Is using your smartphone causing you injures? Yes you need to be careful

PRAVASISAMWAD.COM

The new normal of attending offices and classes during the Covid-19 pandemic is affecting people’s posture in a non-office environment that is causing musculoskeletal stress injuries.

I Dr Sachin Singh, see many young and mature patients in my outpatient. They are unaware of the risk of injury from their smartphones causing issues like ‘Selfie Elbow’, ‘Texting Thumb’ and ‘Text Neck’. These are the colloquial that describe overuse musculoskeletal injuries associated with increased use of smart phones, tablets, computers and video games.

Here are some common questions that I am addressing for the general benefit of the readers:

Text Neck, Selfie Elbow and Texting Thumb: Is using your smartphone causing you injures?

That’s right, excessive texting, playing video games, and even taking too many selfies can all lead to repetitive musculoskeletal stress injuries.

In my own practice as a specialist orthopedic & arthroscopy surgeon, Lifeline Hospital , Salalah, Sultanate of Oman, I see many young and mature patients who  are unaware of the risk of injury from their smartphones .Selfie Elbow, Texting Thumb & Text Neck, are colloquial that describe overuse musculoskeletal injuries associated with increased use of smart phones, tablets, computers  and video games.

So, what are symptoms?

Common complaints neck pain, elbow pain, hand, wrist and thumb pain, as well as numbness and tingling in the arms, forearms, hand, and fingers.

Here’s the reasons and prevention for each.

Selfie elbow

To get a selfie, people usually extending your arm as far out as possible so you can to get everything into your picture. This motion causes your elbow to lock, your wrist to contort, and puts strain on your forearm muscles. All of this can result in trauma to the tendon that connects to the elbow joint and that’s not something our elbow joint equipped for.

For example if you’re going to keep a box close to your chest, palms up. If you carry the same box extended away from your body, even eight inches from your chest, think about how much heavier that box would be and how much more stress it would put on your back, same thing with the phone, which isn’t heavy, but in that position will still put stress on your tendons and muscles.

Best solution is to avoid excessive selfies but a selfie stick may help to some extent in a sense if you keep the selfie stick closer to the body and keep your elbow in.

Texting thumb

According to a study by the data analytics company Nielsen, the average teenager sends 3,339 texts per month. Another study by Ofcom reports that 77 percent of kids between 12 and 15 years old play video games for about 12 hours a week. Combine those two activities, and that’s a lot of thumb action.

Texting thumb, also called gamer’s thumb, Nintenditus, or Nintendo thumb, is an injury that occurs when the tendon sheath becomes inflamed as a result of overuse, this can lead to long-term pain and permanent damage to the tendon of the long flexor muscle of the thumb.

Disorders like texting thumb may lead to chronic pain, and even nerve damage. Treatments for such disorders may include oral pain medication, occupational therapy, injections, and sometimes even surgery, depending on the severity of the injury.

Best solution to avoid such injuries is to take breaks while gaming and texting. In-between games or levels, stretch your fingers and wrists to keep them loose. Icing your hand or running it under cool water can help as well.

Text Neck

Text neck is an overuse syndrome or a repetitive stress injury to the neck caused by holding your head in a forward and downward position for extended periods of time due to the increasing popularity and hours people spend on handheld devices such as smartphones, e-readers, iPads and tablets

What Exactly Causes Text Neck?

When in an upright posture, when the ears are aligned with the centre of your shoulders, the weight of the average head exerts approximately 4.5 to 5.5 kgs of force through the muscles of the neck. But when your head is moved forward by only 2 to 3 cms away from this neutral position, the weight of your head dramatically increases. Approximately 6 times as much force can be generated!!! That’s approximately 30kg

How to Prevent Text Neck Pain

Exercises and stretches to increase the neck’s strength and flexibility

Correct postural habits when using smartphones and other devices

Raise the phone. Move the phone (and other devices) up closer to eye level so the head does not have to be tilted forward.

It is advisable to adopt following practices:

1. Take frequent breaks.

2. Stand up straight.

3. Stretch.

4. Exercise regularly.

And the best option for all is:

1. Cut screen time and stretch

2. Decreasing the amount of time on your smartphone.

3. Alternating the use of your hand when texting or taking selfies. Not only will this decrease risk of overuse, it can help to strengthen the non-dominant part of the brain.

4. Stretching and gaining flexibility are the best defense against any injury, stretching throughout the day, every hour or couple of hours to prevent soreness.

That way you don’t have those symptoms at the end of the day after you’ve been using your screens all day.