If you don’t already have enough to worry about, and if like me, you spend lots of time at a computer, then here’s yet another new “condition” to be wary of, according to a group of researchers at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill).

They call it “laptopitis” and no, they aren’t referring to infections you can pick up from sharing a computer with people who left viral and bacterial particles behind when they used the keyboard that you are now using (although that does happen lots, I’m sure).

Rather, “laptopitis” is the name these people coined for all the aches and pains – chronic headaches, neck and shoulder pain, low-back pain, wrist pain, and so on – that a person can develop from either over-using a computer, that is, from endless hours of sitting at a terminal without getting up, or more likely, from using poor posture and improper techniques when using a computer.

So, if you want to prevent “laptopitis” or if you already have some elements of it and you want to make sure it doesn’t get worse, do yourself a favour and visit one of the host of web sites that give you all sorts of tips about what’s best to do when working at a computer – what height it’s best to set the monitor at, how to rest your arms, what kind of chair to use, etc. – although the tip that I want to emphasize is the one I think most people ignore the most: get up often from your seated position.

Sitting for several hours in a row is just not conducive to good health, either good physical health, or equally important, good psychological health.

And when you get up from your desk, here’s another important tip if you want to stay healthy: don’t automatically go to the fridge.