[curiousDog]

Coding requires quite a bit of physical effort as well. Have you noticed your age getting in the way of it? I'm in my late twenties and have been coding since I was 15. I've developed quite a few chronic issues - both skeletal and gastrointestinal.

[codingdave]

I've found that happens when you don't get enough physical efforts in your life. Sitting and coding is not good for you. You have to get up and move around.

Not that I want to presume -- you may very well have some specific conditions outside of the norm... but as a general rule, coding requires you to take additional preventive actions to maintain your health. Because if you let it, coding will trash you.

[watwut]

It is unlikely your problems are from coding itself. It might be bad luck or genetics. It might be healthy lifestyle. I assure you that you can code and have healthy livestyle - exercise, sleep, food and even part of life where you don't code. If you want to code long term, you need them.

You however need to value them and not to buy into the "real programmers code whole night and eat only pizza and never exercise" bullshit.

[justboxing]

> I've developed quite a few chronic issues - both skeletal and gastrointestinal.

Curious, not trolling. What kind of gastrointestinal issues does one develop from programming / sitting in 1 place? Is it from the cliched "coder diet" - pizza and soda, or is it from the physical aspects - sitting and staring at screen for long hours - and not related to diet, that cause gastrointestinal issues?

[curiousDog]

I think the lack of exercise made things worse. But I developed IBS from the stress of frequent live-site and odd hours (and of course a bad diet). I've since moved on to a different team and company but the damage has been done. I'm on a very strict diet these days.

Also, bad posture over the years has led to cervical stenosis & herniation. I cannot sit for more than 30mins without developing pain in my shoulder and neck.

In general, I think being if you're an engineer working on services, it is hard to maintain a proper schedule and routine. Add to that strict deadlines, pressure from management, bugs etc and things get worse. It is still a pretty subjective argument though.

[wmboy]

I think it's more the lifestyle that coding can lead to, right? e.g. if coding leads to a lifestyle of poor exercise, sleep quality and diet, or a combination of all of those, then that can obviously lead to conditions you've mentioned above.

(note – not trying to diagnose your symptoms, just responding to your comment about coding being physically tolling!)