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Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Unrelated to Typing?
hug_the_penguin writes "Betanews is reporting about a Harvard medical school report that suggests Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is unrelated to typing at all. Suggested causes may be genetic disposition, body weight, fractured bones or even pregnancy." From the article: "Now, don't go out typing to your heart's content. Researchers still warned that improper computer use could cause different types of repetitive stress injuries, of which carpal tunnel is incorrectly described as one."
Those science geeks over at Harvard need to devote their time to studying a much more debilitating form of RSI...namely, Nintendonitis (also known as Nintendo Thumb) ^_^
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~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
I'd always been told it was pressure on the carpal tunnel that caused it, not finger movements. So typing with your wrists pressed against the corner of a desk (or in the case more familiar to me, playing bass guitar with the right wrist pressed against the top edge of the instrument) would cause it, not typing with a nice wrist rest or with hands held high, piano-style, above the desk...
Game dev and music blog
... or at least not to me.
Years ago I went to the Dr about some pain in my hands and wrists and he determined it was carpel tunnel.
Funny thing though... I don't have issues with typing... in fact, I'd had it for longer than I'd had a computer... and it really only exhibited itself when clutching something, like a pen, mouse or other controller.
Shame... I had it before it became all the rage.
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
I'm right handed, and the carpal tunnel in my left hand is MUCH less than the right hand, and I notice that it hurts much worse when I've been mousing a lot, rather than when I've been typing a lot. I know that a lot of writing with a pen or pencil will cause a big flareup, too.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
"Betanews is reporting about a Harvard medical school report that suggests Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is unrelated to typing at all.
I didn't get mine by typing, I got it from the mouse. Having clicked for so long I finally got sharp pains and the symptoms. And does it hurt.
So I switched to my left hand for the mouse, continue to type and it is slowly getting better.
Might I suggest to researchers to really do some pure no BS research. What they might find is the ergonomics of many of todays offices and computers are the problem. Some I/T people work in closets. And that "touch pad" on my portable, more than once I have thought about taking an electric drill to it to destroy it.
Computers need to fit people, not the other way around.
Over this last summer, the ridiculous amount of typing I was doing caused by ring finger and pinky to go numb. Thinking it was Carpal Tunnel, I went to the doctor, who confirmed to me that Carpal Tunnel is not usually caused by typing.
What she did tell me, however, was that I likely had Ulnar Tunnel Syndrome. Though this is also not caused by typing, it was the resting of my elbow on the desk which applied pressure on the Ulnar Nerve, causing numbness and pain.
Couple this with my career as a professional trombonist, and I had trouble.
The moral of the story is simple - it is not so much how much you type (or perform), it is the position of your hand and arm whilst doing it. Keeping a natural, "open" posture is ultimately the best way to prevent these problems.
I hope the land around you yields, a crop like all the other fields, and then your waiting might make sense...
I want to kill him when he does this, but it's not my fault... for you see, I have:
Carpool Tunnel Syndrome
oh... you're talking about something else?
"I have as much authority as the pope, I just
don't have as many people who believe it" - George Carlin
If you did all of that correctly you would see how the angle of your wrists becomes and less natural. Now imagine typing with your standard (or worse.. laptop) keyoard close to your chest. The unnatural angle does not bode well for your wrist.
Basically 75% (rough number) of people that come into these docs complaining of chronic wrist pain don't even need splints. They are advised to get a trackball (much easier on the wrists), type with the keyboard farther away, and have the top of the monitor at eye level, and sometimes to get an ergonomic keyboard. Most people report that their symptoms are gone within 2-4 weeks if they keep up their new setup. I know a lot of /.'ers are pretty down on things like ergonomic keyboards and consider them little more than overpriced gimmicks but the truth is they are a far cry less expensive than carpal tunnel surgery and relatively effective.
As a microbiologist I can also tell you that pretty much any disease/disorder/etc. is influenced by things like genetics, age, weight, hormone levels, etc. etc. Saying that carpal tunnel isn't affected by poor body angle and repetetive motions (like typing) is like saying that skin cancer isn't caused by bathing yourself in UV radiation all day and that it is only attributable to genetics, and body type. The other problem with this report (which we also have not seen yet) is that it is a correlation study in the negative. They are saying that they cannot find a correlation so therefore it must not exist. That is even worse that the positive correlation studies where two trends coincide so they conclude causation. My view is that typing does aggravate carpal tunnel but so does genetics that make you susceptible to inflammation.
I used to have RSI to the point where if I lifted my hands above my head, my smaller digits would instantly become numb. Right now it is mostly (99%) self-healed and gone. Read below for my solution.
:)
RSI is caused by stress, lack of sleep, and poor diet (lack of sleep is itself also stress). If you try to type faster than is comfortable, and unconsciously pound on the keyboard, you will get it. You are even more likely to get it if you work in a very stressful environment. However, if you type without hurry and only apply enough effort to activate the key and no more, then you won't get it.
If you have RSI, stop typing faster than is comfortable. Don't reach for your ultimate typing speed. Stop pounding the keyboard -- apply only enough force to activate the key. Eat decent food and sleep 8 hours a day. It would also help to use a wrist exercise equipment, such as a physiotherapy ball/gel, or even some sports grip equipment (often a spring with two handles), to strenghten up your wrist by exercise, but do not overdo it. If you stretch your wrists -- do it gently and do not overstretch (this is important!). And watch your RSI go away.
An important point is not to reintroduce stress through stressful stretching and exercise. So when stretching, don't go crazy and don't push it hard -- go easy on your hands and relax.
You may slip back into the old pounding the keyboard spazmatically routine, so you have to be careful not to regress into a bad habit once you get rid of it.