 injuries for every 1,000 hours of practice and competition.

By comparison, the 36 players with less-flexible joints sustained 61 injuries: a rate of just over six injuries per 1,000 hours.

Matt D. Konopinski and colleagues at Leeds Metropolitan University report the findings in the American Journal of Sports Medicine.

The study adds to evidence that general hypermobility contributes to sports injuries, according to Verity Pacey, a physical therapist at the Children’s Hospital in Westmead, Australia, who has studied the question.

In a recent study, Pacey and her colleagues found that across contact sports, players with joint hypermobility were nearly five times more likely to suffer a knee injury than their less-flexible counterparts.

That was based on a “meta-analysis” that combined the results of 18 previous studies.

It’s not known yet whether weekend athletes with extra-flexible joints face the same risks as professional athletes seem to, Pacey told Reuters Health in an email.

Amateur athletes do not go through the amount of intense training and competition that pros do, pointed out Gareth J. Jones, one of the researchers on the current study.

On one hand, that might protect the hypermobile weekend athlete, Jones told Reuters Health in an email.

“However,” he added, “they are also generally less well conditioned, which may increase the risk.”

In this study, soccer players’ injuries were often relatively mild — like muscle strains, cramps or tears in the legs.

But some injuries were severe, meaning they kept players out of the game for at least 28 days. And hypermobile players were much more likely to have a severe injury.

Twelve of the 18 athletes suffered at least one severe injury during the season — often a ligament or cartilage tear in the knee. That compared with only two of the 36 non-hypermobile athletes.

The knee is especially vulnerable to injury in soccer, Jones said. And for people with hypermobile joints, ligaments and other structures in the knee may be “less able to cope” with the stress placed on them.

Exercises to boost strength, muscle control and balance can help hypermobile people who already have joint pain or injuries.

And it’s possible that such training could curb their risk of future sports injuries, Jones said.

But whether that is the case is not clear.

“Unfortunately,” Pacey said, “at present we don’t have any strong research evidence to support ways we can reduce the risk of injury in hypermobile sporting participants.”

In general, researchers still aren’t sure exactly how harmful hypermobile joints might be. Some extra-flexible people have chronic joint pain, but many don’t. And there’s no evidence yet that people with hypermobile joints face an increased arthritis risk.

One issue is that studies have varied widely in estimating how common hypermobility is in the general public, or among athletes.

A recent study, though, found that among teenagers, hypermobility is common — a sign, the researchers said, that such flexibility is often perfectly normal.

Of 6,000 teenagers the researchers assessed, 27 percent of girls and 11 percent of boys met the criteria for benign joint hypermobility syndrome.

The current findings suggest that hypermobility could be very common in soccer, according to Konopinski’s team. But it’s not clear, they add, whether it’s any more common in soccer than in other sports, or compared with the public at large.

Pacey said there is research underway to better understand hypermobility, its effects and, when needed, how to manage it.

One unknown, Pacey noted, is why some people who are hypermobile in their youth become less flexible as they age. “We’ve yet to understand why this occurs in only some individuals.”

SOURCE: bit.ly/uICyg8 American Journal of Sports Medicine, online December 16, 2011.

It appears that a lawsuit directed against Jay-Z by the Workers’ Compensation Board of New York will not find its way to court. The lawsuit was first reportedlast week but it seems that the dispute was simply the result of clerical error.

According to the original reports, Jay-Z was being sued for $18,000 because he had allegedly failed to insure the employees of his TriBeCa home for three months in 2009. Jay-Z promptly corrected the error by immediately acquiring coverage, but allegedly missed payments for the three month period which resulted in the potential fine as even a minor lapse in coverage is prohibited by Worker’s Compensation.

His representatives immediately responded to reports of the lawsuit saying that the issue was simply a clerical mistake, although Worker’s Compensation had secured a judgement on November 22nd, 2011 from the Supreme Court which required Jay-Z to pay the fine. But Hov’s lawyers managed to demonstrate that no lapse had ever occurred and the judgement is expected to be reversed in the next few days.

An individual close to Jay-Z stated simply that “there’s never been a missed payment,” and the rapper’s representatives worked with the Worker’s Compensation Board to demonstrate that the failed payment was nothing more than a paperwork foul-up, finally convincing officials in Albany on December 29th. “After consulting with the employer’s insurer, the board expects this matter to be resolved in the next few days, resulting in the judgment being vacated,” Brian Keegan, the spokesman for the New York Workers’ Compensation Board, told the NY Post.

By SERENA NG

A federal judge approved a $450 million settlement between American International Group Inc. and a group of its rivals, which could end a long-running legal fight over alleged underreporting of premiums on workers’ compensation policies.

AIG agreed to make the payments to settle allegations that it incorrectly reported the size of its workers’ compensation business to state insurance regulators during the 1980s and 1990s. The alleged actions resulted in AIG making lower contributions to state-mandated pools covering injured workers without private coverage.

The court ruling, issued on Dec. 21 by Judge Robert W. Gettleman in Chicago, said the settlement was “fair, reasonable and adequate” and a final written order would be issued later.

The settlement was originally reached in January between AIG and seven other insurers, who were representing themselves and others. The proposed deal required court approval. It was opposed by Liberty Mutual Group, which sued AIG in 2009 before other insurers stepped into the case. Liberty mounted legal challenges to the settlement over the past year, saying it was inadequate and detrimental to the interests of hundreds of insurance companies.

On Tuesday, a Liberty Mutual spokesman said the Boston-based firm “is disappointed—but not surprised—with the judge’s order approving the settlement.” He said Liberty Mutual plans to review the final written order, “and anticipates an appeal.”

If the settlement proceeds, the money paid by AIG is to be distributed among hundreds of insurance companies that were affected by its alleged conduct. AIG earlier separately agreed to pay $146.5 million to resolve a multistate probe over the same issue. The state settlement won’t be final until the civil litigation is resolved.

An AIG spokesman said: “We are pleased with the court’s decision and to have put this matter behind us.”