We are always advised when using computers that, we make sure our keyboard is comfortable so we dont get repetitive strain injury, which is quite true. My Compaq laptop comes with a big warning sticker above the keys. Health and Safety is preached everywhere, that you can go on a work training day on state-the-bleeding-obvious type things like how not to fall of ladders and trip of electrical cables, and I am just referring to regular office workers rather people who handle machinery and chemicals.

What I want to know is did people get this illness before computers?  In the days of heavy mechanical levers on typewriters which required a lot more effort to type, did people get this problem then? I have always wondered that a lot of modern complaints seem exactly that, modern, they just didnt seem to exist despite similar equipment and practices, decades or hundreds of years ago.

I say this as I tend to get pains in my hands if I write more than a 2 sides of A4, my handwriting has always been bad, which is one reason why I took an interest in IT, as it seems less effort and gave neater results typing. I was slow to learn how to hold a pen properly at school and probably still don’t do it correctly now. Did people in ancient times, like writing the Bible get this problem?

Lots of people are allergic to nuts these days, but 10 years ago, or at least when I was at school and college, I am sure this type of food intolerance wasnt heard of.

Have we in todays society become more fussy, get ill more often, or have our bodies changed?