Does Computer Use Actually Cause Carpal Tunnel?

BoldAC writes "A geek physician has reviewed the medical literature that explores if a relationship exists between computer use and carpal tunnel syndrome. 'Typing at the keyboard or using the mouse for hours and hours upon end just seems like it has to be horrible for your joints, right?' His conclusions certainly seem to contradict the thinking of many: 'The current research shows that computer use has very little role in causing carpal tunnel syndrome.' It even seems that both Harvard and the Journal of the American Medical Association agree with his conclusions."

Comments

Bullshit

[metalhed77]

This story is nothing new. What's really needed is a clarification of terms.

I have RSI (Repetitive Stress Injuries) and my carpal tunnel is just fine. It's the other nerves, tendons, and muscles of my hands which ache and cause the severe pain. If you try and explain this to people they just say 'Carpal Tunnel Syndrome' unless they're a doctor. Computer use DOES cause RSI which is the real problem, and a really painful and dangerous thing. Other tasks, sewing for instance, can also cause RSI. The phenomenon is not new.

How the carpal tunnel got so famous I don't know, but the term has stuck.

Re:Bullshit

[Chuckaluphagus]

Get physical therapy now.

I'm completely serious. I had the same problem as you, diagnosed as tendinitis in the backs of my hands, and it made typing at a keyboard all day extremely painful. Physical therapy for two months, twice a week helped immensely and I learned a number of exercises that I can do at my desk that eliminate the pain entirely, if not all of the tension. I'll have to do the exercises for the rest of my life (or stop using my hands for a few straight months and let them rest and heal finally), but they're ten minutes a day and not hard. Physical therapy may be expensive if you can't get it covered under your health insurance/worker's comp, but it's a cost you have to pay now in order to not be suffering for the rest of your life. It's absolutely worth it.

Plus, for any of you who have gone to a general practitioner who was entirely clueless about RSI, go see an orthopedic surgeon. That was my GP's recommendation and it was spot on. The surgeon knew exactly what sort of damage might have been caused, knew how to check whether it was muscle/tendon damage or nerve damage, and was the one who referred me to the physical therapist. Your GP isn't necessarily clueless, but he or she is a generalist. A specialist will (hopefully) have a lot better understanding of the specific problems and possible solutions that RSI entails.

Re:Bullshit

[Chuckaluphagus]

One more thing: I was told by the orthopedic surgeon and by the physical therapist to not rely on wrist braces. Use them only when necessary (i.e. when you're starting to feel pain), wear them for an hour and then see whether you can make do without them again. Wear them at night to sleep, but only for the first month. It was explained that you can become reliant on them to enforce the correct positioning of your arms and wrists. Then you may not keep up with exercises as much as you should because, with the braces on, the pain is decreased enough that it isn't an issue and you think you're doing all right.

This applies for tendinitis, I have no idea whether the same advice makes any sense if you have carpal tunnel damage.

Consumer Reports

[Itninja]

The latest issues of CR (I'm a subscriber) listed carpel tunnel as one of the most over-diagnosed health problems. Something about a for-profit healthcare industry....just sits weird with me. I wonder how many times it would be diagnosed at all if they couldn't get the insurance companies to pony up the dough.

Depends on your position

[lymond01]

As far as the aches and pains of computer use my experience is such:

1) 11 hours straight of Everquest - no pain from mouse or keyboard
2) 6 hours of Quake (back in the day) - no pain from mouse or keyboard
3) 20 minutes of mouse use at odd angle (but not so odd as to say other people wouldn't use a mouse like this) - back of hand starting hurting
4) Couple days of keyboard and mouse use on bad desk setup (keyboard high, forearms rest on edge of desk, etc) - shoulder and elbow pain.

I know what my body does and doesn't like. Relaxed shoulders, no reaching for the mouse, etc.

Carpal Tunnel != Repetitive strain.

[$kr1p7_k177y]

A lot of people confuse the two. It's very easy to get repetitive strain from using a computer. Wrist pain/weakness need not come in the form of carpal tunnel syndrome.

Computer work decreases blood flow to the wrist. In the absence of complementary activities that increase blood flow to the wrist, computer users are at risk of RSI.

Re:Don't really buy it ...

[trolltalk.com]

Moderate evidence was concluded for a positive association between the duration of mouse use and hand-arm symptoms." (from a related study, http://oem.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/64/4/211 ) constitutes evidence for my pet theory that right-hand usage for 'right'-handed people is not appropriate, as it constrains the well trained hand two only simple movements (I am retraining 'lefthandedness' but did not change the keyboard/mouse layout for that reason, so there is at least single case evidence :)

You know you can have more than one mouse, right? I have one one each side of the keyboard, to 2 different usb ports, and they both work find. Grab the one that's the most convenient each time you need to use a mouse, or give each hand a break.

Re:PORN

[nuzak]

> It's actually kinda sad that I'm getting modded down.

I was about to mention how your tone and your, ah, overenthusiasm might have been part of it. But I took a look at your user profile, and it looks like your only purpose here is to shill for your pet quack. FOAD, nobody owes you a civil reply.

Compiling statistics here... please forgive.

[Anonymous Coward]

You're right, GP is WAY high... but the "less than one percent of smokers" number is way low according to government statistics.

According to the US Gov the "lifetime risk", any random person's chance of getting lung cancer before s/he dies, is about 7% max. Getting it is pretty much a death sentence though, as less than 1 in 5 will survive after five years.

The Dana Reeve case pointed out to pop culture that you can get lung cancer without smoking. Roughly 10 percent of men and 20 percent of women who develop lung cancer are non-smokers. Assuming a roughly even split between men and women, we'll say 15% of lung cancer cases are non-smokers. That means the other 85% of that original 7% have smoked at some point in their lives... Let's round that to 6% of lung cancer cases are smokers. Knowing that about 20% of the US population smokes... that gives us percentages of people who will develop lung cancer before death:

• Smokers = (0.06/0.2=0.3) 30%
• Non-Smokers = (0.01/0.8=0.0125) approximately 1.3%